Customer categories

REWM's main customers are:

• Ethnic and faith communities and organisations.

• Race Equality Councils and Partnerships including the British Federation of Racial Equality Councils.

• public authorities, strategic partnerships and private and voluntary sector organisations.

• Government Office and central government departments.

• Commission for Racial Equality.

• individual complainants of discrimination (who are referred to the West Midlands Discrimination Advisory Service).

All except the first and last are corporate clients with specialist needs.

Service range

REWM provides service to customers under the following headings.

                        strategic development and planning

                        research and development

                        training and development

                        communication and information

                        performance monitoring for service improvements

                        marketing

                        fund-raising

                        partnership formation

                        consultancy in race equality

                        collaborative partnership

                        consultation

                        crisis management

                        management of diversity

Specialist products

The main services ('products'), are information, research and development, and consultancy and training in race equality.  These services will be provided across the West Midland region (although FOREC work and specialist research may extend its geographical range).  Pricing of its services, not only to win custom and acquire a competitive edge, but in accordance with its charitable purpose, will be calculated at cost (that is the true cost to the organisation of delivery without the need to generate surplus), but see pricing policy.  Promotion will be targeted at existing or potential clients, with the aim of developing stronger relationships with important customers.

Charging

Services which are supported by grant aid will normally be provided free to those users for which they are intended.  Information on those services will be communicated to all targeted users in order to secure maximum take-up.

Other services will be charged for in accordance with the REWM policy on charging.  Services of this kind will be marketed to potential customers. REWM will tender for contracts in race equality research, consultancy and training, in accordance with its assessment of its capacity to deliver within the timescale, and expertise and availability of its staff or associate consultants.

REWM will produce marketing materials advertising its services.  It will attempt to customise its materials to the needs of a particular market segment.

4 Cs analysis

Company

The REWM company has been set up by West Midlands RECs to provide race equality services to the client groups listed above. REWM is registered both as a limited company by guarantee and as a charity. It is a second- tier organisation and its main activity is to provide support to other race equality organisations. It is located in a business park, opposite one of the most prestigious universities in West Midlands (Aston University) in a very central location.

Customers

The list of customers at 13.1 will be reviewed at regular intervals with a view to ensuring it is sufficiently comprehensive and is adequately segmented.  A distinction will be made between existing customers and prospective customers, with attention paid to winning either a broader customer base or a greater scale of activity with existing customers.  Existing and proposed projects and activity will be examined to pinpoint what customers want and, in providing this more precisely, to win greater customer loyalty. Customers’ analysis shows that the level of loyalty is extremely high, not only to the existing customers but among the new customers of REWM. Thus the organisation provides expertise and sophisticated knowledge in certain areas (e.g conflict resolution, community integration) which according to REWM’s customers is impossible to acquire from other sources, not only locally or regionally, but at national level. It is extremely important for the race equality and diversity sector that REWM continue to produce publications and offer advice.

Competitors

Competitors' activities will also be analysed to discover both how they satisfy similar needs, and the differences between their business activities and REWM's different customer groups.  It is essential to devise ways of working in equal partnership with RECs/REPs, to avoid any perception of competition and rivalry with organisations that are also part of REWM's purpose and governance.

In regard to other competitors, it is important to establish a specialist market niche and a competitive edge.  More market research will need to be undertaken in this respect in the next twelve months, with the possibility that the services of a marketing specialist may need to be utilised.  A competitor map will be drawn to pinpoint the differences between REWM and its competitors in order to exploit them.

Channels

As previously indicated, services will be marketed to potential customers through e-mails, mail shots, personal contact and other means. One potent means of marketing, however, will be to make as widely available as possible the quality research reports that REWM produces. Additional channels of distribution are REWM’s website which is becoming a vital tool of delivering the organisation’s services, and REWM’s seminars, conferences and workshops.

The REWM brand

REWM intends to develop a distinct brand of race equality services defined by their focus, mix and quality.  A brand is a reputation in the market which has an identity that is translated into an image (client perception) that confers competitive value by attracting additional custom.  The brand is not just a trademark, but the view of the service formed and held in customers' minds.

REWM's brand is based on the high quality of its research, development, consultancy, and training in race equality.  Its values are those of its company aims of eliminating discrimination and promoting equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups.  REWM is attempting to meet the corporate social, political and legal requirements of organisations in the public, private and voluntary sector.

The brand benefit must be based on managers in an organisation believing that their organisation will receive a better race equality service from REWM than from competitors.  Managers will recognise that they are buying a REWM package, characterised by:

                        intelligence/smartness

                        systematic approach

                        logical presentation

                        thoroughness of treatment

                        integrity/honesty

                        empirical evidence

                        political sophistication/sensitivity

                        comprehensiveness

                        street-wise approach

                        groundedness in local realities

                        practicability

            effectiveness (in relation to recommendation)

                        collegiality (in relation to RECs/REPs)

                        value for money

Publicity material emphasising these features may be produced for major customer categories.

Pricing policy

The services that REWM provides are either fully supported by grant-aid, or sold at full-cost price, or part grant-aided and part paid for by charging.

For those services that are sold at full-cost price, prices will be calculated at the full cost to REWM of providing the service at the current ratio of 60 per cent for staff time and 40 per cent office overheads, but no additional premium for profit will be included.  REWM is a not-for-profit organisation whose income is dedicated to promoting its constitutional aims and objectives.

Where services are provided jointly with others, payments received for services will be split between the parties in proportion to their agreed input, estimated in terms of time or successful completion measure.

Prices are intended to be competitive and, while daily or weekly rates will be advertised, REWM will exercise flexibility in pricing in the context of market conditions.

Consultants utilised by REWM will be paid at an agreed rate, calculated on the basis of the full-cost to the customer were REWM to provide the service directly, minus 20 per cent for REWM administrative costs.

In the event of the failure of an organisation to pay or to pay on time and in entirety for services received from REWM, REWM reserves the right to take legal action to recover money owing to it.