KAE » Who Do We Work With?

Financial Services

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:50:58 +0000

Financial Services

End-to-end fluency from consumer credit to institutional investment

Often, answering your business questions means…more questions. Which type of financial services marketing consultancy to go to? Consumer credit specialist or institutional investment expert? Retail or wholesale?

We say, both. KAE offers end-to-end fluency across the entire financial services spectrum, from consumer credit to new investment propositions. Our financial services marketing and financial services research solutions are always informed by our holistic understanding of the whole value chain in the creation and distribution of financial products.

The result is an impressive track record of turning our FS clients’ business problems into commercial opportunities.

These are just some of the questions we’ve answered lately:

How can we take advantage of regulatory change in the insurance market?
What strategy should we adopt for creating successful brand partnerships?
How can we improve our offshore capabilities through global benchmarking?
How can we identify the unmet needs of High Net Worth customers?
How can we determine where to invest in our retail network?

Financial Services Marketing: Fluency in Action

Competitors

Avoid knee-jerk reactions to competitor threats; before retaliating in kind, unpack the offering to understand its strength and weaknesses – and where your optimum opportunities lie

Unlocking the secret of a competitor threat

Client: Financial Services – Car Insurance

With a competitor launch of a new insurance proposition in collaboration with a leading car manufacturer, our client’s core business was under threat. Not only did the competitor product offer large discounts on new cars, it included major spend on customer recruitment. KAE responded by investigating the competitor product in detail – by reverse-engineering its economics. Having unpacked its mechanics, strengths, weaknesses and significance, we identified a serious flaw: the disruptive effect of company cars on the UK market. This insight enabled our client to look outside the UK and strike back successfully in another market.

Market

Even in the most mature marketplaces, significant improvements to the effectiveness of direct marketing can have game-changing results

A step-change in marketing to a mature market

Client: Insurance Provider

Operating in a mature and hotly contested market, the client sought to improve its overall marketing effectiveness. So, KAE created a powerful segmentation model, based entirely on the needs and attitudes of general and life insurance buyers across multiple markets. The key to KAE’s model was ‘tagability’, enabling target segments to be better tagged and profitability metrics more accurately assigned. By making target segments immediately selectable from Axciom, Experian and other leading prospect database providers, KAE had effected a step change in the client’s direct marketing.

Media

admin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:51:20 +0000

Media marketing

Linking content preference & commercial opportunity, from quad play bundles to VoD

In a sector that moves at warp speed, powerful media marketing and media market research solutions demand one thing: absolute immersion.KAE is entirely fluent in this space – in your commercial challenges, in the multiple platforms and formats impacting your business: HD & 3D TV, online, Video on Demand, mobile, print, e-readers…

In fact, we’re number one in Europe for linking customer content preferences to commercial opportunity.

But what demonstrates our sector fluency far better than our rankings is that we’re first port of call for some of the world’s leading publishers, broadcasters and online platform providers all seeking to optimise their media marketing strategy.

Here are just some of the questions we’ve answered lately:

What is the optimal balance between user engagement & advertising volume on our VoD service?
How can we improve our sales argumentation to media planning agencies & clients?
How can we migrate differing ISP customers to a single pricing structure without increasing churn?
What service diversifications could we develop to increase brand engagement & relevance both within & outside the media space?
How do we cost the optimal ‘in-episode’ product placements for our clients?

Customer

The real value of tracking is realised when data is linked to financials and used to more accurately predict future performance

Using tracking to predict the future

Client: Multi-play media provider

With operations across TV, online, broadband and telecoms, our client had invested heavily in tracking customer service, satisfaction and performance across the customer experience touch points. Although core KPIs were tracked, what was not understood were the implications to the bottom line of a hit or miss of the customer experience targets. By mapping the customer experience tracking data against the internal customer service database – whilst also incorporating data on external factors – KAE was able to quantify the impact of achieving customer service targets. This allowed tracking to move from explaining the past to predicting the future.

Brand

When it comes to brand extensions, never overlook the halo effect of the master brand on the new product

Creating a viable brand extension

Client: TV channel

The client, a niche TV channel, sought to increase viewer engagement with the brand through brand extension opportunities – particularly in the experiential area. Using a combination of desk research, expert interviews, partner evaluations and financial modeling, KAE developed multiple business models outlining the ideal proposition structure, the investment involved and the 10-year revenue forecasts. Following workshops on consumer demand, a detailed marketing plan and a go-to-market strategy were clearly established.

Technology

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:51:35 +0000

Technology

Fluency & influence, from e-readers to enterprise SaaS

KAE sits at the top table of technology’s biggest names. Our level of influence on their technology marketing strategy – indeed, their business – comes down to one thing: sector fluency.

Whether we’re developing entire go-to-market strategies or enhancing technology B2B marketing propositions, whether we’re talking NetBooks, apps outsourcing or HD broadcast cameras, we’re always talking your language.

The result is that we’re responsible for significant innovations and success stories in technology marketing and technology market research (and, of course, combinations of the two) for B2B and B2C clients across the sector.

These are just some of the questions we’ve answered lately:

How can we improve how the channel articulates our points of difference?
What is the future of SaaS applications?
How can we better understand the user experience throughout the products lifecycle?
How can we improve the way we segment our business markets?
How can we improve our enterprise sales arguments?
How can we create preference within our reseller network?

Markets

Don’t just size a market…look for underserved segments whose needs match your own core competencies and your capabilities to target

Building a feasible go-to-market

Client: Application Services

When a global technology brand set up a new Applications Services business unit, it needed a go-to-market that would bypass several larger players. Experienced in several core verticals, the business needed to extend into new segments and focus its resources on known new business opportunities. KAE’s response? To develop a sequential segment targeting plan based on a robust valuation of market value and levels of competitive intensity. This revealed the segments that were underserved by the primary players in the market and that could feasibly provide the required returns.

Channels

Use research to: flesh out new, unique and value-added approaches to drive preference; protect your channel from competitors; and ultimately, drive POS recommendation

How to create channel preference

Client: B2B Printing

Our client’s reseller network was under attack from both subsided competitor incentive schemes and less stringent reseller accreditation offers. KAE’s first move was to audit the client’s working assumptions regarding channel marketing activities. Next, we benchmarked the client’s channel programme against its competitors’ with the key resellers. The resulting insights allowed us to realign channel marketing priorities and introduce new value-added propositions that were unique within the market and highly prized by the channel.

Telecommunications

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 11:52:02 +0000

Telecommunications

Telecommunications Marketing: Talking your language – from LTE, to apps, to operator churn

In the fast-paced and ever-evolving world of telecommunications, sector knowledge is both a lifeline and a game-changer.

When it comes to telecommunications marketing and telecommunications market research, KAE has developed an enviable reputation among our clients as an authority – a ‘go to’ source of original thinking and guidance. This is down to our fluency in this sector, to our work across the entire telco eco system – from network infrastructure vendors, fixed line and ISPs, to handset brands and mobile operators.

These are just some of the questions we’ve answered lately:

How should a mobile operator strategy leverage Broadband consumer VoiP?
How can we utilise service bundles to reduce churn?
How can we maximise margin in B2B network sales?
How are our strategic stakeholders translating our mobile operator strategy?
What can we learn about customer service from brands outside of Telco?

Brand

A translation mapping exercise will provide dashboard control of corporate communications, whilst also revealing how permeable the organisational intelligence boundaries are

How is our strategy being translated?

Client: Mobile handsets

A leading mobile brand had a critical question: how was its corporate strategy being translated by its diverse set of strategic stakeholders (financial, competitor, consumer, trade, industry analysts and partners)? To determine the answer, KAE developed a ‘stakeholder translation’ map. Through desk and primary research, we mapped this ‘translation’ against the desired awareness and attitudinal objectives for corporate communications. The result? We highlighted key elements of the strategy that were not being translated, whilst also highlighting critical flaws in controlling competitive intelligence.

Price

Use research to deconstruct your proposition into its constituent components and understand who values what, where in the sales process, and why

Building margin by understanding value

Client: Network infrastructure

The client needed to understand how to maximise margin in its B2B enterprise sales engagements for highly complex and multi-faceted solutions. KAE’s response was first to deconstruct the proposition into its constituent components of value (hardware, services etc). Next, using our own qualitative research trade-off mechanism, we were able to understand why the value associated with individual elements of the proposition varied throughout the engagement lifecycle. As a result, our client was able to utilise a pricing model that helped sales staff to understand what to articulate, and when, during the sales process – along with the financial impact on the business of each element.