Women's Initiative Organization
Igloo partnered with the Women’s Initiative, a non-profit that trains low-income women on starting their own businesses, by teaching seminars and advising their graduates on their business ventures. (For information on the Women’s Initiative, see (www.womensinitiative.org)
Business Case Competition:
- Ran
a business case competition which awarded $2,500 of seed money and
30 hours of consulting service to 3 new business ventures
- Winners of the competition were a clothing store, wedding cake business, and a cosmetic tattoo business
- Half of the awarded money was donated by Gap Inc. and the rest was from a myriad of small businesses, friends, and family
Seminars:
-
Taught seminars in San Francisco and Oakland to Women’s Initiative graduates on the following topics:
- Competitive Strategy and Analysis
- Financial Modeling and Sales Forecasting
- Business Plan Writing
Bi-Weekly Business Advisors:
- Served as business advisors to graduates and advised over 30 graduates on their retail, food, service, and online businesses
Conference Business Advisors:
- Worked as business advisors at 3 Women’s Initiative conferences
Small Chain of Chinese Restaurants
Situation:
- Igloo Consulting assisted a small family-owned chain of Chinese restaurants, in the West Los Angeles area, in evaluating and improving their competitive positioning and profitability
Project Details:
- Evaluated competitors’ service, cleanliness, quality of food, price, promotion, and location to determine how the restaurant could differentiate from its competitors
- Recommended changes to store layout and suggested low-cost physical improvements to improve customer perception of the restaurants
- Suggested expanding advertising campaign to target local corporations and densely populated neighborhoods
- Implemented a survey to obtain a better understanding of the core customer’s preferences and perception of competitors
Copy and Print Store
Situation:
- The owner of a chain of four copy stores hired Igloo to do a thorough competitive analysis and recommend product bundling strategies to maximize profitability
Project Details:
- Conducted a thorough analysis of the current competitive landscape of the graphic design and printing industry that included pricing trends, key value propositions and product offerings
- Identified the company’s website as a clear low risk/high return opportunity for improving competitive positioning and customer acquisition
- Pinpointed the key offerings necessary to be included in a one-stop-shop print and graphic design solution
- Identified current customers as the best source of near-term revenue growth and recommended steps necessary in maximizing sales with this segment
Specialty
Chocolate Manufacturer
Situation:
- A high-end boutique chocolate company in San Francisco which makes organic chocolates in a variety of original flavors such as cabernet, pink peppercorn and lavender, contacted Igloo to help identify ways to expand its business and forecast its sales
Project Details:
- Conducted research on the high-end chocolate industry to identify opportunities for growing the business
- Identified the need to implement more accurate accounting to better understand costs and margins
- Advised on the writing of an updated business plan that incorporated more accurate sales forecasting
Linen Cleaning Company
- One of the largest linen cleaning businesses in Petaluma, California, which performs linen cleaning and rentals for a large number of restaurants and hotels hired Igloo to identify the opportunity in expanding into uniform sales
- The owner felt that there was opportunity to expand into this business given that it had a large existing clientele that was purchasing uniforms from other outlets
Project Details:
- Researched competitors’ pricing strategy to understand where there was opportunity to differentiate itself
- Recommended having a separate brand for its uniform sales business so it was clear to its clientele that it was in the uniform business
- Identified marketing best practices from competitors and recommended a strategy that included personalized letters, branded catalogs, and personalized phone communication with customers
- Modeled a tiered pricing structure through analysis of its competitors’ pricing strategies
South
African Pie Company
Situation:
- A rapidly growing company that sells African pies through its website and by telephone wanted to rent an additional kitchen to increase its production
- Igloo was contacted to evaluate the risk of expansion and to help forecast the incremental revenue opportunity from the investment
Project Details:
- Recommended implementation of a system to track sales by type of pies in order to build historical sales information to guide sales forecasts
- Recommended building brand equity and customer loyalty through its thriving pie business and then slowly introduce other dishes as it plans its restaurant opening in 2010 during the time of the World Cup in South Africa
Non-Profit Human Service Agency
Situation:
- A Santa Barbara non-profit agency that helps the less fortunate contracted Igloo to do an in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of its current logo and branding strategies, and to evaluate alternative logos and branding strategies. The goals of this agency are to prevent family breakdown, intervene effectively where problems are known to exist, and help individuals and families build on existing strengths.
Project Details:
- Developed and improved marketing efforts to increase the number of new students/prospects coming through the doors of the academy
- Implemented a study to evaluate the effectiveness and reaction of current logo and branding among over 300 of its current members
- Designed
multiple alternative logo solutions and tested them among the same
group of members
- Tested
branding options against their alignment with the core values and
mission of the agency.
- Concluded that current branding was costing the agency a great deal in misunderstanding of the agency’s mission
- Presented findings and recommendations are currently being implemented by the board