Home › MESO Projects › Retail Insight project

Retail insight project

CREATES 16 NEW CLIENT MEETINGS
Share:
retailinsight6
RBRetailemployers2016
Retailresearch

Project description

Insight project creates 16 new client meetings

ResourceBank is a leading provider of HR and talent solutions to businesses in the UK.   It had established itself as a reputable supplier within the UK retail sector and wanted to raise its profile and generate leads with potential new customers.

Following research with ResourceBank managers and clients, MESO recommended running a market insight survey that would provide potential customers with unique information that would be of real interest and use to their business.

MESO ran the whole insight project, the marketing communication to the potential customers and the initial business development approach.  Meetings were achieved with 16 leading retail customer targets including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Dreams, Hackett and Wilko.

The project was an overwhelming success, smashing the target number of meetings (which was 5) and leading to the development of significant new business

The client

ResourceBank is a leading provider of outsourced HR, Recruitment and Talent Solutions to companies including Coats plc, World Duty Free, DFS, Wolseley, Aliaxis and Northgate Vehicle Hire. Key services include staff assessment, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), executive search and human resources outsourcing (HRO)

MESO Activity

  • Research with ResourceBank managers and clients
  • Identification of “critical” information that could generate meetings
  • Creation of “hit list” of target customer prospects in retail
  • Operation of market survey to retail candidates
    • Design and build of survey
    • Invitations, reminders and incentive management
    • Analysis of data
  • Approach to key target customers prospects
    • Offer of report preview
    • Personalisation of results to each retailer
    • Email and phone approach to secure meetings
  • Publication of report
    • Gated content on ResourceBank website
    • Published in Retail Week
  • Further target customers contacted following coverage
  • Meetings secured with 16 target customers
  • Significant business opportunities generated
  • Project repeated following year

Established in 1995, ResourceBank is a quality focused HR and recruitment partner with an excellent reputation amongst its long-standing client base but lacked the market presence of larger competitors.  Once introduced into new clients, ResourceBank has an excellent conversion rate, so the marketing challenge is to get the ResourceBank managers “through the door” to have meetings with potential clients.   The retail sector had been identified as a strategic market so MESO were challenged with obtaining 5 meetings with potential new clients for ResourceBank.

Following research with ResourceBank managers and clients, MESO recommended running a market insight survey that would provide potential customers with unique information that would be of real interest and use to their business.  MESO designed, created and operated the survey, obtaining nearly 2,000 completed responses from candidates within the retail sector.  The candidates provided their views on:

  • What attracts candidates to retail jobs?
  • Which media do candidates use to look for jobs?
  • What salary increase were they expecting?
  • Who are the most attractive companies in each sector?

Individual approaches were then made to the ResourceBank target companies offering them a preview of the results of the research prior to publication.

As a result of individual approaches to the target retailers, meetings were secured with a senior HR representative at 16 potential customers including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Dreams, Hackett, Boohoo and Wilko.

In-depth information was provided to these clients which helped then to understand the perception of their employer brand by UK candidates (and broken down by region and sector).  The reaction to the information was very positive and many of the companies shared the information with senior colleagues and used as background data in their talent attraction plans.  They were impressed by the ResourceBank approach – providing information that was of use rather than a simple sales approach – and several then added ResourceBank to their list of potential new suppliers.

The project was an overwhelming success, smashing the target number of meetings (which was 5) and leading to the development of significant new business.

Challenge

Established in 1995, ResourceBank is a quality focused HR and recruitment partner with an excellent reputation amongst its long-standing client base but lacked the market presence of larger competitors.  Once introduced into new clients, ResourceBank has an excellent conversion rate, so the marketing challenge is to get the ResourceBank managers “through the door” to have meetings with potential clients.   The retail sector had been identified as a strategic market so MESO were challenged with obtaining 5 meetings with potential new clients for ResourceBank.

Solution

Following research with ResourceBank managers and clients, MESO recommended running a market insight survey that would provide potential customers with unique information that would be of real interest and use to their business.  MESO designed, created and operated the survey, obtaining nearly 2,000 completed responses from candidates within the retail sector.  The candidates provided their views on:

  • What attracts candidates to retail jobs?
  • Which media do candidates use to look for jobs?
  • What salary increase were they expecting?
  • Who are the most attractive companies in each sector?

Individual approaches were then made to the ResourceBank target companies offering them a preview of the results of the research prior to publication.

Result

As a result of individual approaches to the target retailers, meetings were secured with a senior HR representative at 16 potential customers including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Dreams, Hackett, Boohoo and Wilko.

In-depth information was provided to these clients which helped then to understand the perception of their employer brand by UK candidates (and broken down by region and sector).  The reaction to the information was very positive and many of the companies shared the information with senior colleagues and used as background data in their talent attraction plans.  They were impressed by the ResourceBank approach – providing information that was of use rather than a simple sales approach – and several then added ResourceBank to their list of potential new suppliers.

The project was an overwhelming success, smashing the target number of meetings (which was 5) and leading to the development of significant new business.

Key facts

DURATION:
3 months
BASIS:
project
LEAD CONSULTANT:
Mike Ellingham
INSIGHT TOOLS:
Secure branded online survey
COMMUNICATION METHODS:
Email, LinkedIn, Phone and Twitter
PR COVERAGE:
Retail Week magazine
RESULTS:
16 meetings with target clients
RESULTS:
Project repeated following year

Related projects

Retained marketing for RPO
Branding
World Duty Free Careers website
Websites