What we do

Business is complex, but the way you communicate does not need to be.

Here's a little about how we can help.

Strategic planning

Strategic planning is too often neglected or hurried in the haste to get started. And when it is tackled, it is seen as a chore.

Strategic planning in our view is the 'fun bit'. It need not be arduous or painful. Done well and started early, good strategic planning for a new proposition to market, can be a great conduit for ideas and it can help get to the bottom of difficult questions.

Once in place the plan should provide a mechanism for explaining why you got started, establishing boundaries and clarifying any missunderstanding. This layer of governance can be critical to the longevity of a new product or service.

“Often seen as a chore – actually it’s the fun bit.”

Market positioning

Market positioning is the lynchpin from which all else hangs. Yet positioning often means different things to different people and as a result it is often hard to gain consensus.

The challenge in a services business is that this position can change informally – for example when a new leader comes on board or people change roles. Unlike b2c you do not have to consider physical product development, testing, patents, packaging. The time to market can be months rather than years.

Creating a sustained market position therefore requires some rigour and discipline. The confidence to find a path, test it, set off on it and move with it. Without jumping tracks for another (likely ill tested) idea.

“Market positioning is the lynchpin from which all else hangs.”

Sales and business development

So many marketing consultants stop their services with the prospect or client interaction. At Kalpana we believe a marketing consultancy should be able to talk to your client peer to peer. We see part of our differentiation as the way in which we take an idea from concept right the way through to finding and qualifying the prospect organization.

This is not telemarketing in the traditional sense (although we do provide that too) this is full and qualifying sales call from someone who understands the market and can speak comfortably at the most senior levels.

We believe organzations that benefit most from external support with sales and business development are either 1) small businesses without the resources, 2) partnerships without the collective discipline or 3) non-European domicilied businesses looking for some sales consolidation in the region.

For some clients we are the sales team, and for others we simply manage the pipeline and keep it fully integrated with marketing programmes.

This fresh external impetous can help you break out of a process that can become formulaic, deliver more high quality opportunities for the pipe and give you a fuller, more realistic view of the pipeline overall.

"Pipeline management should be taken seriously. It is one of the most important indicators in any business."

Branding

If you are reading this site you probably already know that a brand not just about the logo or the pantone choice but so many business get stuck right there. Your brand is a collection of all the people, products and services that represent you. It is a feeling, a perception, an emotion. Re-branding often fails because it is too far ahead of the organizational culture or does not run deeply enough into an organization’s psyche.

You won’t please all the people all the time, you will have to bring some people with you but embedded well a brand can be a source of pride for staff, suppliers and customers alike.

"Is your brand in parallel with but ahead of your sales process?"

Campaign delivery

Campaign are not deliverables (although we can do them too). Campaigns are a way of ‘convincing an audience of something’ – achieving this may take a sustained approach over a long period of time through many different media.

The good news is that so many campaigns can be modular and principles re-used and adapted for another area of your business or territories.

At Kalpana we understand what it takes to make something happen in a four dimensional matrix organization. We believe that to ‘cut through’ everything else out there a new campaign should make you feel a little bit uncomfortable, and excited too - this is how you know your targets will find your campaigns thought provoking. We would like the opportunity to demonstrate what we mean.

"Campaigns are the story that you tell. Make blockbusters not B-movies."

Online experience

Never leave your online experience just to your web team. Your online experience is an extension of the brand – it is alive all day, everyday. Make the most of the opportunity to engage at a minimal cost – both push and pull. Make the web a wholistic part of your organization, for staff as well. Online is so much more that a brochure. The web is a window on your world. If you want to be European remember to show it! Keep it error free. Integrate it with all that you do. You would be amazed how organizations are judged by it – it will always be visited by a prospect. Make sure it is at least in parallel with everything they might know of you so far. Web is believed in a way that an outside authority might be.

"A window on your world - get beyond the window box."

Interim management

In today’s climate ‘turning up the gas’ can be a critical for a period of time. At Kalpana we can provide part-time or full-time senior management resource to fill crucial gaps.

Your continuity will be maximized by using smart people with at least as much expertise as you need (more we hope).

Leaving you with a problem solved and plenty of additional value.

We often operate in an interim capacity for US businesses looking to establish or extend their presence in Europe. Or my small firms with a complex proposition looking to go to market quickly.

"Our Interim placements have been known to last longer than many people's time in a job"

Going further

Because we offer the full range of marketing services as well as prospecting and lead/pipeline management we can literally 'take you further' along the journey to market and towards gaining crucial new clients.

The small print... in response to these challenges we offer a range of services, these include:
Account planning. Account relationship marketing. Brand reviews. Communication planning. Corporate identity review. Customer audit. Customer relationship programmes. Customer service and satisfaction reviews. Case study development. Interim management. Internal communications programmes. Marketing audit. Marketing planning. Team recruitment and mentoring. New Launches. Pipeline management. Positioning reviews. Project management. Promotional campaigns. Promotional materials (print and digital). Sales. Seminars. Surveys. Strategy development.