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The Strategic Process
The MJA Associates Strategic Planning Process is divided into three stages with over 20 distinct tasks.
Stage 1: Understanding
The first stage is an assessment of the overall objective is to ensure MJA Associates and Client share a strong understanding of the strategic and competitive benchmarks within the category. Furthermore, MJA Associates must develop a specific understanding of Client's brand(s), customer base, operating parameters, and current/previous loyalty programme performance.
Stage 2: Framing - strategic 'road map' development
The objective of this stage is to look at the problems/opportunities through a variety of different lenses to find differentiating advantages, and then establish a framework for success. Each of the following tasks has its own deliverable.
- Identifying critical insights - evaluating the information gleaned in the understanding stage to uncover those "truths" that put things in a different light. Examples from past engagements include:
- 15% of customers account for 92% of profits;
- brands are spending tens of millions on loyalty programmes, but the customers are inherently disloyal
- customers say they want more hard benefits, but some brands are more suited to recognition value.
- Mapping the experience set - what value do your customers derive from other programmes outside your category in which they participate? How does it frame their expectations of you? Which high-value components might be portable?
- Setting clear, measurable objectives - pressing for clarity on direction and order-of-magnitude for the programme looking forward. Setting objectives as yardsticks for success. What are the implications of focus on profitability versus market leadership in size, scope, or preference. Developing a short list of objectives for the company to debate and ultimately rally behind.
- Identifying desired behaviour patterns - for actionable segment of customers, what is the specific behaviour pattern, which will result in achieving objectives?
- Assessing obstacles to desired behaviours - there are reasons why customers are not presently behaving as desired. The "obstacles" may be attributed to systems, attitudes, experiences, awareness, society or competition. For each segment of customers, we identify the greatest obstacles between current and desired behaviour patterns as a means of measuring the challenge.
- Preliminary financial model - high-level model to gauge the probability for financial success in anticipation of platform design effort. Key variables will be modelled to project potential benefit and allowable operational and funding rate structures.
Stage 3: Concept delivery
In the concept delivery stage we create the value propositions and infrastructure that will propel the consumer towards the desired behaviour. We also develop programme structures to allocate resources most effectively, communicate clearly with all audiences, and execute reliably via any point-of-interaction. Then we create the framework to measure it. Specific tasks and deliverables include the following.
- Creating hard and soft benefits - identifying hard (tangible, economic) benefits and soft (emotional, recognition) benefits, which are perceived to have much higher value than their actual cost. Looking outside the normal category benefit sets for new ideas and solutions, which can differentiate Client.
- Developing value propositions - creating the optimal blending of hard and soft benefits for each customer segment/tier to maximise perceived value in a way that is easy to understand and communicate. Gauging the effectiveness of each blend at stimulating the desired behaviour.
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