Traffic lights is a creative marketing tool that can be used in a number of ways.
- You could conduct a personal traffic lights exercise based upon your own personal or professional development.
- The exercise can be run at any stage of the marketing planning or creative process. So you could run it as you begin marketing, during a marketing campaign, and at the end of a marketing programme as you review or control your marketing activities.
Traffic lights has a number of benefits to marketing managers:
- It encourages a creative approach to marketing
- Traffic lights is simple to use
- Traffic lights is quick to learn
- Traffic lights cross cultures, since most countries use this common approach to traffic control.
- Traffic lights transcend interdepartmental and disciplinary differences so that it is a common platform for decision-making.
The starting point is to decide upon an activity on which to base your traffic lights exercise. Some examples include:
- How do we improve our marketing planning?
- How do we make our marketing communications activities more effective?
- In what ways could eMarketing be made more efficient?
- How could I become a better marketing manager?
- How could I improve my grades?
Traffic Lights, Example - Serendipity
So let's consider a company called Serendipity that markets Ski Wear. Serendipity conducted a traffic lights exercise upon its core marketing activities. Marketing managers and interested individuals from purchasing, sales management, finance and R&D met in a training room, and recorded their views under the headings red-amber-green. The results are as follows:
Red - STOP
- Get rid of any distributors that favour competitor brands over our own.
- Withdraw product lines that make a loss.
- Remove our branding from any none-ski wear clothing.
- Stop sponsoring amateur or low ranking skiers, and enhance the exclusivity of our brand.
Amber - PROCEED WITH CAUTION, and make some improvements.
- Reduce the number of distributors that have Serendipity agency agreements. Start backing our proactive winners that really wish to endorse our brand and make it central to their business.
- Promote or reposition products that are mature.
Green - Go or Let's carry on with this activity.
- Reward our best distributors, and develop as the bases for long-terms relationships.
- Develop and enhance products that are highly profitable.
- Let's continue to sponsor top skiers that enhance our brand values.
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