Market Expansion: Leveraging Market Intelligence For International Growth
With the market assessment and go-to-market strategy, Wakefield had a clear idea on which market to pursue, how to market and sell to them, as well as business development strategies for their expansion.
The Situation
Wakefield Agency is a storytelling agency known for emotive storytelling content with a specialization in video, photography and experiential formats. It is a boutique firm with a team of strategists, marketers, storytellers, and impact makers. The Agency is part of the North American “impact” ecosystem - working with value-based businesses, organizations that are working towards impact in areas identified by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and traditionally underserved BIPOC communities.
At Wakefield, they focus on taking the client through the process of story messaging, strategizing and automating, key content creation, and document and impact reporting. Whether you have a concept in mind, or don’t know where to begin with your idea, Wakefield will help you with conception, storyboarding, production, and distribution.
Wakefield has been working in a number of markets and across a range of project types, but wanted to focus on a few key markets as they scale up. Specialization on a few key markets will allow Wakefield to leverage their branding better and maximize marketing spend, while scaling and serving new target markets in the United States.
The Challenge
With ambitions to scale their business operations, Wakefield needed to choose which potential market would be the most viable to pursue. Choosing the market to target was a critical decision for Wakefield and there was uncertainty in which of the three they identified would be the best.
Selecting the wrong market would result in significant losses for the company in terms of time and money. With a small team, they needed market experts to help identify and validate which market would be the best to invest in. Alignment with their core competencies, values, and long term vision was critical to the expansion of Wakefield Agency in this new target market.
For a small business, it is nerve racking to be unsure of where to go next with your business. For Wakefield, they wanted to ensure they were focused on the right market, so they didn’t waste limited marketing spend on an unreceptive target audience.
Beyond market insights on the three markets they were considering, Wakefield also needed to develop an informed go-to market strategy for business development.
What Changed
CTRS was contracted to complete a market assessment to narrow the three markets down to a primary and secondary market, and determine which was the most viable for the future.
The project began with desk research which included a PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental) analysis, market scan, and competitive intelligence. CTRS also leveraged primary research, to gauge interest in the service for previous and potential future clients. As part of the assessment, the senior team created B2B (business to business) personas for Wakefield so they could focus on a customer-centric approach with their marketing efforts.
Due to the highly competitive nature of this industry, it was critical for Wakefield to gain a deep understanding of the competitors. As part of the competitive analysis, CTRS identified a list of the top competitors in the space, as well as conducted a service comparison and ranked competitors in terms of their competitive strength score. There was also an analysis into the competitor’s differentiators, so Wakefield could understand how best to stand out in the crowd. Additionally, the assessment covered the list of the top direct competitors, with information on their client list and touchpoints, as well as more analysis on the differentiators.
After the market assessment was completed, CTRS also created a go to market strategy for Wakefield to leverage. The goals of the go to market strategy were to:
Identify potential clients and channel partners in the United States.
Suggest key messages for potential clients and partners to streamline relationships.
Develop a detailed action plan for entering the US market, winning business and growing their market share.
The Result
Ultimately, CTRS provided data-supported recommendations to Wakefield so they knew which market was the most viable for future growth. The recommendations and deliverables included:
Insights on developing a brand positioning statement to target the identified markets,
Marketing and sales strategies, including key messaging and personas,
A lead list of potential clients to target,
A lead list of key channel partners for future partnerships.
CTRS conducted secret shopping in order to experience and identify how Wakefield’s competitors pitched themselves to prospective customers. The secret shopping team also requested quotes; crucial pricing information was presented to Wakefield, so they could inform their pricing strategy. Since competitive pricing is one of the most popular pricing strategies in these highly competitive markets, the pricing of services was a high-stakes decision for Wakefield. CTRS outlined and explained the available pricing options and strategies to consider, in addition to the competitor quotes collected.
The competitor analysis not only provided deep insights into the biggest competitive threats, but also helped inform the best way for Wakefield to position itself in the US market. To target the US market and stand out in the heavily saturated industry, Wakefield was provided with a brand positioning analysis,focusing on their unique service offerings and strong reputation. This analysis gave Wakefield a clear foundation to develop a high-quality positioning statement and strategy to target the intended audience in the US market. The customer personas aided a deeper understanding into the characteristics, campaigns that would resonate, and pain points, so Wakefield could optimize their marketing outreach.
Additionally, Wakefield received $25,000 from the CanExport grant in Canada which helps small and medium-sized enterprises break into new international markets. The market assessment provided the data from a third party validator to prove there is a viable market for Wakefield in another country.
With the market assessment and go-to-market strategy, Wakefield had a clear idea on which market to pursue, how to market and sell to them, as well as business development strategies for their expansion. Leveraging the lead list of potential clients and channel partners for strategic business relationships, Wakefield was ready to invest into the US market.