Positioning strategy of Birmingham for higher added value front and middle office projects

Assignment

What is the best strategy for Marketing Birmingham to attract high end business, professional and financial services projects to the city?

Project summary

In recent years Birmingham has been successful in attracting a number of foreign companies performing higher value added front and middle office activities within business, professional and financial services to locations within the city center Enterprise Zone. Key examples include Deutsche Bank, Hogan Lovells and HSBC. These types of operations are different from more cost driven and lower end back office functions such as shared services and call centers. The aim of this project is to develop a plan to build on these successes and attract additional investments to the Enterprise Zone.

Our approach

Phase 1 - Understanding of the key location criteria for investors and match these against Birmingham’s assets and potential competitive advantages in the market

Phase 2 - Benchmarking Birmingham with a selection of competitor locations, based on key location criteria defined in phase 1

Phase 3 - Based on the findings from phases 1 and 2, BCI identified Birmingham’s key opportunities and made recommendations related to key target markets for front and middle office investment projects and appropriate market positioning

Phase 4 - The narrative and insights of phase 3 were tested with a representative sample of ten relevant corporate investors

Phase 5 - BCI developed a detailed Value Proposition for Birmingham as a world class location for investment in front and middle office activities within business, professional and financial services

Phase 6 - A database of potential investors was compiled to be approached directly by Marketing Birmingham with the Value Proposition made

Result

The main results for Marketing Birmingham were in-depth insights in the competitive position of the city to attract high end services projects and a powerful tool (the value proposition) to actively approach target companies.