• Marketing, sales and customer care
• International outlook, export, Pan-Caribbean
• Accountability, return on investment
• Benchmarks and measurable targets
  

Feasibility Study
Quick Market Scan
Business Plan
Corporate Strategy
Marketing Strategy
Marketing (Action) Plan
Market Research
Recruiting
Second Opinion
Coaching
Sales and service training

Feasibility Study (top)
Feasibility studies indicate whether there is enough sales opportunity for a business idea, either on the local or foreign market, to cover the essential costs required to carry out this idea. We also often perform export-marketing feasibilities to determine if there is enough sales potential in a desired foreign market. Our feasibility studies are supported by extensive hard data, either our own or from other sources.

Quick Market Scan (top)
If you are seeking to introduce a product you already have a lot of experience with to the Caribbean, you can probably roughly determine the feasibility yourself. All you might need is someone to provide you with the essential market statistics and cost indicators. We can do so for you. Just tell us which data you need.

Business Plan (top)
Business plans indicate how a feasible business idea will be made reality and/or how a business will be managed to remain viable in the long-run. They are often used as a tool to obtain financing or refinancing from lenders or potential business partners, or to get a better handle on how to manage the business. Depending on its intended use, it can highlight the financial projections, the feasibility, or the steps that must be taken internally to grow, consolidate, merge, etc. MarkStra’s business plans are to the point, practical and supported by hard facts and measurable targets.

Corporate Strategy (top)
Simply put, your corporate competitive strategy determines which combinations of tools your organization should use to compete and prosper in the market. Important considerations are:

• your organization’s strengths and weaknesses such as the quantity and quality of your human, IT, financial and managerial resources
• especially compared to those of your competitors
• the existing and emerging opportunities and threats in the market

We conduct a thorough analysis of the relevant factors to develop your strategy.

Marketing Strategy (top)
Your marketing strategy is a derivative of your corporate strategy and considers in more detail which products you should carry in your portfolio, which markets to target, what price and “image” categories to offer, in a 3-5 year timeframe. It also takes into account the position of your competitors. Product positioning, branding and research activities to determine these factors are part of this effort. Our assignments for the latter often include global brands.

Marketing (Action) Plan (top)
A marketing plan and its more practical cousin, the marketing action plan, is an outline of each activity related to pricing, promotion, distribution, presentation, packaging, sales and service, that your company will do in a year. The plan also discusses each activity’s cost, its desired result, the people responsible for its successful execution, the relevant deadlines and evaluation moments. Ideally MarkStra combines the marketing and marketing action plan into one assignment. That makes the effort more action-oriented and consistent with the new era of “accountable marketing”, in which we seek to establish a measurable return on marketing investments.

Market Research (top)
Research is a tool to help you determine the contents of one or all of the plans previously mentioned and to assist you in decision making. MarkStra’s market research services are specifically geared towards that. Our research services range from the more qualitative focus groups to door-to-door quantitative research. Included are, among others, mystery shopping studies and desk research into the opportunities in local, other regional, or European markets. Research done for global companies, as part of a Pan-Caribbean effort is an important part of our research portfolio.

Recruiting (top)
We know what distinguishes a good marketing or sales executive from one that is not as good. In addition, our local and Caribbean network, from which we can recruit for you, is quite extensive. That is our added value over general executive recruiters. We also recruit for regional executive positions in marketing and sales out of a pool of professionals across the Caribbean.

Second Opinion (top)
If you are essentially the only executive in your company responsible for marketing and sales, we can be a counterpart for you to exchange ideas with. Be aware and rest assured that our opinions are mostly based on quantitative facts.

Coaching (top)
All organizations can make good use of an initially well-thought out and realistic marketing structure and approach, which, in al fairness, only an experienced marketing executive can produce efficiently. Most local and relatively small organizations cannot and should not afford to permanently employ such an experienced and highly qualified executive. Why? Because the implementation of that approach and structure does not require that level of experience and qualification. MarkStra can lead the development of your marketing approach, together with your marketing staff and coach your staff in the implementation.

Sales and service training (top)
Sales is an art. But not all sales and service representatives are equally artistic. We believe in providing that majority with the newest sales and service techniques to help them achieve their and your targets. The organizations most renowned for their sales and service don’t leave these up to the creativity, motivation and goodwill of their representatives. Neither should you. Call us to learn more about our sales and customer care philosophy, which includes not only training, but also measurement, and pointers to supervisors on how to encourage the desired type of sales behavior.