For an organisation to work effectively with a particular community, it must have carefully developed consultation and communication strategy. This will ensure increased understanding of community needs and aspirations, effective communications and feedback, identification of the key influencers within that community, possible objections or antagonists towards the organisation or the projects it seeks to implement and possible protagonists who will provide support and access.

Too often projects get bogged down in conflicts that could have been avoided - or at least managed - had proper consultation and effective communication being undertaken before and during implementation of the project. The aim should be to ensure effective communication and participation that leads to outcomes that satisfy the majority of stakeholders.

Balfour Consulting has received both national and international recognition for its community consultation skills and activities, working with private and public sector organisations to implement projects within communities. Mary Balfour is also a member of the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2).

Balfour Consulting provides creative strategic solutions at either a whole-of-organisation level or for particular areas within the organisation.

Along with strategic planning and strategic management, Balfour Consulting offers quality research, marketing and communications services, in line with the experience of its consulting team. We can also access a wide range of additional expertise from financial and economic analysis through to human resources and organisational change from an extensive network of associate consultants across Australia.

As new information and communications technologies become a routine part of daily living, organisations have more opportunities than ever to reach their markets in new and creative ways. We have extended our skills into the new media to take advantage of online communications tools including Facebook and Twitter. However, long before the creative process begins, there must be a solid strategic plan on which to build.

With our extensive experience and proven track record, you can be sure that Balfour Consulting will quickly grasp the subtleties of your technology, your business and your markets. It is this knowledge that drives the development of effective and creative strategic solutions for you.

A brand is the sum of the tangible and intangible benefits provided by a product or service and encompasses the entire customer experience. Brands are thus pivotal to the relationship between companies and their customers. A successful brand has both a unique point of differentiation from the competition, and values that the customer segment really wants.

Brands offer customers a strong promise of authenticity and consistency. Without these, customer decision-making becomes at best a lottery and at worst a nightmare of choice. This promise is more than an aid to decision making because it actually creates value in its own right, by enhancing the experience of owning or using the product or service

In developing a brand strategy, Balfour Consulting will undertake an in-depth analysis of your brand, its core attributes and the benefits it delivers to your customers. From this we will clearly define the values that underpin your brand internally and externally, how should be positioned in the marketplace and the key messages to support that position.

Balfour Consulting develops marketing planning processes to define a set of core strategies that will apply your brand strategy across all areas of your business to achieve business and organisational objectives. The strategic approach is supplemented with implementation planning to ensure all marketing activities are undertaken in a timely and effective manner with all outcomes carefully measured against pre-set targets.

All marketing activities must be measured against pre-set criteria to ensure you are achieving the results you want and spending your marketing budget effectively.

At Balfour Consulting we take great pride in the quality of the work we perform, the range of services we provide and the level of satisfaction we deliver to our clients. To achieve this, we work to a set of values – values we think are important and we want you to measure us against.

Talk to us at any time about these values - your thoughts and opinions will guide us as we grow.