Santo Domingo has many companies with a good product, a sales team that works and an agency that executes. What is usually missing is someone who decides where all of that is heading and measures it. That is the function we cover.
The problem: plenty of execution, little marketing strategy
Santo Domingo is home to many of the country's corporate headquarters: family groups with several business lines, mass consumer goods companies, distributors, banks, insurers, retail and professional services. Almost all of them share a pattern. Marketing (mercadeo, as it is called locally) is managed from the execution side: there is budget for campaigns, for point-of-sale activations and for the agency, but no document that says which segment to compete in, with what promise, and how results will be measured.
The symptoms are easy to recognize:
- The marketing plan is a list of dated actions, with no thesis to order them.
- Every launch starts from scratch and nobody knows what worked last time.
- The sales team and the marketing team work toward different goals.
- The agency asks for a brief and gets a conversation.
- Leadership decides on instinct because there is no shared dashboard.
None of this is fixed with more execution. It is fixed with a strategy layer on top of what is already being done.
Why it doesn't get solved inside the company
A full-time marketing strategy director is an expensive role, hard to fill and hard to justify until it proves its value. That is why many companies leave it to general management, which already has enough on its plate running the business. The alternative is to outsource the function: to have it without having it on the payroll.
What we do in Santo Domingo
Alocallao is a boutique strategic marketing consultancy focused on commercial planning. The practice is led by partners Marcos Castaño and Mario Pérez Lianes, both strategy consultants. We work directly, with no intermediaries: whoever runs the diagnostic directs the project to the end.
Our work with a Santo Domingo company has three moments:
- Understand the market and the problem. Market assessment, an operational definition of the problem, segmentation, a map of decision-makers and channels, positioning and baseline.
- Turn the strategy into a method. A commercial playbook with action sheets, each with owner, cost, KPI and date.
- Direct the execution. We run periodic reviews, report to the steering committee and replan when the data calls for it.
What doesn't change is the division of roles. The client decides. We direct. Third parties execute. Your agency, your sales team or your suppliers keep doing what they do; we give them direction and a strategic brief.
The detail of each service is in the portfolio. If your challenge is a new product, see the product launch plan; if it is growing sales with the team you have, see commercial strategy for companies.
Three phases, three contracts, no skipped steps
Every project follows the same method. There is no long contract upfront: each phase is contracted separately and the next one does not start until the previous one is closed. That way leadership decides with information at every step, instead of signing a year of work on a promise.
Phase 1: Diagnostic and Strategy
Understand the market and the problem before proposing anything. The baseline is set.
Includes
- Market assessment
- Operational definition of the problem
- Segmentation and ICP
- Map of decision-makers and channels
- Positioning and strategic thesis
- KPI framework and baseline
Deliverable: Strategy document and presentation to leadership.
Phase 2: Playbook
The strategy becomes actions with an owner, cost, KPI and date.
Includes
- Method layer and local layer
- Action sheets
- Dashboard
- Governance
- Execution budget per period
Deliverable: Playbook and kickoff.
Phase 3: Strategic direction
We direct third-party execution and review results against the baseline.
Includes
- Direction of third-party execution
- Periodic review
- Committee with leadership
- Replanning
Deliverable: Periodic report and committee.
How we work with companies in Santo Domingo
The work is done remotely: interviews, analysis of sales data, strategy document, playbook, workshops with leadership, kick-off sessions with the sales team and review committees. All on a cadence agreed in the proposal, not improvised.
Santiago, Punta Cana and the rest of the country
Not every project is in the capital. A company from the Cibao (the northern agricultural and industrial region) headquartered in Santiago de los Caballeros, a tourism group in Punta Cana or an operation in a zona franca (free trade zone) follows the same method and the same work calendar.
The companies we work with
We work with companies in any sector that have a marketing or commercial problem and don't have the in-house function to solve it. In Santo Domingo, that usually means:
- Mass consumer goods and distribution companies that depend on the traditional channel and on wholesalers.
- Family groups that want to professionalize commercial planning without building a department.
- Services, banking or insurance companies launching a product that need an orderly go-to-market.
- Marketing agencies that need a consulting layer to answer their clients. For them we work as a white label strategy partner.
We don't work with anyone who wants the playbook without the diagnostic, expects a campaign or won't measure. We say so in the first meeting.
- Branding and identity
- Digital marketing, social media and media buying
- Websites, landing pages and development
- Production of assets, content, audiovisual work and events
- Hiring or outsourcing of personnel
- Campaign execution
We design it, brief it and review it. Whoever produces it today keeps producing it.
What happens after you get in touch
- You book a diagnostic call through Cal.com from contact.
- In the first meeting you walk us through the situation: market, product, channel, team, what has already been tried and what worries you.
- If it is a fit, we send you a Phase 1 proposal, Diagnostic and Strategy, with scope, deliverables and a session calendar.
- If it is not a fit, we tell you and, where we can, point you to someone who can solve it.
You can see the rest of our pages on the Dominican market under Dominican Republic.
Frequently asked questions
Remotely, on a cadence of sessions and committees agreed in the proposal. Workshops with leadership, sessions with the sales team and committees follow the same method as the rest of the project.
The agency executes: it produces assets, manages channels and launches campaigns. We decide what needs to be done, turn it into a playbook and direct whoever executes it. We don't compete with your agency; we give it a better brief.
No. We work with companies of any size and sector that have a specific marketing or commercial problem and are willing to measure it. The size of the project is set in Phase 1.
It depends on scope, on the number of segments and channels, and on access to data. The timeline is in the Phase 1 proposal, before anything is signed.
Access to leadership, to whatever sales data exists and to the people who sell and execute. If there is no data, the first deliverable is defining how to measure and setting the baseline.
Let's talk about your company in Santo Domingo
Book a first conversation through Cal.com. You tell us the problem and, if it is a fit, you receive a Phase 1 proposal.
Book a diagnostic