Established in 2007, Market Strategy has worked with private companies (from the very large to the very small!), industry associations and government organizations. With nearly 200 successful projects, work has primarily focused on the Australian market, with notable projects conducted in Europe and China.
What We Believe In!
- We believe that effective marketing campaigns are based on good marketing strategy; and that a good marketing strategy will lead to effective implementation plans.
- We believe that marketing strategy should be commercial orientated with clear KPIs to track success of initiatives.
- We believe in understanding the market from the customers point of view. Don’t think you are the expert on your customer, you are unlikely to be! Define the market through the eyes of your customer.
- We believe that marketing implementation is about more than just promotion. Optimize the other levers of the marketing first, otherwise you are wasting your money.
- That it is too hard to develop a marketing strategy and there is no process to do it. There is a process for developing good marketing strategy, proven thousands of times over across the world’s most effective marketing campaigns. Following a process, guided by an experienced marketeer, will give you a successful marketing campaign.
What We Don’t Believe!
- That it is too hard to develop a marketing strategy and there is no process to do it. There is a process for developing good marketing strategy, proven thousands of times over across the world’s most effective marketing campaigns. Following a process, guided by an experienced marketeer, will give you a successful marketing campaign.
- That marketing is all about promotion. Only 10% of a marketer’s time should be taken up with promotion! Good marketers focus on getting the strategy correct. In addition, there are more elements to the marketing mix and all levers need to be considered.
- That marketing ROI is hard to track. A good marketing strategy will have clearly defined commercial objectives and well thought out marketing tactics to get there. Of course, there are other extraneous factors that can always affect results, but they will be known and measurable. Marketing is a science not a guess.
- That you can execute a good marketing campaign with no strategy. A clearly defined strategy makes the implementation work. With no strategy, you are effectively guessing.
- That market research is unnecessary. Too many people don’t understand the marketplace from their customers perspective and are unwilling to invest in research to understand it. Market research does not have to be expensive and for those with no budget it can nearly always be conducted in house anyway. If you don’t take the time to understand your customer, you are unlikely to be successful.
About Paul Graham
Paul Graham was born and educated in Rugby, England (1977). He was awarded the prestigious Peter Walker prize for outstanding academic achievement on leaving Rugby School, attaining 4 A Levels (1995).
Paul graduated from the University of Sheffield Management School with a Business Studies degree (2:1) and was recruited to the United Biscuits graduate recruitment program where he was placed at Youngs Seafood (1999).
He worked in a variety of brand management, brand innovation and commercial management roles for the major UK food business, Young’s Seafood. This concluded with the management of the specialty seafood product group with a turnover of around $150m (2003).
Having finished with Young’s Seafood, he completed a period of work as a category manager at the major UK food retailer, Sainsbury’s. At Sainsbury’s he developed a 5-year category strategy for their £300m seafood category (2004).
Paul has lived and worked in the Australian food industry since 2005, specialising in market development projects and programs. He worked for the National Food Industry Strategy and was responsible for international market development programs to the US and UK. The UK project included a collaborative retail marketing campaign which included a major UK retail and 8 Australian food and wine businesses – the first known campaign of its type (2007).
Recognising the need for professional, trained marketing services, Paul founded Market Strategy Pty Ltd in July 2007. Since founding Market Strategy, Paul has delivered campaign for private companies (large and small), industry associations and government organizations.
180
Successful Projects
to draw learnings from, Paul cites some of his most memorable campaigns as:
- Leading the market research and market entry for Southern Bluefin Tuna into the newly emerging Chinese market. (2012).
- Halting the decline in consumption of fresh potatoes and getting local West Australians to purchase and eat more fresh potatoes, putting the category into growth. (2014)
- Recapturing the former glories of major building brand, Plunkett Homes, turning them into the 2nd largest brand in the sector. (2016)
- Leading the market entry to Australia of one of the world’s largest industrial companies (ENI). An opportunity to launch a world-famous brand in a market where it was not known. (2018)
- Helping Dankz Furniture double the size of their business as they reconfigured their marketing efforts to suits the demands of the modern industry (2019)
- Leading the development of the Australian market for new apple variety Bravo Apples (2020).
Paul lives and works in Perth and is a permanent Australian resident. He is married to his beautiful wife Rebecca, has 3 (mostly) delightful children, a mortgage and love for the Western Australian lifestyle. When not helping his clients make money, he can be found playing hockey or pounding the pavements training for another marathon.