HOW ABOUT THE FRANCHISE AND 8Ps MARKETING APPROACHES?

Introduction

This paper is a response to the issues raised by the authors of the discussion paper on CMC Brand Strategy (Shanker:2003). Since the paper has been circulated to over 36 countries and presentations are expected from each member Institute of the International Council of Management Consulting Institute (ICMCI) the IMC - Nigeria paper has been designed to focus on one crucial area:  an appropriate marketing strategy for the CMC brand. In summary, the presentation advocates franchising strategy among CMC stakeholders in a hierarchical partnership scheme while adopting the service marketing approach in its promotion 

 

Relevant Brand Management Terms and Concepts Defined

The presentation assumes the following interpretations for each of the words below where they occur:

Brand: A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of these, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. (Kotler and Arstrong, 1994).

Brand strategy: The manner in which a supplier of a service or good uses the brand name or brand mark in communicating product and service attributes. Strategies may incorporate company name plus product identification, product name alone, company name plus product name or product line name plus product identification.

Brand equity: The value of the brand based on the extent to which it has high brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, strong brand associations, and other assets such as patents, trademarks, and channel relationships. (Kotler & Armstrong, 1994).

Brand Extension: Using a successful brand name to launch a new or modified product in a new category.

Brand Image: The set of beliefs consumers hold about a particular brand.

Franchise: A contractual association between a manufacturer, wholesaler, or service organisation (a franchiser) and independent business people (franchisees) who buy the right to own and operate one or more units in the franchise system.

Franchise organisation: A contractual vertical marketing system in which a channel member, called a franchiser, links several stages in the production-distribution process.

The CMC Brand

CMC (Certified management Consultant) is an international certification mark awarded by the IMC of each ICMCI Member Country on behalf of the ICMCI and it represents evidence of the highest standards in Management Consulting and adherence to the code of ethics of the profession (Adapted from the BDU Definition).

The British tend to look at the CMC in terms of the person. This is also a valid marketing standpoint. According to the UK IMC, CMC stands for a management consultant who has demonstrated competence and understanding in a range of consultancy situations against an agreed standard and has signed up to the IMC Code of Conduct.

 

The Views Against CMC Branding

Within the ICMCI circles, there are those who feel that CMC is not and cannot be a brand; that CMC is just but a qualification, and the rest of it.

But from a marketing standpoint, CMC can be regarded as a brand. If it is not yet a brand, it can be made one if the ICMCI member Institutes resolve to do so. CMC has all the trappings and potential of a brand.

• CMC as a brand name is easy to pronounce, recognize and remember.
• CMC suggests something about the quality and benefits of using the consultant associated with it.
• CMC is a distinctive brand name.
• CMC translates easily into other languages
• CMC is capable of registration and legal protection.

Considering the above factors, it can be concluded that CMC is  “brandable”. The benefits of branding are self-evident but, perhaps, for the purpose of emphasis, they need repeating.

The Benefits of Branding

Branding enables a buyer or consumer to develop loyalty and carry out repeat purchases (Scheving, 1974:183). A brand also identifies the organization behind the product or service, thus guaranteeing a consistent quality or satisfaction. A brand product offers the opportunity to aggressively stimulate demand for the product. To the customer, a branded product enables him or her to single out the product, which a particular seller is offering. He learns to trust and to accept it based on experience with it. To be meaningfully advertised and differentiated, branded merchandise approach seems a possible way out.

Whose Brand Is It?

If the CMC is a brand, then whose brand is it or should it be? Questions have been raised in this connection. Central to the questions is the assumption that “everybody’s responsibility is, in reality, nobody’s responsibility.”

The ICMCI, CMC Branding Strategy circulated to members presented these posers.

1.                  Who should promote the brand?

2.                  Is it the global licensor, ICMCI?

3.                  Is it the national Institutes?

4.                  Is it the responsibility of the firms that employ individual CMCs?

5.                  Is it the responsibility of the individual CMC?

The marketing principles guiding franchising can be helpful in resolving this, somewhat, complicated issue. The controls and quality assurance practices used by businesses that adopt franchising as a practice and strategy for reaching out to consumers can be applied in the marketing of CMC brand. All stakeholders in the franchise play roles in quality assurance and promotion of the franchise. If we look at the ICMCI, national Institutes, the firms that employ CMCs and the CMCs themselves as partners and stakeholders in the promotion of the CMC brand, then there is no question of responsibilities being left hanging for lack of concern or out of any assumed confusion as to whose responsibility it is to promote the CMC brand.

What is the Appropriate Marketing Strategy for the CMC Brand?

This paper argues that the appropriate strategy is franchising. But one needs to say more since the discussion is meant to produce practical proposals.

CMC is not a physical product. It is not even a service in a any context. It is a concept and an idea; as such, CMC can be presented to target “markets” in such a manner that it appeals to their subjective considerations. Such subjective factors may include:

·         Value for money

·         Reliability

·         Satisfaction

·         Trust

·         Acceptability

·         Global acceptance

·         Protected trademark

Furthermore, since the CMC as a brand concept resembles or is linked with service provision, the 8Ps approach espoused for service marketing may be skillfully adopted for its promotion. The 8Ps are:

• Product – Meaning what is on offer to the client. This must be subjected to constant review, bearing in mind changing client expectations.
• Place – Meaning how to make the product available at the most convenient places for the target market, i.e., current and prospective clients.
• Price – Meaning what current and prospective clients pay and are prepared to pay for the product.
• Promotion – Meaning the most effective ways  CMC franchise stakeholders can communicate to the various target groups to stimulate greater awareness, interest and patronage.
• Physical Evidence – Since, like a service, CMC is not tangible, cannot be felt, smelt or tasted as is the case when you want to buy conventional products such as soaps, drinks or foods, advantage must be taken of every opportunity to link CMC with what is physical. Such opportunities include CMC labels on well dressed consultants, CMC logos on office doors, letter heads, brochures, complimentary cards, consultancy reports, etc.
• Process – Recognising that a franchise scheme is a process whose success depends largely on teamwork.
• People – Emphasising the important role, which persons will play. It is persons that will reflect the value of CMC. It is persons that will experience and pass judgment on CMC.
• Promise – Emphasising that, consultants must deliver on their promises. This is of great importance because clients buy promises of solutions when they hire consultants.
• Public Relations – CMC stakeholders need to carefully identify the various publics that can impact on CMC to which PR communications can be directed. Such publics include individual consultants, clients, big practices, small practices, other related professional associations, relevant agencies of the United Nations, financial institutions, etc.

All these 8 elements or variables have potential to contribute to the understanding of the implications of institutionalizing the CMC as a brand.

Brand management concepts that may prove helpful in this exercise include:

• Brand Strategy – How CMCs, firms and IMCs use the service attributes of CMC in communicating with existing and prospective clients.
• Brand Equity – How CMC’s value can be enhanced so as to increase brand loyalty, perceived quality, name awareness, strong brand association and stakeholders (channel) relationships.
• Brand Extension – How we can use successful practices (both big and small) to launch the CMC into markets where it is yet to make impact.
• Brand Image – The set of beliefs currently held about the CMC brand have to be studied and analysed as a foundation for creating new ones and changing those discovered as undesirable.
• Internal Marketing – This is the marketing done by a service firm designed to train and effectively motivate its customer contact employees and all the supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction. The ICMCI community needs to convince itself of the virtues and values of CMC brand. CMC needs to be marketed internally among ICMCI members, among CMCs in member Institutes and among CMCs in firms.

Conclusions and Recommendations

This Paper has argued that, in order to make the desired impact in the promotion of the CMC brand, the franchise approach which mobilizes the stakeholders in the franchise arrangement seems appropriate and likely to prove more capable of disabusing the minds of those who feel that “everybody’s business is nobody’s business”. The stakeholders have been identified as the ICMCI, the national Institutes, the firms that employ CMCs and the individual CMCs. All of them are important in the process. The paper subscribes to the view that the 4Ps approach used in the marketing of conventional products is inadequate for the promotion of the CMC brand. It is therefore recommended that the 8Ps approach should be adopted and adapted for the promotion of the CMC brand.

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