ALLIANCE MARKETING - CASE STUDY

A partnership for growth driving FMCG brands

Alliance Marketing, a New Zealand based Broker & Distributor, selected Insighful.Mobi’s CRM solution for retail execution, store promotions and merchandising in 2015. Since then, they've found increased efficiency across their supply chain helping them to better service the FMCG brands they represent.

About Alliance Marketing
Established in 2014, Alliance Marketing works with leading FMCG brands to market, merchandise and sell products through retail channels across New Zealand. Acting as the main sales arm for their clients, Alliance Marketing execute various trade promotion, sales and merchandising initiatives with their growing team of 18 territory managers and 58 sales merchandisers.

The Challenge
Alliance Marketing act as a brokerage firm for their clients and as such have a wealth of data they need to accurately measure and report on. With an increasing team of territory managers and merchandisers across New Zealand, along with the fast-paced nature of the FMCG industry, Alliance Marketing was looking for a FMCG-focussed Sales Force Automation Tool (SFA) / CRM tool that was efficient, accurate and adaptable.

The Solution
Insightful.Mobi delivered a cloud-based SFA/CRM system Sales IM that provided Alliance Marketing with an all-in-one solution to their complex list of management, resource, and reporting challenges. Alliance Marketing was able to obtain an adaptable, centralised system crucial for their line of work; one that not only provides live and up-to-date data but one that functions across all areas of their supply chain.

The Result
Insightful.Mobi helped Alliance Marketing streamline business processes with their cloud-based SFA/CRM tool. With the ability to quickly adapt as their industry does and add new features as required, Alliance Marketing found a long-term solution in Insightful.Mobi’s Sales IM.

A need for control at speed
With a large team and multiple clients, Alliance Marketing had many moving parts with no efficient system to accurately oversee and manage them all. Soon after purchasing Alliance Marketing in 2014, they knew they needed a more efficient process to manage and oversee sales, distribution and merchandising to provide more accurate and timely reports to their principle clients.

Working in the FMCG sector, Alliance Marketing needed a system that could accommodate the fast pace of the industry while handling multiple brands and products all at once. With delay not being an option, Alliance needed to move beyond largely manual processes and implement a system that streamlined data management and offered more efficient and accurate reporting. Looking to reduce costly inaccuracies, Alliance were seeking a system that could do it all - and some.

With an aim to streamline workflows and efficiently manage their expanding team, Alliance Marketing was looking for an adaptable, efficient and user-friendly system that could be applied to all areas of their business; one all staff could use to input and oversee their individual and varied tasks; one that could accommodate each individual client's product portfolio and sales goals; one that could handle complex reporting.

Alliance Marketing was looking for a superior system from the outset; something that provided accuracy, efficiency, and adaptability for a range of complex operational needs. An off-the-shelf CRM solution from a vendor without FMCG experience wasn’t an option.

An adaptable system and an accommodating partner
Alliance Marketing was approached by Insightful.Mobi to become their official launch partner for their new SFA solution. This was an ideal scenario for Alliance and a great opportunity for both parties; Alliance needed a flexible system that could accommodate their business operations and Insightful.Mobi needed a launch partner to field test with.

In 2015, the process began. Karen explains, "We worked in tandem, it was very much a trial setup. The ideation process began in 2015, but it took around a year until the system was fully up and running."

Alliance Marketing use Insightful.Mobi applications across their entire business from back-end operations to on-site sales and merchandising management; enabling them to provide valuable feedback on application improvements to Insightful.Mobi when needed.

Jamielle Clayton-Greene, Alliance Marketing National Business Manager explains, "Insightful.Mobi was great at accommodating and listening to our feedback. They didn't just give it to us and leave us…the team were always available and ready to help us improve outcomes and efficiencies when and where we needed them." Adding, "Insightful.Mobi built a custom integration to Nielsen Data which we use to measure and report on distribution data."

This integration helps Alliance Marketing to produce more accurate and efficient reports to their principle clients. Karen explains, "Anything that requires manual input obviously leaves room for error…through this integration, we have the assurance that the distribution reports we produce for internal and principle clients are 100% accurate."

Alliance territory managers and merchandisers utilise the product update functionality which provides live data on a product's shelf life; helping the field team to efficiently identify what products are 'in danger'.

With the ability to update merchandise and sales data live on-site as well as complete report accuracy and system adaptability, Alliance believes they have found the right CRM tool to fit their current and future needs.

System adaptability offered increased results
Alliance Marketing focus on continuous improvement in response to the fast-moving nature of their market, and credit Insightful.Mobi's Sales IM solution as one that can keep up and adapt when needed. Karen explains, "The development process is very fluid and collaborative. Insightful.Mobi is always willing to hear our feedback and make improvements where they can."

Jamielle adds, "Continual updates mean you can always go that one step further. The latest update our territory managers have been utilising is the graph format, which is helping them to quickly identify gains and risks within their territory."

Because of this, Alliance has been able to utilise Insightful.Mobi across their entire business. "We use it as an in-field tool, reporting tool and HR tool. It's a one-stop-shop. It covers our whole supply chain", explains Karen.

For example, Alliance Marketing’s team can use the solution to do everything from: track in-store displays with photos; to enable merchandisers to see how long they are in-store and adapt call times accordingly; to HR running exception reports on who has deviated from call runs.

Overall, Insightful.Mobi has provided increased accuracy and automation to Alliance Marketing and delivered it through one centralised system; reducing any double-handling of data and unnecessary reliance on third-party applications. "Because of this we've had increased efficiency across the board," Karen adds. With one centralised system, it is simple to keep the team on track and the business moving forward.