Brand & Product
Transformation Services

MARKET LEADERSHIP ROADMAP

Technology product failure rates may be as high as 85% and while not every product can be a winner, our market leadership brand and product transformation services provide a roadmap that can dramatically improve your odds. At HIT Brands we will work with you to solve the complex marketing and product management problems that weaken your marketing efforts, elongate your sales cycle, allow the competition to grab market share, and erode stakeholder value.

The purpose of the market leadership roadmap service is to diagnose complex marketing problems, validate the diagnosis, develop a strategy to resolve the problem, create a roadmap (plan) to implement the strategy, and execute and evaluate the plan.

Our unique approach has five phases:

Diagnosis   Validation   Strategy   Roadmap   Execution

Diagnosis

During the diagnosis phase we work with you to first define the marketing or product management problem and the scope of services we are to provide. The marketing problems we help our customers solve typically fall into one or more of the following categories:

Unmet revenue expectations   Competitive pressures   Branding & positioning   Market share   Product direction   Market awareness   Corporate valuation

The diagnosis phase also includes discovery, a probative step that focuses on critical revenue drivers. Discovery introduces us to your business, core competencies, products and services, competition, and target market. After the marketing problem is defined and discovery is completed, we present our preliminary findings. The preliminary findings will often identify a number of short-term issues that can be quickly addressed, as well as a list of possible causes for the marketing problem, plausible corrective actions, and possible next steps.

Validation

Unlike the diagnosis phase validation is externally focused and its purpose is to correct or confirm the preliminary diagnosis. Depending on our preliminary findings the validation phased could include an opportunity win/loss study, brand perception study, market awareness research, customer satisfaction survey, or other market research. Validation will also include a competitive review, and discussions with stakeholders, customers, and vendor partners.

Strategy

During the strategy phase we work with you to determine the best way to correct the marketing and/or product management issues that have been diagnosed and validated. The focus of the strategy phase will be to modify, enhance, create, and align business strategies, product strategies, and brand strategies.

Strategies may include:

		Differentiation and positioning
		Market awareness and penetration
		Product direction
		Product portfolio changes
		Unaided demand generation
		Customer retention
		Maximizing valuation

Roadmap

The roadmap is a disciplined approach designed to accelerate the planning process, and link revenue objectives to marketing objectives, marketing objectives to strategy, strategy to communication goals, communication goals to tactics, and tactics to budget.

Information gathered in the previous phases is used to clearly articulate a vision for the future, establish financial and market goals and objectives, develop operational specifications, document assumptions, and develop a financial pro-forma. The broader roadmap/plan uses a discovery-driven planning (DDP) methodology. (Discovery-Driven Planning is an adaptive planning methodology developed at The Wharton School by Ian C. MacMillan and Rita Gunther McGrath developed.) The roadmap also includes a supporting marketing plan and when appropriate a product management process.

Execution

Our role in the execution phase varies. In some cases we are tasked with components of plan execution, and in others we only provide accountability. Regardless, execution is where success or failure is measured, and where ROI is maximized and losses are minimized. A key disciple in the discovery-driven planning methodology is the testing of assumptions. At predetermined milestones assumptions are converted into knowledge as they are tested and prove to be true or false. The impact is factored into the plan and adjustments are made, allowing you to minimize investments until relevant assumptions have been tested.