Industry:
Not For Profit
Services:
Business Consulting
Digital Enablement
Moving into the Digital Age
As business mature, their once trusted brand may now be facing challenges as new demographics demand new services at greater value. This case study outlines how MagniStrat helped a Not for Profit organisation with a strong presence in the Arts to re-establish their product as a leading service in their industry.
The Challenge
After purchasing the rights to the leading printed directory of services, our client had allowed the publication to decline through a lack of focus on the product and a general slowdown of expenditure on maintenance and marketing. Revenue, from the product, in the latest financial year had dropped to less than ten percent of what it had achieved when rights had been purchased. No digital offering existed despite a strong demand from the younger demographic. The client strongly wanted to revive the brand with its 25-year history of providing a directory to the Australian and New Zealand markets.
Our Role
MagniStrat facilitated a strategic product assessment that reached out to both executive management and potential users of the directory. Components of the approach included:
- Analysis of internal strengths and weaknesses with the Management team
- Competitor analysis
- User surveys
- Resource mapping
Key Findings
The online market had expanded significantly while the original printed directory failed to keep pace. Not only was online advertising now a major competitor, but several organisations were producing curated lists of vetted advertisers that were promoted as a value-added service to members. The value often being driven by members providing feedback in the form of ratings.
The brand had not lost its value as was evident from the significant feedback received from the market.
MagniStrat proposed to rebuild the value proposition by launching a new tiered subscription model backed by solid a marketing campaign. While this was being developed, capability would be increased by developing a new web-based offering to complement the existing print version. Printed copies would be extracted directly from the web data, and stock levels would be optimised by using a print on demand service.
The low current income from the directory could not support rapid growth without additional expenditure. To get around this problem, it was recommended that intern and volunteer time be sought for the initial IT support and administrative work that was required.
Launching into a New World
Projects do not succeed without talented people to deliver them. Thanks to the client locating a very talented graphics and web developer, and several capable volunteers, the revised online offering made rapid progress.
The online directory relaunched with subscription for both members and advertisers at a major industry event. Within weeks a steady stream of subscriptions was being received and advertisers were returning in numbers.
