CHALLENGER TO CHAMPION

The Challenger to Champion Programme is a 6-month programme which helps you scale your brand in UK retail fast and profitably.

The programme has one singular objective – growth.

It might be increased listings, increased ROS, increased consumer penetration, but the net/net effect is to use and apply a range of tools and marketing techniques to ensure that growth.

WHAT RESULTS CAN YOU EXPECT?

Over the last 10 years, since launching TMP, we have worked with a wide variety of food and drink brands, helping them grow their brands in retail. And quickly.

Here’s a selection of the results:

Heck! twice appeared in The Top 50 Sunday Times Fast Track – a guide to the fastest growing UK businesses (one year at no.4!); from launch to nearly £30m revenue in 7 years.

Sheese distribution increased from a regional listing in Sainsburys to full UK grocery distribution; in the process making parent company Bute Island Foods the 5th fastest growing food and drink business in the UK (and led to a sale at 10x revenue!).

More recently, we started working with a chicken manufacturer – from initial
meeting to a new brand creation: Crisp Up is now in 400 Morrisons stores in less than 6 months.

The consistent thread? Achieving momentum and accelerating growth

SO HOW DOES IT WORK?

We’ll craft a compelling Challenger to Champion plan that includes these 5 key focus areas:

FOCUS 1:

FINDING THE BIGGEST MARKET OPPORTUNITY AREAS

We call this searching for the Blue Ocean in your market. You want to avoid head-on competition – that way lies eroding margins and commodity status.

We do this by way of…

Market segmentation & Mapping

What is being bought currently in the market? By whom? What are their motivations and need states? What occasions are covered – or not.

Visual mapping of your market, all intended to unearth fresh growth opportunities of scale.

Relevant trends impacting the market

We overlay relevant global trends to ensure our resultant strategy is future-proofed and we’re ahead of the curve…

This means the foundations are set for Focus area 2…

FOCUS 2:

THE INCREMENTAL CATEGORY GROWTH ARGUMENT

This is where the magic happens. Retailers don’t care about your brand. They care about growth, profit and growing their categories. Hence we need to uncover for you what specific category growth you will be bringing to the party.

So this is what we’ll do:

The category name and comparisons

We’ll ensure the category is named correctly first. It might be we can help to develop a new category where you could be the first into (and then take all the benefits
of ownership).

We’ll also compare with other categories to discover new ways of growing opportunities.

Defining the category role your brand could play

There are at least a dozen different category roles a brand can play; we’ll clarify your optimum role.

Expected ROS

Finally, we consider up to 80 variables that could impact your ROS to ensure we are maximising this crucial measure.

We now have clarity on the size of the opportunity that is going to get a retailer to sit up and take notice.
Now we need to ensure your brand fits the bill…

FOCUS 3:

REFINING THE BRAND STRATEGY

This phase is about building your brand out into a compelling story so all the foundations are right for achieving real Brand Equity (awareness, association, loyalty, etc. – all the important things you want for your brand).

We do this by completing…

Brand architecture matrix

This brings to life the brand story; builds a strong proposition based on both functional and emotional benefits; and clarifies the mission.

Ensuring all consumer touchpoints align with the brand proposition

So now we have the opportunity, the strong category argument, the brand strategy clear – how do we invest limited ££ in the market to activate?

FOCUS 4:

BLEND OF DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES TO DRIVE MOMENTUM

We’ve got experience of all the different online and offline tools, so take advantage of that experience and
avoid costly mistakes on activities which won’t move the dial in terms of sales. We pick the optimal blend of on
and offline tools to test and introduce to build momentum.

Finally we then bring all this together in Focus area 5: ensuring a profit…

FOCUS 5:

THE SIZE OF PRIZE AND ACTIVITY INVESTMENT FORECAST

This is to ensure you can make profitable growth!

We bring together all the earlier category work and opportunity forecasts to produce a revenue forecast over
the next few years. Then overlay the activity costs to complete the picture.

THE END RESULT?

A compelling and distinctive plan that’s fully costed and will drive new retail growth for your brand.

We author it, with you, and we’ll be there for the first few months of implementation to ensure it’s working and the results are starting to come in.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IT’LL WORK?

We’ve taken the learnings from applying these tools and principles over the last 10 years into a tight 6-month programme, with the emphasis on growth, momentum and investment that delivers a return.

We’ve got experience of most UK retail categories across chilled, ambient and frozen; and have built a wealth of knowledge we’d bring to bear on your unique experience. We’ve also developed a range of proprietary marketing tools which we use to unlock new growth opportunities for clients.

WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT?

If interested in joining the programme (we’re limiting numbers at the start) just email me with the words “I’M INTERESTED” and I’ll send you over the prices and details of our Success guarantee.

nigel@themarketingplace.co.uk