THE HARD PART

(THAT'S ALSO THE FUN PART)

Who are your customers? Did you say, “everyone?” Uh huh. Okay. But who are they really? What are your organization’s real strengths, your Unique Selling Proposition? How is technology and the pace of change impacting your industry? Marketing Strategy is asking all the hard questions, finding the even harder answers and pulling off the very-nearly impossible by bringing it all together into something you can actually do in order to achieve marketing goals.

 

It means:

  • FINDING NEW OPPORTUNITIES

    Should you be selling your products online? Is there a huge opportunity waiting to be seized two towns over? Can you use your website as a revenue tool? We'll find out.

  • PRICING

    Grey Goose vodka was going out of business until they made a single change that turned things around: they jacked up their prices. Buyers thought they were getting a luxury brand and now it's in every bar in the world.

  • TARGET AUDIENCE

    Lululemon's ideal customer is a 32-year-old professional single woman who makes $100,000 a year. Her name is Ocean. She's probably better worked out than most real people. You need a customer persona to help you start visualizing your ideal customers.

  • CHANNEL STRATEGY

    Deciding on a Facebook or Adwords campaign is just the start; you'll want to know that you're getting the most bang for your buck by using the right channels and then being able to measure their impact. If you're a non-profit ask us about how we can help you apply for up to $10,000 a month in advertising for free!

  • AUTOMATION & DIGITAL STRATEGY

    Technology doesn't just mean better marketing, it can also speed up the sales process. We'll take a holistic view of your company's processes and find ways that automation and technology can make things better.

  • ONGOING MARKETING SIDEKICKERY

    We're your sidekick, so we don't disappear after we get your website online. We'll keep optimizing your brand presence, keeping it up to date with new developments and seizing new opportunities.

  • PROCESS

    Is everything from the way you greet a customer to your invoicing system working to drive marketing results? We'll help you make sure it is.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Marketing Strategy is where all the work you’ve done on Branding starts to change the way your business works for the better. It’s also where a bunch of people who do the marketing thing for a living (that’s us- hi!) get to unleash themselves on your business, and we always find ways to do things more awesomer. Always.

MARKETERS WHO DOCUMENT STRATEGY ARE 538%

more likely to report success than those who don’t.

Source

blue-whale

HOW WE CAN HELP

Getting smart about marketing (or ‘smarketing’)

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MARKETING STRATEGY, BRANDING & ONGOING MARKETING CONSULTATION

How often are you thinking about your 6 Ps of marketing? Product, price, promotion, place and branding all have to align with your overall strategy to communicate effectively on any channel, digital or otherwise. Let’s partner so you can reap the rewards of our mad marketing skills!

P.S. not too sure what the other 2 Ps are? Chat us up!

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN DESIGN & EXECUTION

Extra, Extra! Truth is, the majority of people won’t find your tiny coupon in the logo soup of not-so-effective newspaper ads. Instead, let Octopus Creative design and execute modern, highly-targeted advertising campaigns and promotions devised to optimize the use of your marketing dollars.

 
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SOCIAL CONTEST PLANNING & EXECUTION

How do you make a body shop fun to follow on social? Well, we know! A great contest can achieve so many goals at once. It can generate word-of-mouth and top-of-mind awareness for your brand, it can crowdsource original content for your business, it can incent people to purchase more from you. We deal with it all, from technology design to rule writing to advertising & execution.

STRATEGY MAKES US SALIVATE

Portage College

Celebrating its fiftieth year in 2018, Portage College is one of the largest colleges in Northeastern Alberta, with multiple campuses and thousands of students across undergraduate and post-grad degrees. It's also an important part of the community, holding events and adult education courses, and has a large and well-stocked museum of aboriginal artifacts.

Lakeland Co-op

Lakeland Co-op is part of the nationwide Co-op chain and a 4,300 member business in its own right, with a gas bar, hardware store, clothing store, home centre and fuel cardlock amongst its varied product offerings. Although they have a great range of products, public perception is that they are more expensive than other brands, and too few people know about the key differences between a regular company and a co-op.

Alberta's Iron Horse Trail

The Iron Horse Trail is 300km of trail following the paths set down centuries ago by fur trappers and the first railways. It's one of the province's crown jewels, and when the Riverland Recreational Trail Society wanted to promote the trail and expand its audience, they came to us.

St. Paul & Eastalta Co-op / Federated Co-operatives Ltd.

Octopus Creative pulled off an integrated marketing campaign, spanning a trading area of more than 280km in just over a month. St. Paul and District Co-op and Eastalta Co-op officially formed Cornerstone Co-op in January of 2017, and as of January 2018 this campaign now provides the framework for a system-wide amalgamation campaign to be used by Federated Co-operatives Ltd. throughout the Co-op Retailing System.

Northpark Collision

Northpark is a family-run collision repair shop that has been fixing vehicles in St. Paul since 1985. They're an important part of their community, making charitable donations and doing everything they can to contribute to good causes. They're also a pro-grade repair shop with high-tech spraying facilities and hundreds of combined years of experience.

Kaft CPA

If you've got a small business in North Eastern Alberta, then KAFT CPA are your guys to call. A full-service, friendly business accountancy with a focus on helping small businesses by giving them solid advice. They specialize in tax preparation, bookkeeping and assurance- as well as being just plain lovely people.

St. Paul Junior B Canadiens

Ahh, good 'ol hockey! This is a sport that we love (if our teams make the playoffs that is!) and we were thrilled when the St. Paul Canadiens approached us to support their hockey team. We developed them a cutting-edge website with stick-dropping photography, entirely pro-bono!

JD Collision

Our crew helped JD Collision rev up for their 40th year in style with a 40th-anniversary campaign, long-term marketing strategy, optimized branding, a new website and more! Since then, we've helped them dominate the web with social media, online advertising and SEO to make them the #1 shop in the Lakeland region.

Tru Real Estate Team

Rollie Cartier and Kerri Dechaine are one of the top real estate teams not only in St. Paul, not only in Alberta, but in all of Canada. They have a long-established business and a huge, always-evolving inventory of great properties, but more importantly they have a reputation for being friendly, nice folks who deal with their clients fairly.

Weaver Supplies

What does it take to shake up the industrial supplies business, which has been dominated by a few key companies for decades? Smart sourcing, cutting out the middle-man, and a professional web presence. Weaver Supplies is a start-up company that sells small, disposable products like safety glasses and grinding discs that companies in the construction or utilities businesses need to order often, and which can have a serious effect on their bottom-line.
See Full Portfolio

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