Demetra AndrewsPresentation, Fall 2005

Stick a fork in it, it’s done!Marketing Strategy Shelf Life

Congratulations, you have a strategy!•You’ve churned through the marketing planning process and now you have a newly-minted strategy to show for your efforts•So what do you do now?

•You marshal all of your forces

•Get your ducks in a row

•You IMPLEMENT! •And everything goes well from here on out, everybody gets rich and you’re the company hero!

Change is Constant• Maybe for a while… but things tend to change that impact the

effectiveness of your strategy– Changing market trends– Changes in consumer / customer preferences or needs– Changing technology– Changes in management or management emphasis– Changes in resource availability– Changes in supplier offerings– Changes in competitors– Changes in legislation– Changes in economic trends

Change is Constant• Marketplace change might even render your strategy

inappropriate

In other words…

Strategies often have a limited “shelf life”

Whew! What’s that smell?• It’s imperative to any marketer to be able to identify when a

good strategy is going bad

• While IMPLEMENTATION is the sexier of the marketing strategy steps, three additional steps are also critical to your company’s success as well as your own

• Implement Monitor Evaluate Update / Terminate

• These steps will keep you objective, honest and out of trouble

Today’s Topics

Recognizing an “expired” strategy

What to do about it

CASE: American Airlines Travel Academy

Travel School Overview• Established in 1987 in response to the growing need for highly

trained travel industry professionals. • The travel school offers a comprehensive Travel & Tourism

curriculum that provides students the skills needed to succeed in a unique and vibrant industry.

• Originally consisted of 1 school in Dallas – Fort Worth (DFW)• Grew to also include a school in Chicago and a curriculum

licensing business serving vocational schools

Travel School: The Problem• 1998: Appointed Director of travel school; Group had lost

money for more than 18 months• Task: Figure out what was wrong and fix the problem • In essence

– A strategy had been implemented in 1987: Start a school– It had been augmented: Open another campus, offer licenses– The strategy wasn’t working: Travel School had sustained

losses– No one was sure what to do

• Strategy problem?• Market problem• Implementation problem?

• Let’s walk through how this problem was deconstructed

Step 1: Monitor• Get your hands on the right data

– Know what’s available– Know what the objectives are– Aggregate or disaggregate at the appropriate level– Collect both quantitative and qualitative data

• Travel School– 10 years of data– Profitability is objective– Disaggregation– Qualitative data

• Individual and group meetings

Step 2: Evaluate the Data• Figure out what the data is saying (the hard part)

– Be objective– Evaluate results based on your objectives– Evaluate from the perspective of stakeholders – Look for trends (1blip, 2 blips, 3 blips)

• Is there a downward / upward trend?• Are the thresholds being met?

– Seek explanations for both good and bad results• Can the causes be isolated and identified?

• Travel School– Demand cycles, high school costs, credit issues– Isolation of problem: stagnant school sales– Unsuccessful effort to revitalize school sales– “Expired” school strategy

Step 3: Update / Terminate• Act on your new knowledge

– Augment or adapt an existing strategy– Implement an additional strategy– Pull the plug on an expired strategy

• Travel School– Closed schools

Relocation for Chicago school needed Reinstatement of school loan program required Restructuring of cost structure necessary

– Identified new market for curriculum licensing (community colleges)

– Increased support for curriculum licensing

Bottomline Take-aways• Implementation is an intermediate step, the follow-ups will

enable you to adapt or terminate an expired strategy• Monitor• Evaluate• Update / Terminate

• Expired strategies can create quite a stink!