Request for Quotation. Growth Marketing Foundation

Transcription

1 Request for Quotation Growth Marketing Foundation Background Aerodrums is a business based within the Liverpool City Region. We have designed and manufactured an air-drumming instrument which is the most portable and quiet drum kit in the world. It runs on your computer and understands your drumming intent by watching you drum. This is a complete reinvention of drumming, offering near-silent practice as well as full blown live drumming with no physical kit. Aerodrums is the perfect instrument for learning to play the drums and an ideal complement to a practice pad. As a MIDI instrument it also offers a dynamic and cost-effective recording solution for the home or studio. We have a great product and even better products in store. We now need good marketing advice and execution to reach all who could benefit from them. Project overview Supplier will collaborate with management to refine and formalise the marketing strategy of the company. Supplier will be responsible for establishing the foundations for modern marketing execution within the company. Supplier will demonstrate the validity of this foundation by implementing a marketing campaign for existing Aerodrums as well as a product launch for a standalone version of Aerodrums. Validation will be based on sales growth. Supplier will communicate, or help prepare material for communication, with the company's distribution, manufacturing and funding partners when marketing expertise is required. In order to ensure the sustainability of the marketing foundation within the company, it is envisaged that the successful applicant would continue to work with the business on a permanent basis, following the conclusion of this work, on terms to be agreed, or be involved with the recruitment of a permanent position within the business to carry forward this agenda. Indicative budget: 30,000 Time scale and deliverables:

2 Project start: June 2018 Project end: 30th of November 2018 (6 months) I - Strategy (c10% of time, month 1) The formalisation of the marketing strategy will cover Target audience Product marketing requirements for the standalone version of Aerodrums, and revised version(s) of existing Aerodrums Product differentiation between online and street sales if necessary Pricing Marketing funnel model Identification and prioritisation of possible industry partners by marketing synergy potential Supplier will implement evidence gathering when necessary to validate aspects of the marketing strategy. II - Foundation (c25% of time) The required elements of the marketing foundation are: A system to manage the company's marketing, including contact classification (e.g. user / lead) (week 2) A system to maintain a list of advertising platforms, with relevant and up to date operational information (month 1) Contact point Audiences / re-marketing lists Costs Spend A methodology and practical infrastructure to measure advertising ROI for each platform, both for dealer sales and direct website sales, and as a function of targeting and marketing creative (month 1) A methodology and practical infrastructure to measure the ROI of in-store marketing spend (month 2) A methodology to determine the company's overall customer acquisition cost (month 3) A methodology to allocate and schedule advertising spend (month 1) A system to organise marketing assets for efficient retrieval, translation and publication by the company, its distributors, and their dealers (month 3) The identification of efficient ways for company employees to generate material for posting on social media (month 3) The identification of key influencers (month 4) A system to analyse the sales impact of , social media and influencer activities (month 5)

3 III - Execution (c45% of time) Supplier will: Review, organise and filter the company's sets of s (customers, inbound contacts, website visitors) (week 2) Kickstart the company's marketing, including the writing of a couple of mailings per month in collaboration with management (week 2) Organise the company's marketing creative assets, and commission new ones as dictated by the marketing funnel model (month 2) Manage the company's advertising, this will include: Review and analyse the data generated by previous ad campaigns of the company (month 1) Setting scheduled budgets both for baseline ads and product launch campaign ads (months 2 onwards) Monthly review to make use of the ROI evidence that is gathered to optimise the platform spread (months 3 onwards) Review, refine and monitor the company's in-store marketing activities (month 2 onwards) Create a plan with targets and a schedule to gather material from employees, and select and post it to social media (months 3 onwards) Liaise with the press (both percussion and tech) to maximize coverage of the launch of standalone Aerodrums (from month 2) Develop and execute a partnership with at least two key influencers IV - Sustainability (c0-10%, of time last 6 weeks) Supplier must either: Help with the recruiting of a permanent marketing manager by the company and: Train them to make full use of the foundation that supplier put in place Bring them up to speed with ongoing advertising campaigns and marketing activities Maintain the continuity of partnerships and press contacts established by supplier Or be willing to consider a permanent position as marketing manager in the company (if offered). V - Communication (c10-20% of time) Supplier will: Attend bi-weekly staff meetings Liaise with company employees to assign tasks where and when possible Deliver a monthly report on advertising outcomes (from month 3) Monitor the correct implementation of marketing activities by national distributors and dealers (monthly report from month 3) Give input on the company's business plan and fund raising materials Attend occasional meetings with distributors, funders and manufacturers if required

4 Requirements Supplier must demonstrate: This is a comprehensive piece of work and we would encourage providers to clearly demonstrate their ability to deliver this work in their response relating to a successful marketing plan for a consumer product A particular knowledge of: Managing marketing mailing lists Implementing ad campaigns on the Google, Facebook and Instagram platforms Negotiating and purchasing ad placements from print publications Organising in-store marketing activities Proven analytical capability to reliably measure ROI and CAC: Setting up and implementing a data gathering methodology Validating and analysing the data Presenting the evidence found in support of the findings Over the full range of marketing activities (e.g. not just AdWords) Without depending on external expertise The required skillset to work with small companies, specifically: The ability to identify what skills and employee time is available in house The ability to get tasks done in spite of lack of the above Ability to have good quality copy written fast (without depending on external copy writers) Contact person at supplier's must carry out over 50% of the project Evaluation Criteria Supplier selection will be done in two stages: 1. Quotation evaluation 2. Half day selection event for a maximum of 3 successful quotations Quotations / proposals Will be assessed and scored on the following criteria: Quality/ Technical Merit (40%) Supplier must demonstrate they have the technical and professional capability to deliver the requirement. Delivery Time scale (20%) Supplier must demonstrate they can deliver the requirement to time scales above. Cost/Value for money (20%) Does supplier offer value for money? This will not necessarily be the cheapest quote. Match quality (20%) How many of the following desirable criteria does supplier match: We ask that you provide examples of the types and range of marketing consultancy support you would be able to offer and how you believe this will help achieve our objectives in industries as closely related as possible (in decreasing order of closeness: musical instruments, consumer electronics, videos games, teenager toys, tech gadgets)

5 Strong address book in the musical instruments press and/or the tech press German, Spanish, Chinese and/or Japanese language skills Contact person at supplier's able to travel regularly to Liverpool city centre Willingness of contact person at supplier's to travel abroad for meetings or trade shows Knowledge of the Wordpress and WooCommerce platforms Knowledge of other digital advertising platforms than the ones required Knowledge of TV advertising Scoring Methodology 4 Excellent Proposal meets and in some places, exceeds the required standard 3 Good Proposal meets required standard 2 Acceptable Proposal meets the required standard in most respects, but is lacking or inconsistent in others 1 Poor Proposal falls short of expected standard 0 Unacceptable Completely or significantly fails to meet required standard or does not provide the relevant answer Proposal Format Proposals should clearly demonstrate how they meet the requirement set out above. Deadline and Submission Proposals are required by the 1 st of June electronically to Yann Morvan, yann.morvan@aerodrums.com The short list of successful quotations will be announced on the Monday 4 th June. Selection interviews At the event, scheduled for the Wednesday 6 th June, the contact persons from suppliers whose quotation has been successful will: Meet company staff and other participants Participate in a creative task set by the company and attended by product developers from the company Present their work to the group Be expected to answer questions on their presentation Final decision Suppliers who attended the selection event will be informed of our decision by Friday the 8 th June. Date Published 21st May 2018 This work is part funded though the European Regional Development Fund