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We see many common themes in our work, ones that reside within marketing and organisational strategy but transcend different sectors. Many of our clients are dealing with these and other challenges every day and we are working together to make sense of them and find appropriate solutions. Our objective is also to ensure that once the project is completed, your teams are left with the capability and confidence to carry forward the solution and also tuned in to understand and respond to future drivers.

Below a few of the challenges that we have seen in current and recent clients:

Building the Reputation of a Leading FE College (April – June 2011)

"Now more than ever, it will be action—not spin—that builds strong reputations. Organisations need to enhance their listening skills so that they are sufficiently aware of emerging issues; to reinvigorate their understanding of, and relationships with, critical stakeholders; and to go beyond traditional PR by activating a network of supporters who can influence key constituencies. Doing so effectively means stepping up both the sophistication and the internal coordination of reputation efforts."(McKinsey 2009)

We have been working with a large FE College to help them understand, develop and measure their reputation at a time when the wider education sector is undergoing immense change. One of the key components of this work has been to build an internal team with the capability to carry this work forward, it has also demonstrated that all staff influence external perceptions of the college.

• We have built a detailed map of all stakeholders and have a clear understanding of their role and relevance.
• We have identified how we can use many existing frameworks to build our understanding and tracking of external and internal stakeholder perceptions, thereby making best use of the available budget.
• In phase 2 we will be looking at how we satisfy our knowledge gaps and also embed the thinking more widely across the organisation.

Business Engagement Index (BEI) (November - March 2011)

This has been developed as a result of a Partnership Agreement between 360 AdsFab (with Diana Watson as Research Director) and the University of Warwick, in association with CASE-Europe and sponsored by the Telegraph Media Group.

The BEI is new concept for assessing progress in Business Engagement amongst Higher Education Institutions and should be of interest all those institutions which have a desire to build their Business Engagement offering. The BEI is a tool to help them achieve this in a holistic manner, and to better understand the essential internal organisational implications.

Based on a review of the existing evidence base and a mix of qualitative and quantitative research, tools will be utilised to produce metrics, commentaries and recommendations for action. These tools will include in depth interviews, on line questionnaires, a materials review and some "Mystery Shopper" elements.

The outputs will include a report for the individual participating HEI including benchmark scores for individual KSFs and as a whole, as well as a commentary and tailored recommendations for action. There will also be a sector report which will draw together broad themes and conclusions relating to HE as a whole.

Market Orientation (February 2011)

I spent some time this Spring working with a major University, helping them develop their strategic marketing objectives and delivery structure in the light of the significant changes taking place in the Higher Education landscape. We put together a small but expert internal team to help develop the thinking and test the outputs which were then used to create a proposition for senior leadership agreement. This always comes back to understanding what skills do you need in the centre, what needs to be delivered and developed at a local level to deliver the strategy and how/where strategic leadership sits within the whole organization.

In the context of this we also considered what being "market orientated" meant and the implications of this for the organization and especially for the marketing function who become the catalyst and facilitator but not the sole deliverer or architect, in particular we indentified the following key benefits:

• Provides strategic marketing leadership.
• Explicit role to support business objectives.
• Consistency of proposition at all levels.
• A research informed product/service development.
• Wider marketing involvement and support.
• Provides rigor in marketing effectiveness and develops marketing KPI's.
• Offers value for money opportunities.

September 2010 - Induction training for sales managers to meet a new global sales strategy

Our client is a undergoing a strategic change programme to focus on solution selling as part of an evolving sales strategy. A critical deliverable in this strategy is the introduction and effective rollout of a programme of development to increase sales capability and ultimately drive increased sales revenue.

We were asked to project manage and lead the implementation and rollout of the new global sales programme. Specific objectives include working with key individuals to define and plan the content and delivery of the sales training programme.

July 2010 – Major university – marketing strategy for workforce development

With impending changes in the funding of higher education, many of the universities are developing their work with employers as an additional revenue stream. This is not an easy transition for most universities, often involving a high level of cultural shift. It is very easy to make the mistake of thinking that the market is narrow and restricted, and not to recognise what employers are really looking for.

This project has attempted to provide this mid-tier university with a a strategic base for a vision of employer engagement through which they can be an active and innovative player in a far wider market and while retaining the specific features and benefits that a university can offer employers. This project also involved an element of mentoring and coaching for key individuals.

July 2010 – How good is your reputation?

How often do we get carried away with our own view of how others see our organisation? This can be critical if the opinions and perceptions of key stakeholders potentially have a major impact on the reputation and success of our organisation. The 157 Group recognised the importance of understanding reputation and commissioned Bespoke Marketing to develop and a stakeholder perception research project.

This involved researching the different target audiences to provide a specific view but also contribute to a bigger picture of overall findings. From these findings, clear recommendations can be identified and strategies developed to improve the reputation and relationships with key groups.

July 2010- 157 Group strategic plan

As an organisation grows in its scale, scope and ambitions, it is imperative that this evolution is mirrored in what and how it communicates with its various stakeholders. The 157 Group's first ever strategic plan sets out its vision to transform the skills system and lead a new confidence in further education. Working with the executive director, Bespoke Marketing led the development of the strategic planning process and the published document.

Download from: http://www.157group.co.uk/publications/strategic-plan-2010-12

June 2010 – Identifying efficiencies in global service training

This client is a multinational company with over 1,000 service engineers working in a complex, high-technology environment. The objectives of the project were:

• To gain a perspective of the current and recent past leadership and development activities in key territories
• To evaluate the potential of an existing learning platform, Learning for service training, and other leadership and development activities
• To identify current reality of central versus local delivery in service training
• To identify examples of good practice within the group companies
• To review initial findings against overall strategic priorities and assess the best use or the most appropriate use of resources and best mix of central versus local delivery to dentify any non-competitive organisations with good practice
• To understand existing costs and identify opportunities for cost savings to be made

April 2010 – Digital Pyjamas: a report into the digital maturity of multi- channel retailers

Bespoke Marketing was commissioned by a specialist consultancy to develop a research project using qualitative interviews to establish and pilot the first maturity index for online channel maturity, a means by which organisations could benchmark themselves against others and see the balance of their own capability.

In constructing the maturity index, we researched other similar methodologies across many different sectors and then, through consultation, agreed a series of nine dimensions which could be viewed as indicators of organisational maturity. We then developed a four-point maturity scale within each dimension. The index adopts a systems-thinking approach and recognises that to be truly effective online, an organisation must achieve a balance across all dimensions.

March 2010 – VC-backed company assesses capability for successful innovation

This month, we completed a project to assess a venture capital-backed company's capability to innovate using an interesting new diagnostic. The innovation capability review (ICR) exercise gives a very real and practical indication of an organisation's capability for innovation and for that to lead to increased business performance.

The review involves a qualitative intervention and uses a practical framework to assess the current situation. The concluding report and feedback identifies areas of strength and weakness in the organisation's ability to innovate effectively. It also provides a language and basis to take the discussion forward with colleagues.

Since its development, the ICR has been trialed successfully with over 50 public and private organisations. It has also been benchmarked against a variety of other tools internationally. It stands out from others in that it:

• takes a systems approach to innovation, covering a broader range of capabilities
• is extremely practical, aimed at satisfying the needs of leaders in a short time.

For this client, the ICR came at a critical point in their development and proved valuable as the catalyst of new working projects including idea creation and people capability for innovation.

November 2009 – First Annual Report for The 157 Group

To download the report visit the 157 Group website at www.157group.co.uk

Bespoke Marketing was asked to develop and lead the project which is the first Annual Review to be published by the 157 Group, working with the Chief Executive, the Chair and her team.

We co-developed an outline plan for the document, looking at the audience and key messages we wanted to get across in the publication. The entire process was highly collaborative, developing and agreeing the content and managing the process alongside the exceptional design team at Howardsgate.

The report has been well received across all audiences with members commenting:

“It's a great document very powerful.”

“It will make people sit up and take notice even more.”

The 157 Group is a membership organisation that represents 27 large, highly successful and regionally influential further education colleges in England. Committed to excellence and achieving success for the sector, all group members are key strategic leaders in their locality who take seriously the role of leading policy, improvement and reputation.

• Together, 157 Group colleges:
• turn over £1.5 billion a year
• serve 645,000 learners
• employ 39,000 staff
• engage with 31,000 employers.

October 2009 – First Impact Review for Insitute for Learning

The Institute for Learning (IfL) is the professional body for teachers, trainers and assessors across further education (FE) , including adult and community learning, emergency and public services, FE colleges, the armed services, the voluntary sector and work-based learning. IfL was keen to publish its first Impact Review, highlighting their amazing achievements over the past
12 months.

Bespoke Marketing was asked to develop and lead the project, working with the Chief Executive and the team. We co-developed an outline plan for the document, looking at the audience and key messages we wanted to get across in the publication. The entire process is highly collaborative, developing and agreeing the content and managing the process alongside the exceptional design team at Howardsgate.

To find out more about the impact review on IfL's website, click here