Lilian consults African company in marketing strategy

About the organisation
Katchy Kollections designs products like leather bags, necklaces, sandals and home decorations. It is a innovative business aiming to create employment for disadvantaged youth from slums and from rural areas.

Business case
Katchy Kollections could use some assistance in marketing strategy. Lilian Heijmans was found very suitable as a consultant because of her great experience in this branch. She was asked to build a marketing strategy that will finally lead to more sales. The output should take the manager of Katchy Kollection, Jennifer Ndunge Mulli, by hand in a step by step format.

Results
Analysis
While Lilian was examining the business case she noticed it was all about strategy. Lilian: "It is not about the people working in the company. However, the employees are the heart of the company as they design! They are the artist."

The company already had some ideas about approaches, like building a house of dreams, starting with the roof as the roof will shelter all people working there. This implicates immediately that the insights of the employees should be a part of building the house of their dreams. Lilian prepared three workshops as a base for the marketing strategy.

Themes of the workshops
1. Strategic Dream and Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
2. Actions and milestones
3. Resources and behaviour

Major conclusions

• lack of communication between the employees and management
• not using full potential of employees (skills are left unused)
• market penetration instead of making products based on customer insights
• no clear branding strategy

Advice
Katchy Kollection should take care of a clear branding vision in which they use Katchy as the brand name to communicate. Also it is advised to use the knowledge and insights of the employees in strategies. Better results can be reached by creating some competition between employees.

Concrete deliverables 

• Marketing Plan
• Brand key (including a mood board)
• Marketing Communications Activity overview
• Guidelines for social media

Impact on the partners
Lilian: "I realized that it doesn't matter wherever I am, because I'm very flexible and accommodate very quickly in every environment and with all kinds of people. This is very usefull in my job as I work with very different companies"

Follow up

This is a start of a two-year partnership between SharePeople and Katchy Kollections. Both organisations will keep in touch (a.o. via the SharePeople liaison, at least every 3 months), and with the expert as well. After this Programme, an official update on the status of the organisation takes place every 12 months. With this information, a new Programme is one of the possibilities to boost the organisation if needed. Participation in a yearly SharePeople Experience Week is also an option.