BDS Marketing
Company: BDS Marketing, Inc.
Company Description: Founded in 1984 as a field marketing agency, BDS pioneered the field of Point of Contact Marketing, involving the skillful orchestration of a diverse array of tactics to drive product sell-through & customer acquisition. BDS provides one-on-one interaction with consumers and retail sales associates; success is due to its proven ability to achieve measurable results and positive ROI for clients.
Nomination Category: Team Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Marketing Team
Nomination Title: BDS "Team Motorola" - Retail Services Team
- Tell the story of what this team has achieved in 2002 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
The campaign’s results were extraordinary. To cite just one example: the company achieved a 25% increase in marketshare in a mere 12 months – from 20.8% to 26% -- putting it neck and neck with the previous industry leader.
How did Motorola’s Personal Communications Sector, the unit that manufactures and sells wireless telephones, accomplish this remarkable feat? Following is a succinct explanation.
It was late 2001, and Motorola management realized it needed to make significant changes in its marketing efforts. Research had revealed some unpleasant facts. Motorola’s share of the market was significantly behind industry leader Nokia. Moreover, it had very little mindshare -- just 15% -- among retail sales associates. These individuals, who can wield enormous influence among consumers, perceived the brand as tired and outmoded. Not surprisingly, they were much more likely to recommend competing products to shoppers.
So Motorola revamped its entire marketing program, revitalized its advertising, and hired BDS Marketing to act as "brand evangelists" across the country. Following an objective assessment of Motorola’s challenges and opportunities, BDS launched a multi-faceted national campaign designed to promote the Motorola brand directly to retailers, wireless carriers and consumers.
Much of the firm’s work involved dramatically enhancing Motorola’s presence at retail. BDS deployed teams of sales and marketing experts to represent the brand on the retail floor, educate and train sales associates, conduct product demonstrations and build relationships with store management. Over the 12-month period, BDS field staff:
- Visited over 45,000 retail stores in 30+ major markets;
- Met with or trained more than 200,000 sales associates; and
- Conducted nearly 160,000 consumer demonstrations.
BDS also launched an ambitious field intelligence program to provide Motorola management with brand and product information needed to make crucial strategic decisions, swiftly adjust tactics and redeploy resources.
Motorola also sought to reposition the brand to make it more appealing to the high-impact youth segment of the market. BDS supported an ambitious event marketing campaign that ranged from sponsorship of hip, youth-oriented events such as the Vans Warped Tour and the Winter X-Games to participation in Austin Powers 3 film tie-ins. Moreover, in their role as Motorola brand advocates, BDS personnel established their own "cool/hip" street credibility… bolstering the brand among image-conscious consumers.
BDS also helped strengthen Motorola’s crucial relationships with wireless carriers and retailers, actively supporting key promotions, sales meetings, trade shows and launch events for such companies as Verizon, T-Mobile, Cingular, AT&T and RadioShack.
The results were indisputable. Sales associate mindshare increased 36% in covered locations. The recommendation rate in the youth segment went up by 39.4%. And by year-end, Motorola’s marketshare was within ½ percent of the industry leader.
- List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above.
To include a URL you must begin and end the URL with a square-bracket and include http://
Example: [http://www.yourdomain.com]Supporting documents for this nomination were supplied offline.
- Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of this nominated team:
Along with the entire team, this management trio maintained Client nicknamed "Gumby-like" attitudes under intense pressure to surpass each month's achievements: Heather Anderson (Account Director): As client liaison, Heather provided overall strategic direction, translating client strategy into hard-hitting tactics and actionable recommendations. Matt Waldman (Account Supervisor): As operations anchor, Matt brought the program to life, managing all aspects of execution strategy – developing a flexible & scalable staffing model, training & mentoring staff and optimizing performance. Shannon Litten (Account Executive): Point-of-contact for day-to-day field activities, logistics and results reporting, Shannon kept the program running like a well-oiled machine.