Plexus Consulting Group    Success Stories

Association of Sales and Marketing Companies (ASMC)


Association of Sales and Marketing Companies

1010 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Suite 900
Washington, DC 20007
202-337-9351
[www.asmc.org]
Contact: Karen Connell

CEO: Mark W Baum
Budget: $4 Million
Staff Size: 11 - 20 Employees




Plexus Consulting Group, LLC
1620 Eye Street, NW
Suite 210
Washington, DC 20006
Phone:  202-785-8940
Fax:      202-785-8949
Email:   info@plexusconsulting.com


Vital Stats:

The Asssociation of Sales and Marketing Companies' (ASMC) membership comprises nearly 1,000 sales and marketing agencies employing more than 40,000 professionals and servicing all classes of trade for the thousands of clients they represent worldwide. In addition, the Association promotes the interests of some 200 Associate member manufacturers, including their subsidiaries, that use sales and marketing agency representation in local markets, as well as dozens of Allied members that serve constituent companies.

The Challenge | The Solution | The Process | Unintended Consequences | Unforseen Benefits | Measurements & Results | Lessons Learned

 

The Challenge

How could the association reinvent itself to remain viable in a changing commercial environment?

Between 1996-2000, NFBA membership consolidated from 1,700 members (employing 20,000 employees) to 360 organizations (employing 50,000 employees) representing 55% of the food that is sold in the nation's grocery and food service organizations and expanding into new areas including drug stores, convenience and other trades.

Challenges facing the association included:

  • Industry consolidation
  • Customers' changing purchasing strategies toward centralized purchasing
  • Anticipating market changes
  • Providing more relevant services for consolidating membership
  • Identifying new applications outside the traditional food service and grocery business
  • Streamlining marketing and product delivery costs
  • Promotion by manufacturers of the best use of their sales/marketing agencies
  • Cultivation of knowledgeable alliances among sales/marketing agencies

The Solution

To create a new name and "battle banner" under which all participants of this business could see themselves, relate to the new identity, reaffirm the value and understand how they might extend their services to new industries.

Challenge
With the advent of computerized scanning, sophisticated sales and marketing programs, industry consolidation and the eternal search for streamlining costs and movement of product to and from the shelves of America's retail climate, the organization realized the need to reinvent itself to remain viable in today's environment. The notion of the "value" of the middleman was in question as manufacturers and retail outlets attempted to streamline and reduce the cost of entry into markets and the cost of shelf space.

Opportunity
It became apparent that there were opportunities for different kinds of alliances and services, but no way to pursue them within the current structure. The association needed to become a greater advocate for its members - including aggressive identification of newer applications outside the traditional food service and grocery businesses, where their knowledge of consumer preferences, shelf and supply chain management could be put to better use for all parties. Many members identified so closely with grocery and food service and didn't see their skills more broadly applicable in the drug, electronics or other retail industries.

The Process

The re-branding initiative was implemented in a two-step process that focused on the creation of a new name and detailed re-examination of member needs, association services and processes.

Step One: Creation of a New Name

The Association of Sales and Marketing Companies
The Food and Consumer Goods Connection was approved as the new name by the board in July 1996. The design, plan and budget was presented at the September, 1996 meeting of the board and the program was unveiled in December 1996, to become effective in January of 1997.

The tag line, "The Food and Consumer Goods Connection" provided the bridge between the old and the new; and gave members, customers and the media a better sense of what the association had to offer. The goal was to articulate core competencies, show the broader relevance of the association's members and begin an aggressive program that built new demand.

The process involved the following steps:

  1. The Vice President of Marketing and Member Services convened a small working group of a marketing communications firm (Page Group, Bethesda, MD) and a public relations consultant (Ronald Margulis, RAM Communications, Westfield, NJ) with deep roots in the food industry to assure that the messages and images resonated with the membership
  2. Development of the new logo and message
  3. Preparation and hosting of a celebrity launch, which included a detailed media plan to position the organization as the source of relevant insights regarding the marketplace, well beyond the food and grocery industries


Step Two: Re-examination of Member Needs and Association Services

Pursuant to a detailed examination of member needs and association services, which involved making determinations on what elements needed to be outsourced or charged directly to staff, it was determined that the ASMC could provide greatest assistance to members by:

  • Providing advocacy for the membership
  • Aggressively pursuing marketplace expansion and awareness efforts
  • Providing a sophisticated understanding of current information technology and tools to help streamline business relationships and information needs


Overall, the re-branding process culminated in the following tangible results:

  • A new design and product standard to create an elegant and distinctive look
  • The traditional bag of samples and gifts passed out at convention and meetings was replaced with distinctive reminder products, as well information about new services that members could use (e.g. research or new promotional tools to assist their retailers in developing profit on the purchase side, as well as on the retail sale)
  • The organization began to tailor research and develop new customized tools (such as loyalty or other business to business sales) for members to use with their specific market and product menus
  • ASMC is also analyzing and helping members understand the applications of new technologies

Unintended Consequences
Limited Resources
The development of the two-year plan required 100% of the vice president for marketing and member services for 5 months, a dedicated internal support system, as well as $250,000 for materials and contractual services. In retrospect, the job might have been easier if there had been more budget requested, allowing a deeper reach to the membership. A Phase II program will be in place January, 2001.

Unforeseen Benefits

 Unforseen benefits of the initiative included:

ASMC re-branded the association and the members at the same time. What started out as a good idea became the foundation for long-term brand identity. The members went from being just brokers and agents to becoming established in other industries (such as computers and consumer electronics) for their core competencies of sales and marketing, rather than the site where the sales happen.

The board structure was reconfigured to more accurately reflect the range of businesses represented, as well as the new industries needing the sales/marketing assistance.

Announcement of the name change allowed ASMC to nurture broader networks with the business press, including the Wall Street Journal, to help articulate the benefit to the business decision makers outside the food industry. However, many of these media efforts didn't reach mid- to smaller organizations to help them understand the name change and the benefits. A broader, more consumer-friendly approach may need to be deployed in future efforts.

ASMC began to outsource more analysis and services, rather than maintaining in-house capabilities.

The dues structure changed to a sliding scale with a cap and ASMC moved from a classic representation model to an advocacy, business development and consultative model.

The repositioning provided an opportunity to adjust so that marketing representatives might also be included in the membership mix - - an expansion well beyond the current template.

ASMC developed a code of ethics and a white paper on the importance of maintaining industry standards.

ASMC grew a consultative practice within the association to help new industries attempting to break into retail outlets position their products and learn how to use their member's expertise more efficiently.


Measurements & Results

As a result of the re-branding initiative, ASMC members now have a greater level of respect and understanding for their core competencies and are being sought in other industries outside food and grocery for their sense of how to solve some of the big problems associated with retail sales, including shrink (disappearing goods), more careful targeting of promotional efforts, amount of shelf space and positioning to introduce products to key markets.

Success was defined by the following criteria:

  • Member acceptance and appreciation for new identity and services
  • The ability to gain new market share and growth over the five-year period
  • A significant increase in market power and revenue, despite consolidation of numbers of entities providing the service
  • The ability to use the impetus of a name change to provide an expansion plan for new members
  • A governance strategy that allowed all parties to maintain control of their educational and business development priorities, while maintaining a link to a broader group that offers them a full menu of insights


Revenue
While it is difficult to track revenue "generated," the association has held its own in a highly competitive climate where consolidation has managed to shrink 1,200 members to 360, and have been able to help members generate greater revenues and explore new business opportunities, markets and business alliances for the association as well. It would have been better to have more of a budget at the outset so that efforts could have reached deeper within the membership to explain the benefit and the opportunities.

Lessons Learned

ASMC capitalized on a crisis in market dynamics and used a tight time frame and a group of dedicated board members, consultants and staff to develop a reengineering solution that made sense and worked backwards to the implementation steps. The secrets of success included:

  • Having the right people in play at the beginning
  • The flexibility to move quickly
  • Decisiveness: Conventional surveys were not giving them information they needed to make necessary decisions. They jump-started the process by bringing all parties to the table and hiring consultants that had an established track record in the industry, to avoid any mis-starts
  • Be prepared to not win any popularity contests while you are fostering a cross functional team in a traditional association business
  • Overcome resistance by communicating the long-term vision


Dealing with Resistance
Resistance is more often than not due to not understanding where they fit in the long-term vision. Remember that everyone learns differently and incorporates information through different vehicles or endorsements. The core group of members heard, understood and accepted the change; but other mid- to small-size members representing smaller manufacturers and family-owned operations didn't get the word or fully appreciate the implications of the change. So an important lesson is just because people around you get it, better check farther and deeper to make sure the information has penetrated the membership's experience.

The most important lesson was using the opportunity of a name change to think totally outside the box and re-invent the association. Perhaps the most difficult challenge for the staff was the fear of letting go of old processes, products and services that have served them well over the years. By thinking outside the established boundaries of the business the organization was able to find new venues for their members in the chain drug story, computer and consumer electronics industry.