How can marketing support company culture in mergers and acquisitions?

We often think of marketing services as being the bridge between the business and the consumer, however a business’s internal customers – its employees – are just as important. In the industry this is known as ‘employer branding’, and one case where this has particularly rung true is from our work with Thrive Group.

 The brief

 This was a unique brief in that we were starting the journey with them. At the time our client, a fast-growing regional recruitment specialist had adopted a business strategy of growth through mergers and acquisitions of top talented recruitment businesses across the UK. Curzon Marketing were approached for support in realising their ambition to create a distinctive national identity and presence for the new business and lay the foundations for the business growth and acquisitions.

 The challenge

 Due to the company’s M&A strategy, we had to widen our scope in terms of the stakeholders we were communicating with and focus attention on our internal stakeholders: Thrive’s new employees. As a service-based business, these stakeholders are a hugely important part of company performance as they are the face of the company to clients, candidates, and any new business acquisitions.

 The challenge in communicating with our employees was that they were part of the acquisition so were going through a process of transition from being an employee of their existing company, some of which had existed for over 20 years, to now becoming a Thrive employee. As with any M&A, this can come with feelings of hesitation and confusion if not handled well.

 Our approach

 Brand first and bottom up! We started with the development of brand vision and values, summarised in a brand articulation that would unify current and future businesses operating under the group umbrella. It needed to capture the best of what the businesses currently were but also provide a framework to shape new businesses that were acquired.

 The process and thinking behind our branding strategy can be summarised as 5 ‘C’s:

 1.    Credibility

Whether external or internal stakeholder, when building a brand, you need to find the core truths that will make people believe in what you stand for, or that you stand for anything at all!

Brand articulation was the first and most important step in our process, after research and discussion with the businesses owners we placed the group’s established credentials in essential services and blue-collar sectors at its heart. Brought to life with the brand idea ‘There’s work to be done’, every touchpoint was considered and refreshed to reflect the new positioning.

 2.    Character

It’s not all just pretty pictures and big words – an effective brand style creates an identity that your stakeholders can identify with. In this case we had to come up with both a name and a logo for this new business.

Working with leading design agency COOKCHICK, we created a visual identity that represented all the work we had done in brand articulation and landed on ‘Thrive’: a powerful expression of both the businesses’ goals to grow and develop nationally, and our attitude towards our customers who we wanted to help thrive in their own careers.

Being proudly people centric, the logo with a slightly raised ‘i’ is simple but powerful in allowing the individual to ‘rise up’ and would become an important part of representing who Thrive was.

 3.    Clarity

 M&A is a long, complex, and easily confusing process, marketing can help with communication to improve clarity of information for your stakeholders. For Thrive this involved a huge array of visual assets from presentations to leaflets, business cards and even a brand video to explain the new brand and what it stood for.

 Enormous effort went into a company-wide programme of brand communication to ready the team for the changes to come, and to enable them to take ownership of the new brand. The new Thrive offices were branded up with signage, mugs, notebooks, and pens to make the Thrive identity part of their every day.

 4.    Consistency

Ensuring that there is some level of consistency is integral to any period of change. When introducing a new brand and new way of working, it is important that new business owners are consistent in what they are telling their stakeholders.

Marketing can help to visually represent a consistent look and feel to the brand throughout all touchpoints with the consumer and provide copywriting that speaks in a consistent brand voice. This can help new employees to feel comfortable in the transition to this new identity and helps clients and candidates recognise the brand identity at every step.

 5.    Culture

Every company has a culture, this can be defined as the attitudes and behaviours of a company and its employees rooted in a shared company ethos. This is the end goal to which all the hard work above should contribute to, the idea is that if everyone is on board with the brand identity and values then this is the engine that powers the work that they do day to day.

 There are of course ways that you can nurture company culture, and one of the ways we have done so with Thrive is through companywide event planning (nicknamed ‘Thrive Live’) both online and in person, which aim to keep people up to date with business news and provide an opportunity to group together as a community rather than being considered as individual offices.

 We have also highlighted the importance of each office’s input in our marketing strategy by establishing ‘Marketing Champions’ who ask as spokespeople in each office. We meet with them monthly to discuss what’s going on in the business and generate ideas for the topics and content they think is most important in the world of recruitment.

 In summary, when any business goes through change either as dramatically as Thrive, or a more subtle adjustment in operations, marketing can help to keep your internal stakeholders on board and engaged with the business.

 Are you about to embark on a change in your business? Could you do with some support on how to communicate this to your stakeholders? Get in touch, we would love to discuss it with you and offer ways in which we could help.

Building a Local Brand

For a long time, there has been a movement towards ‘shopping local’ where we can, and the Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated this! More than ever we are supporting local, independent businesses and opting to buy from them when we can rather than large corporate chains.

So, in an ever-growing market, how can you build a successful local brand that retains an audience and meets their demands? 

 Think Brand First!
It’s important to think about what makes your brand distinctive and unique as this will be key when marketing it in a clear, creative, and memorable way. All communication from the brand to the consumer should be underpinned by a solid brand voice…

 “A distinctive brand and effective marketing are the lifeblood of any business and we’re determined to help businesses put their brand first and raise the bar on marketing” – Steve Curzon, Director of Curzon Marketing

 Simple being local is not enough of a reason for a local customer to buy from you; it is essential that your brand is distinctive and attractive to them in what it does for them and how it speaks to them.

 Find your niche, and do it well

Your market will be competitive, and it can be hard to claim your place if there are multiple brands that already have loyal customers in the area. So it is important to find your niche and offer something that you know the customer wants and do it better than anyone else locally. However, finding your ‘niche’ does not mean limiting what you do; it can simply be finding the product type, service offer (like delivery, opening hours or customisation) or category theme that will be the focus of your brand idea and help your stand out from your local competitors, and give the customer what they want better than anyone else.

 Speak and act local
Knowing your local audience and the best way to reach them is important to ensure you are investing in activities that pull new people into your customer network. So too is speaking to them in a tone of voice that is personable and approachable. Find ways to show the personalities behind your brand, the people and the stories that make you what you are – the surest way to set your brand apart from national or corporate brands.

Today there are many more local media opportunities available too to help you reach your audience. Making use of social media advertising (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.), email marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) search advertising are good options with flexibility that many businesses take advantage of today. These tools provide you with the ability to communicate with your audience in a digital landscape, and help you to drive sales and learn even more about your customers and their preferences.

 If your audience are not regularly online, there are more traditional methods to consider too such as newspaper advertising, local radio, mail drops or encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations.

 Generate traffic to your website

In a world where Google is our resource for searching just about anything, you need to make sure your website is built to rank on search engines. Using search engine optimisation (SEO) allows you to generate targeted, sustainable, organic traffic to your website.

Using the most popular phrases and terms to describe your products will help with your website search engine optimisation but to optimise when targeting a local market, make sure you include local references too. This targeting can be done by using localized keywords, local citations, and link building.  SEO can be a long process and will involve testing and further optimization over a period of time. This means it’s even more important to stay focused on the needs of your local market, and keep in tune with what they are searching for.

Build strategic partnerships

Alongside more traditional marketing methods, it may be useful to focus on partnerships with other local brands. Whilst it may not necessarily work to pair up with a direct competitor, it is key to select a brand with whom you share some common ground. For example, if you are a food-based brand such as chicken, it might be worth pairing up with a seasoning, wine, or vegetable company as this will give you a range of talking points when it comes to creating promotional materials and copy.

Good brand partnerships can be hugely rewarding. Through collaborative activity, you can showcase your brand to the partner's audience via their website, email or social media channels. Brand partnerships can also help grow your brand’s credibility and enhance its relevance for more usage occasions. Remember, a partnership is reciprocal so they will benefit from your support too.

As a marketing agency based in Suffolk, we have worked with many leading brands including Gressingham Duck, Mackie’s Ice Cream, Fairfields Farm Crisps, Sutton Hoo Chicken, Ransomes Jacobsen, Metcalfe’s Popcorn, Paddy & Scotts Coffee, Kettle Crisps, and Stokes Sauces.

If you would like to discuss ideas for your brand, we’d love to hear from you, with no obligation on your part and no expectation on ours. Click here to contact us. 

Mackie’s ‘A Summer of Simple Pleasures’

On their family farm in Aberdeenshire, the fifth generation of the Mackie’s family produces real dairy ice cream and chocolate using renewable energy. Their ice cream is Scotland’s favourite, and their much-loved Traditional flavour is available in all major retailers across the UK.

 In the summer of 2020, with foundational brand strategy work already complete, Mackie’s of Scotland asked us to devise a campaign that would showcase the work we had already done on positioning and bring it to life in their peak period: summer. The core brand articulation devised for Mackie’s is ‘Making Simple Delicious’ and this was the catalyst for all that we did when creating ‘A Summer of Simple Pleasures’ and helped us stay true to Mackie’s brand’s identity.

 You can read more about our Mackie’s Brand Refresh here, and all the steps we took to ensure a seamless, yet meaningful transition into their new identity, whilst remaining true to Mackie’s past brand identity. 

The campaign ‘A Summer of Simple Pleasures’ focused on the simplicity of their real dairy ice cream and brought it into the context of the simple pleasures we all enjoy in our own lives.

The campaign brief

To attract new shoppers across the UK to Mackie’s and communicate a distinctive brand proposition that resonates with the discerning shopper and differentiates Mackie’s from its competitors. Particularly south of the Scottish border where their market penetration was not as strong as on their home turf.

 Our aims

1.    Increase brand awareness

Ensuring we reach our audience in the numbers we need so that it makes a difference

2.    Create engagement

Connecting with our audience and engage them with a distinctive and memorable campaign

3.    Build foundations

Developing an idea that brings to life our new brand idea, is suitable for amplification in all mediums and builds content for the brand.

 Mackie’s ‘Summer of Simple Pleasures’

The campaign idea we landed on: ‘Mackie’s Summer of Simple Pleasures’ was centred around the idea of the simple things in life being the best! Just like Mackie’s no fuss ice cream, made simply delicious just with fresh milk and cream, there are lots of other simple pleasures in our lives that give us a little lift.

This sentiment was felt more strongly than ever in the summer of 2020 as we all navigated a period of uncertainty during the pandemic. Being locked down at home, the simple pleasures in our lives became the things we held onto for sanity. Things like reading a good book, baking, or getting out for those all-important, government-permitted moments of fresh air on your bike.

Mackie’s first media campaign

As we were seeking both an increase brand awareness as well as engagement, we split the campaign into two halves. We were excited to help Mackie’s navigate their first paid media campaign across programmatic and Facebook which focused mostly on brand awareness activity and gorgeous shots of their ice cream in action.

The second part of the campaign was a more promotional element and centred around competitions, hosted on microsite, which gave entrants the chance to win a new ‘simple pleasure’ every week for 10 weeks. Prizes included flowers, a standing mixer, a pizza oven, a hammock, and of course plenty of ice cream themed prizes. The media campaign was split across 8 weeks with 7 weeks of brand awareness and 1 week centred around promotional participation.

 We further supported the campaign with Influencer marketing, we put together a hamper of ‘simple pleasure’ themed goodies and sent them two each:  one to enjoy and one to give away to their followers.

Final thoughts

The campaign delivered 77% more reach than intended, and over 70,000 people entered in the promotional activity. Additionally, website traffic exceeded targets with 139.5% more web visits than initially intended, whilst social media accounts gained 3,700 new followers.  

Mackie’s first foray into paid digital advertising was a success and we got immediately stuck into thinking about how we could make 2021 even bigger and better.

If you are looking to make an impact with your next campaign, we would love to help. Here at Curzon Marketing, we offer a solution and provide expert marketing so your business can keep on growing.

Get in touch to discuss an effective campaign for your business.

Marketing through a recession

After the tense lockdown period in 2020, many businesses are still experiencing aftershocks which coupled with soaring inflation and the threat of a recession can be incredibly overwhelming. So what can brand owners do to protect their business?

It’s been widely discussed that a global recession is on the way. How drastically it’s going to hit us, or its duration is not yet certain, but many people and businesses are already feeling the pressure as costs rise all around us; from food to fuel, to energy, transport and going out. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sadly many companies have already closed their doors, but for many businesses, alternative arrangements such as budget cuts, redundancies and reduction of operations have been put in place to stay afloat.  In the first instance, this is what many businesses do to cut costs when they hear a recession is looming, however, it is important to know exactly where to cut costs, so you keep the damage to your business at a minimum.

 Don’t stop marketing – fight harder than ever to share your brand.

A popular instinct for many businesses when evaluating their spending and budgets is to rethink their marketing budget. However, disrupting or cancelling marketing efforts during a recession can actually cause more harm to your business in the long run. If you reduce your marketing efforts in the midst of a financial crisis, you are at risk of losing both your online and offline presence. The loss of this presence leaves a window open for other competitors to swoop in and claim your place in the market.

“If your competitor is cutting costs on marketing, it may provide your business with the opportunity to acquire a stronger market position after the recession.”

It may sound surprising but continuing with a strong marketing strategy throughout a recession can actually improve the growth and retention of your long-term market share. If you remain consistent with your marketing, you will also remain in the forefront of consumers' minds as a reliable brand.

Not only will you retain your presence in the industry, but you are also indicating that your brand has strength and stability, which is appealing to many consumers, especially in times of uncertainty. Even if your business has faced some disruptions and is not as strong as it used to be, your audience will still be engaged by your consistency and the level of stability you can provide, whatever it may be.  

 Get closer to the customer

You want consumers and clients to know that despite ongoing challenges and setbacks, you are still thriving, open for business and there for them when they want you. Visibility counts!

To get closer to new and existing audiences, it is vital that you have a feel for what consumers are after and how they are behaving. Whatever your business - get out and meet your customers or clients. Look at the places and channels where your brand is sold, assess the competition, look at reviews and comments from users, and learn what the market wants.

Direct-to-consumer businesses can make good use of online surveys to get rapid feedback on opportunities and new ideas. Meanwhile, any B2B business can make great use of customer visits to hear it from the horse's mouth. Hear what the clients need, the challenges they are facing and position how your business can help them. Raising your profile with clients and customers is a positive step to retaining their business.

 Get smart!

During a recession, you don’t want to be wasting your marketing budget on campaigns, ads or activities that aren’t essential to achieving your core goals and objectives. Over time it is not unusual for a company’s marketing spend to begin to spread across a wide range of activities, often requested by other people or teams in the business.

Before a recession hits it’s the perfect time to review all spending and assess its contribution to sales growth, profit protection and customer retention. Cut out the peripheral activity where you can and focus spend on the core. With existing campaigns, for example, use your time and budget to make any adjustments that retarget your business to bring in new audiences.

And whilst there might be the temptation to chase new markets be careful not to neglect your loyal customer base as they are a real asset in times of uncertainty. Often it is simpler and more effective to direct your marketing strategy toward your existing audience rather than push to win over a new one.

Remember; recession doesn’t mean stop spending; it means spend smart!

Strengthen Service

During a recession it’s not only businesses that are making cuts to their budgets; so are consumers. Consumers are looking to reduce their spending and ensure that they are going after the essentials. In order to still be considered ‘an essential’ in the eyes of consumers, you need to strengthen the services you offer so you aren’t outmanoeuvred by competitor brands. 

Rather than focusing on the potential negative impacts the recession could have on your business, you should consider this as an opportunity to provide consumers with what they need most and cement the loyalty of your existing clients towards your brand.

 Bring in experience

There is no doubt that marketing during a recession is a challenge, mostly because you are forced to go against your instincts and normal operating standards.  Going against your instinct for your brand can be daunting and enough to make you reduce efforts altogether.

Here at Curzon Marketing, we have a combined experience of 100 years and are dedicated to helping the growth and success of your brand. It is useful to consider bringing in experience if you feel the prospect of marketing during a recession is out of your depth.

Marketing strategy, creative campaigns, and marketing operations can be created by an outsourced marketing team and are effectively created to help keep your brand moving forward during tough times.

Outsourcing your marketing introduces a marketing team who will use their range of skills and experience to help your brand stay up to date and allows you to focus on other areas of your business knowing that the marketing is covered by the agency.

Whilst outsourcing is an additional business expense, it should be seen as an investment in expertise, knowledge, and breadth of capability because you gain access to a team of experts. Additionally, outsourcing offers a stress-free and cost-effective solution to your company’s marketing which is a real plus during a recession.

Curzon Marketing offers a solution, whether it is on a temporary or permanent basis, to provide expert marketing so your business can keep on growing.

Get in touch to find an effective marketing solution for your business and brand growth.

How to mark a company milestone

Celebrating your company's anniversary is a great way of communicating your experience and reliability as a brand without literally saying it.  Anniversaries aren’t just a public statement but are actually important milestones to be celebrated internally, particularly for employees. This internal celebration shows appreciation for staff and their hard work that has contributed to the company’s milestone.  

That’s why we took the time with our client Garden Trellis Co. to discuss how they would celebrate their 30th anniversary this year, both publicly and internally.

Established in 1992, the Garden Trellis Co have been designing, crafting, building & installing high-quality bespoke garden joinery schemes for 30 years. At the outset, founder Julian Furness’ idea for the company was to manufacture quality trellis panels to enhance the gardens and outdoor spaces for people who appreciate the attention to detail and excellent customer service.  

The business has since grown to offer a greater range of wood garden products from affordable ready-made

 This year, our client Garden Trellis Co. is celebrating its 30th year! To mark this wonderful occasion, we worked with them in a number of ways to celebrate their successes.

Firstly, we created a special anniversary ident that could be integrated across all communications activity. The ident works on its own and as part of the brand logo and helps reinforce their credentials as a well-established, reliable business. 

Once finalised, the logo and 30th anniversary message was incorporated into the Garden Trellis Co website, social pages and advertising, helping spread the word through multiple touchpoints.

Prosecco & personal messages

To give a helping hand to project managers and boost client engagement, we arranged for some prosecco bottles to be branded with the 30th anniversary logo so that these could be gifted to new and existing clients.  Nothing says a celebration like a bottle of fizz!

For an additional personal touch to their anniversary celebrations, we also reached out to some key customers, the RHS and many people who have played a part in GTC’s journey for some testimonials and messages. We collated these together for Julian, Becky and the team to enjoy, as well as sharing some on the GTC social accounts.

 GTC Ecologi

We also wanted a way to celebrate with all customers and at the same time reinforce the company’s commitment to the environment. They already take many responsible actions to limit their impact but we helped them add to these by sourcing a quality reforestation partner. We identified the specialist platform, Ecologi, a platform for real climate action with a mission to reduce 50% of global Co2 emissions by 2040 through their tree planting scheme. With Ecologi we could enable the brand to pledge to plant a tree for every order placed across their online shop.

 Celebrating with the RHS

Additionally, we linked the anniversary celebration to the brands ongoing partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society, offering a special celebratory sale discount on their RHS-endorsed and UK-made Prestige range of Trellis, Fencing and Gates, all timed to coincide with this years RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

 Print advertising

In the May 2022 edition of the Pro Landscaper magazine, Garden Trellis Co. had a back page feature with their 30 years celebratory logo, a QR code to their website and a short description of their services:

‘Established in 1992, we have been designing crafting, building &installing high-quality bespoke garden schemes for 30 years. Best known for intricate trellis and contemporary slatted panels and stores, popular projects also include bespoke gates, planters and benches as well as individually designed rose arches, pergolas and summerhouses, from our studio and workshop in Essex, we help you create gorgeous outdoor spaces’

In numbers/through the years video

Finally, the team at Curzon Marketing put together a ‘year in numbers’ video to showcase the brands incredible achievements throughout the last 30 years. This was posted as a reel to the Curzon Marketing social accounts but was also shared with the Garden Trellis Co. team.

Watch the video here.

As you can see from the video the date of their first order and their actual anniversary is 22nd July – so further videos and activity are planned for around this time as well as a party for the staff at the company beach hut!

 We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Garden Trellis Co. in celebrating its 30th year and look forward to supporting Garden Trellis Co. on future campaigns.

 If you have a company anniversary coming up or you’d like to discuss how we can help you to grow your business, then please get in touch.

Benefits of using LinkedIn in your social strategy

Launched in 2003, LinkedIn is a platform focused on networking, building careers, and sharing ideas. It enables users to connect, interact and share content with other professionals including colleagues, potential employers, business partners, competitors, new employees, and customers.

 Including LinkedIn in your social media strategy is important and powerful — the platform is an excellent marketing tool both for B2B & B2C businesses. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network generating leads 227% more effectively than Facebook and Twitter, making it an essential platform when marketing your business.

 Here’s how:

1.    Speak to a B2B audience if you're seen as a B2C company

If you are typically seen as a B2C (Business to Consumer) brand, LinkedIn gives you a great opportunity to channel your B2B (Business to Business) communications. 

For example, our client Mackie’s of Scotland is a well known and established retail brand, but they also have a sizeable foodservice arm to their business. LinkedIn allows them to reach foodservice businesses and buyers directly who may not have known that they can use Mackie’s ice cream in their parlour or restaurant.

2.    Personal branding - engage yourself with the company's activity

In an environment where authenticity and the personal touch is everything, using your own profile to promote your business is a unique advantage you can utilise with LinkedIn.

Whether you are sharing a post, selling your services, or celebrating some good news, make sure to interject your own style and a sense of storytelling to make your post stand out. 

Here are some more tips to make your LinkedIn posting more personal:

• Maintain engagement - Respond to comments on your own posts and posts that you share this continues the discussion and allows you to connect with a wider network

• Comment posts that catch your attention - Leaving comments on others’ posts helps to build relationships. By doing this you are engaging and contributing to a discussion amongst likeminded individuals.

• Connect with others – LinkedIn connections are the new and improved business cards! When you are networking, make a new business connection or spot someone’s content that inspires you – send them a connection request! Per week you are allowed to send 100 connections on LinkedIn. If this is done right, you could grow your audience by 400 people per month.

3.    Engaging your employees - employee advocacy

On the flip side of the coin, engaging your employees with the company’s LinkedIn page is a great way to expand your brands reach and reputation. Generally, the employees of a brand have a network that can be at least 10 times larger than the brand’s follower base. Typically, people are far more likely to interact and engage with content when it comes from someone they know rather than a company, as it is considered more authentic and personal.

While only 3% of employees share content about their company, those shares are responsible for driving a 30% increase in the total engagement a company sees.

Some ways you can engage with your employees via LinkedIn:

• Share some ‘behind the scenes’ office content

• Engage with new employees sharing that they are joining your team/company

• Show how you celebrate achievements as a team

• Congratulate an employee on a promotion or work anniversary

• Share company news and give a special mention to those in your team that contributed

• Share client news – helped launch a campaign for a client? Share what you did, why you did it and how you did it.

4.    Connecting with your industry - swapping notes or sharing anecdotes

Being active on LinkedIn and creating interactions with your favourite brands helps to generate more engagement and reach from like-minded individuals and brands. This can be useful for brand partnerships, and networking generally.

 Some great examples:

Innocent Smoothies

 Whilst Innocent are a retail focused company, they have still found their place on LinkedIn by creating fun and playful workplace content that is relatable to many LinkedIn users.  By creating relatable content that often refers to common workplace jokes, or popular trends, not only are they engaging other businesses but also individuals across a range of industries.

Unilever

Unilever is well known for its consumer goods but rather than promote its products on its LinkedIn profile, it uses the space to promote its community and sustainability initiatives.

 Unilever makes use of all the features available on a business profile. They share upcoming events, videos, page posts, and promote current vacancies.

 The value of setting up a profile like this is that it gives users a chance to peek behind the curtain. You can see what Unilever's values are as an organisation and build a connection with them over shared interests and values.

We have covered the importance of LinkedIn as part of your social strategy in a number of ways, but most important is picking a marketing style and strategy that is right for your brands audience. Alongside this, engaging with your employees and general networking is a really good way to build your brand and show some authenticity.

 The way you market your brand is so important as it conveys the standard of quality, credibility and experience that you have on offer, which is invaluable especially in times where customers grapple with more choice and uncertainty than ever before.  

 Here at Curzon Marketing , we offer a solution whether it is on a temporary or permanent basis to provide expert marketing so your business can keep on growing.

Get in touch to find the effective marketing solution for your business and brand growth.

Reflection of Internship

I have finished the last week of my 3-month digital marketing internship with Curzon, and it has been an incredible opportunity to learn about digital marketing and to experience a professional working environment.

In this role it was essential to have time and organisational skills to make sure work was completed for important deadlines. I was introduced to Asana, an amazing platform for organising the tasks from the account managers, asking questions, and receiving feedback from the work completed.

I was given the task of writing copy and developing content using the specific brand copy guidelines for each client. For example, I helped write about Mackie’s of Scotland’s brand refresh for the Curzon blog and during the process I came to understand Curzon’s brand first approach to marketing. I also found writing copy for Orca Hygiene’s new hand care range to be an exciting challenge. There was a sense of satisfaction when I saw my content and copy on client’s blogs and through their social media platforms.

Several interesting marketing resources and platforms were introduced to me, such as the Girls in Marketing blogs and podcasts. I found the platforms MailChimp and Campaign planner intriguing with their features to design and create layouts for e-mail marketing. I was also given the opportunity to use the design platform Canva to experiment and plan certain social media posts and blog graphics.

I have enjoyed the creative responsibility to write content across a range of topics and digital marketing activities, and any challenging tasks were a chance to improve and develop my copy writing skills. I studied English Literature at university, and during this internship I have gained an insight into how I can apply and use my degree in the future.

The team at Curzon were incredibly supportive and helpful during my time working in the office in Suffolk. I have found this to be a fulfilling and enjoyable experience that has expanded my knowledge and skills within digital marketing.

Behind the Scenes on a Photoshoot for Sutton Hoo Chicken

Why is food photography so important for your business?

Food photography tells a story and helps to build an identity for your brand, so you want it to look realistic, authentic and most importantly, delicious. Ideally you want the consumer to think ‘Wow, that looks tasty’ or ‘I really want to try that’, prompting them to take a look at your brand, check out your recipes or maybe even place an order. 

In the heart of Suffolk countryside, Sutton Hoo Chicken are a family-owned producer of slow grown free-range chicken, using traditional free range farming methods and rear the chickens slowly to the highest welfare standards. Initially, Curzon’s work with the Sutton Hoo team started with developing a new brand identity, with the end goal being to grow sales by recruiting more artisan butchers and quality farm shops as stockists.  We continue to work closely with the team, near Woodbridge, to share their wonderful brand story and satisfy the UK’s appetite for utterly delicious chicken.

 To take you behind the scenes of a photoshoot with this great Suffolk brand we caught up with Alex, our Creative Executive here at Curzon Marketing, to discuss a typical day shooting content and going through all the steps he takes to create excellent food photography.

 What brief do you get given before a shoot?

“Before the shoot, the account manager for Sutton Hoo Chicken (Charlotte) would prepare a ‘shot list’ which is essentially a bullet point list of the content we are after and the equipment we will need. As we have done quite a few for the Sutton Hoo brand I am normally aware of what I’m shooting and know what to expect, but the ‘shot list’ is an essential reference point for the recipes. It breaks down the type of photos we need such as lifestyle photography, which may include Belinda, the founder of Sutton Hoo Chicken at her home, as her lifestyle is a key part of the shoot for this family-run business”.

What does a typical shoot for Sutton Hoo Chicken look like?

“On the day, typically the shoot is at the farmhouse. So normally I will arrive with all the kit needed, and then run through the plan of action for the day. Belinda usually prepares the food for the recipes we are shooting so often when we are cooking multiple recipes for one shoot, we will edit the ‘shot list’ to incorporate the cooking times and work out what to get started on first.   We have a food stylist to help which is fantastic because they help with so many props, table linens, how to fold the linens perfectly and things like finding the exact flowers to match the set perfectly. This helps the food look great but also the orientation styling is quite important, so the food stylist and Belinda are a bit of a dream in the way they work together”.

What happens once the food is cooked and ready to be photographed`?

“Once the first recipe is ready and the set is dressed, I set up the lighting. I like to rely on natural light as much as I can but if there is a dull grey light, I normally use 2-3 lights to try replicate the natural light. After this, I will usually spend 10-15 minutes taking photos from a range of different angles. When it comes to photographing the food, I tend to go handheld with the camera due to the awkward angles that comes with photographing food. Generally, an over-the-top shot of the food tends to work really well”.

Once you have all the brand content, what does the editing process look like and where do the photos get used?

“A recipe shoot with around 3-4 recipes would mean I normally take over 100 photos and the editing process would involve myself and the account manager for the brand where we go through the content. I take a lot of the same shot so I know one will work - I like to try things off the ‘shot list’ too and experiment in the moment a bit.  After this, a handful will be picked as the finals and will be signed off by the client but generally for each recipe there’s no need to have more than 10 final photos. Getting client feedback is useful as sometimes they see things I don’t, but we want to make sure they are happy with the photos too. The final images will then be used on the brand website and social media channels”.

How do you edit the photos to match Sutton Hoo Chicken’s brand identity?

“Most of the brand identity comes from the recipes and styling, with a focus on the chicken themselves. Editing therefore, tends to be correcting any lighting issues and developing a filter that will be consistent across all the photos without affecting the product”.

Thinking about all of the elements that go into a brand food photoshoot, what is your favourite part?

“I enjoy the styling and helping to set the scene when working with the food stylist and of course the part at the end where sometimes we get to eat the food. Food photography can be manipulated sometimes to help get a better-quality photo but generally with Sutton Hoo Chicken we can show the food as it is without any enhancements.  What you’re seeing is what you’re getting which also sticks to the brand values and nature of the brand”.

And finally, has anything ever gone wrong whilst on a photoshoot and how did you fix it?

“No, I don’t think so! Nothing that I can think of. Although Belinda does have two really sweet dogs which is always a highlight of the shoot getting them involved in some of the lifestyle shots, even if they do try stealing some chicken!”

We deliver a complete outsourced marketing service maintaining an evolving brand communications strategy across social media, email marketing and the design and creation of a new brochure and recipe cards. Photography is included as standard in our operations, campaigns or strategy package.

 If you would like to discuss ideas for your brand and the ways we can help put your brand first, we’d love to hear from you, with no obligation on your part and no expectation on ours.

 Drop us a line at brandfirst@curzon-marketing.co.uk or give us a call on 01394 366800.

We are hiring - Marketing Account Executive

Curzon Marketing is a fast-growing marketing consultancy working with many of the region’s leading brands (most with national or international coverage) across a wide range of industries. We are now looking for a Marketing Account Executive to join our team based in Woodbridge, Suffolk.

Are you enthusiastic, energetic and creative with 2 to 3 years’ marketing experience? If so, you could be just what we’re looking for.

The position of Marketing Account Executive in our brand marketing agency will ideally suit someone educated to degree level with client marketing, account management or digital marketing experience.

But more important than your job title is you!! We are looking for an enthusiastic individual who can bring energy to our team and grow into the role. You will be a team player, with a creative eye, who can generate new ideas and implement the marketing services we provide to new and existing clients.

Interested in the role? Please click here to find out more and apply!

5 MARKETING RESOURCES RECOMMENDED BY CURZON

We asked our team of brand marketing specialists here in Suffolk about the amazing marketing resources they use to widen their knowledge on brand, marketing for growth and digital marketing activities including advertising, search, e-mail, and social media strategies. We also use these resources to inform our current marketing strategies to benefit our clients that outsource their marketing with us. These are great resources that you can watch, listen to, and read to stay up to date!

Here are 5 of our recommended marketing resources:

1.     Girls in Marketing

2.     Content Cal

3.     The Brand Gym

4.     Trading Economics

5.     Podcasts - CIM and BBC Radio 4

1.Girls in Marketing

Our account managers Mel and Juliet are big fans of this interesting and inspiring platform. Run by a power group of marketing wizards, they share a selection of resources, blogs, and webinars to keep you updated on marketing tips and knowledge.

There is a great podcast about different areas of marketing to listen along to whilst you get on with your work or out walking!

Mel attended their webinar on creating a winning social media strategy and found it super insightful and also really refreshing to connect with other women in the industry and hear their tips and tricks.

2. Content Cal

We use ContentCal to publish all our clients’ social content, map out social campaign plans and plan ideas before sending for approval with the client. One added value for us is the access to webinars with interesting guests from a range of marketing backgrounds.

‘We are on these platforms every day,” Charlotte, one of our account managers, says “making it a really easy way to keep up-to-date with latest industry trends and news, as well as best practise on getting the most out of the different platforms for our clients.”

Our recommended watch: The power of authenticity and getting your tone of voice right

3. The Brand Gym

Steve is a big advocate of ‘The Brand Gym’ - a platform that has been founded by brand growth coaches to provide information and resources to improve brand’s marketing growth.

We find that this is a brilliant resource to stay current with marketing insights and the blogs provide a great read about the different approaches to marketing.

Our recommended read: Leadership Lessons from Playing Rugby and Selling Sausages

4. Trading Economics

"One of my favourite 'go-to' resources is Trading Economics',” says Steve, our founder; “it’s a databank of every useful economic indicator you can imagine, for different countries too. Understanding the economic context should be a key consideration for marketeers planning future activities and strategies. For example, how will consumer confidence affect demand, what impact will inflation have on pricing & profitability and what do purchasing, or construction managers expect of the future. I love this resource because it helps us make informed business decisions.”

Have a look at their website.

5. Podcasts

CIM

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) is a great platform that provides marketing training and qualifications, and a content hub full of interesting blogs and webinars.  

Juliet one of our account managers, suggests their excellent podcast to gain further knowledge on marketing.

Our recommended podcast: CIM Marketing Podcast - Episode 52: Mastering the ever-changing remit of marketing

BBC Radio 4 - The Bottom Line

BBC Radio 4 have a great podcast ‘The Bottom Line’ that covers a range of current business topics.

Juliet recommends these more general business podcasts to get a wider view of our markets.

Let us know what other marketing resources and blogs you suggest...

We are always looking for more interesting platforms and resources to expand our knowledge in the constantly changing environment of marketing.

Click here to get in touch.

The Importance of Brand Partnerships

The Importance of Brand Partnerships

Brand Partnerships are a great opportunity to work with another brand or business enabling both parties to pool marketing resources, expertise, and brand assets. The partnership allows you to access a wider customer network through your partner, ideally within your target audience, and it’s beneficial to your partner who will receive the same exposure from your brand. 

Mackie’s of Scotland’s 2021 Summer Campaign

A great example of how we have used brand partnerships for our clients is the Mackie’s 2021 Summer Campaign partnership we negotiated with Coolstays. To anchor our ‘Discover Summer’ campaign, we wanted to use partnerships to create a hook for our audience to engage.

In order to make sure that a brand partnership will be successful it is important to understand the criteria of your combined target audience and how this will work for both brands, and the commercial objectives for each brand. For instance, Mackie’s 2021 Summer partnership with holiday lettings brand CoolStays shared ‘summer’ as the focal point of this partnership by creating a competition to win a holiday and a selection of ice cream, combining going away for summer holidays and ice cream. The brands shared a similar audience profile too because we know from research just how much Mackie’s shoppers also love holidays and short breaks as well as great ice cream!

 It is important to make sure that a chosen brand partnership does not conflict significantly with the interest of your own brand – ideally they should a similar demographic and complement your brands’ own positioning and tone of voice.  However, this doesn’t mean that partnerships between seemingly different brands don’t work. When values align and there is a common ground shared between two brands, being different can be a good thing!

The Mackie’s Big 2021 Summer partnership with CoolStays meant that participants could enter a competition to win a summer trip and a selection of Mackie’s ice cream. In this partnership, the competition acted as the ‘campaign hook’ as this is what kept consumers engage and served to generate brand awareness as well as e-mail sign-ups for both brands.

Fairfields Farm’s E-mail Database Growth

Additionally, brand recognition, engagement and growth can be generated through teaming up with like-minded brands for one-off e-mail sign ups or social media giveaways. It is important that brands do not share their database with anyone else as this will contravene important guidelines and legal requirements regarding GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Your customers or contacts should always have opted in to hear from you via email and they should not be approached directed by another partner. However there is immense value for like-minded brands to introduce a partner brand to their database via their own email campaigns; and vice versa. It creates more opportunity and exposure for each brand and when done well will lead to the growth of each others’ e-mail databases. 

 Fairfield’s Farm have undertaken several brand partnerships, often with local businesses, where both brands share a similar target audience. For example, a past summer partnership with Stoke’s sauces offered entrants the chance of winning a delicious selection of Stoke’s Sauces, plus plenty of Fairfield’s Farm potatoes and crisps with the idea of entertaining guests at a BBQ as the focus point in the partnership.  This combined both brands’ products and created a common purpose for the partnership, whilst expanding their reach.

 A successful one-off email campaign was the partnership between Fairfield’s Farm and The Prince’s Countryside Fund. This partnership offered customers a saving 5% on their purchase from Fairfield’s Farm as well as a donation of 5% to The Prince’s Countryside Fund from Fairfield’s Farm as a way of saying thank you to farmers. 

 If your goal is to grow your reach through email marketing, then email partnerships are a great way to grow your database and brand awareness at the same time.  A clear campaign structure is vital for success, and GDPR compliance essential, which is why it is important to outline the campaign goals and objectives before sending any emails. It is also important to ensure that the partnership is aimed at the right target audience so there is greater chance of retaining the growth from the email partnership.

 Garden Trellis Co’s RHS Prestige Range

 Adding industry recognition can be a successful partnership for your brand. Some of Curzon Marketing’s campaigns for joinery brand The Garden Trellis Company have included working with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) to secure an endorsement for the high quality ‘Prestige’ range of trellis, fencing & gates. This formal agreed partnership provides industry recognition for The Garden Trellis Co, offering greater reach and enhancing brand reputation & trust, ultimately contributing to increased sales.

Brand partnerships are a tremendous marketing asset that can produce very valuable results, but it is vital to remember that if done incorrectly they can have a negative impact to your business. Make sure to assess your potential brand partner and brainstorm what you could offer each other and whether your business goals will work together.  With the right planning, a GDPR compliant approach and a well-suited brand partner this could be the perfect way to expand your business to a whole new audience.

If you’re looking for a fresh perspective on your brand or business and think brand partnerships would work for you, please get in touch. We’d love to help you put your brand first.

Mackie’s Brand Refresh

Being asked to take a completely fresh look at a brand and roll out a new look across their packaging, website, and total strategy is a hugely exciting brief for any marketing agency. In 2019 we were lucky enough to be asked just this by Mackie’s of Scotland…

The brief

We met the Mackie’s team prior to the pandemic at the end of 2019 and they already had a very successfully run ice cream business that started in 1986 on a 4th going on 5 generations run family farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Mackie’s was the leading brand of ice cream in Scotland and a challenger brand with strong distribution across the UK with the aim of strengthening and growing their brand in this competitive market. Our priority was to enable the brand to attract more shoppers and grow market share.

Making Simple Delicious

To do that, we looked at market data in relation to the premium ice cream category and the competitors and we undertook a programme of quantitative research to understand consumer attitudes with a panel of both Mackie’s shoppers and people who hadn’t bought Mackie’s yet.  

From this, we saw that a source of competitive advantage would be to focus on the essence of the Mackie’s story, their 'real dairy’ credentials., and amplify it even further than they had done before to help strengthen their position. The brand is built on strong foundations as a family-owned farm business producing ice cream with a clean fresh taste, made with fresh milk & cream, that makes a great compliment to other desserts such as brownies and fresh fruit. This would appeal to shoppers with an appetite for products with great authenticity, great provenance, and most important of all, great taste.

From this we developed a brand articulation that we summed up as ‘Making Simple Delicious’ built on the guiding beliefs that ‘simple is better’, that ‘real food is really delicious’ because it is ‘made with care, naturally.’ These ideas underpinned all that we did and helped us arrive at an effective and fresh new look for the Mackie’s packaging that remained true to the brand’s identity from the past.

Time to get creative!

We approached the creative challenge by first identifying three essential visual attributes of the brand that consumers recognise and should be retained; we named these our ‘three sacred cows’:

1.     The colour blue which denotes freshness and the brand’s dairy credentials

2.     The unique shape of the generous 1L tub

3.     The Milk Maid and the Dairy Cow that comprises the Mackie’s logo

Working with packaging specialists at design agency COOKCHICK,  we delivered design concepts that brought ‘Making Simple Delicious’ to life while remaining recognisably Mackie’s. The bold fresh look was then rolled out across the full flavour range including Mackie’s Traditional, Honeycomb, Raspberry Ripple, Scottish Tablet, Chocolate and the indulgent range of Salted Caramel, Madagascan Vanilla and Chocolate Orange & Honeycomb.

The new brand identity was rolled out across all packaging formats and foodservice touchpoints too. The packaging work was the excellent foundation we needed to then create a new brand look and feel through the website, advertising, brochures, social media, and marketing campaigns.

Onto chocolate!

To complete the brand transformation we then sought to develop the branding for the other key product of Mackie’s: their chocolate bars, also made on their farm in Aberdeenshire in small batches. The farm became the inspiration for the  packaging with a design based on a bespoke illustration of the hills of Bennachie , a landmark range of hills visible from the Mackie’s farm, a stunning view of the Aberdeenshire countryside.

Final thoughts

This was a truly exciting and fulfilling project to work on, you can’t beat that swell of pride when you see the new design in the freezers at your local supermarket.

The development for Mackie’s Ice Cream and Chocolate was driven by our ‘brand first’ ethos. At its heart, it was a solution that looked forward to refresh and modernize the packaging, while looking back to Mackie’s roots and brand truths for the core message.

We continue to manage the Mackie’s Marketing program across all channels, as we support them on their journey to grow their brand share. And we were immensely proud to see the fruits of our labours take centre stage when the Mackie’s Ice Cream factory and workers were the stars of a recent episode of BBC 2’s Inside The Factory.

Does your brand need a refresh? Contact us at 01394 366800

4 reasons to outsource your marketing

If you are struggling to fill your job vacancy for a marketing manager, have you considered outsourcing your marketing instead?

This may be an opportunity to adapt your brand strategies with outside marketing expertise that will effectively help your business. The recent recruitment crisis has created numerous challenges in finding someone with the right skills and knowledge and at the end of the day you are looking for a person that shares the same passion and ambitions to make your business a success. A solution can be found in outsourcing your marketing with a team that is dedicated to your business’s growth.

Here are four reasons why outsourcing your marketing will benefit your business:

1.     Experience

A marketing team will use their range of skills and experience to help your brand stay up to date to ensure the best results for your business. Marketing strategy, creative campaigns, and marketing operations are effectively created to also keep your brand moving forward.

At Curzon Marketing, we have a combined experience of 100 years and are dedicated to help the growth and success of your business.

2.     Value

Outsourcing is an additional business expense just like a salary; however, it should be seen as an investment in expertise, knowledge and breadth of capability because you gain access to a team of experts. This saves you the time and worry of finding a single Marketing Manager that you hope has absolutely all the skills necessary to provide effective marketing for your business.

Outsourcing offers a stress-free and cost-effective solution to your company’s marketing giving you access to a team with a wide range of experience to help grow your business.

It means you can focus on other areas of your business knowing that the photography, design equipment and expensive software required for marketing are managed by the agency.

3.     Flexibility

You are in charge of the commitment you make when outsourcing your marketing, whether it be a long-term or short-term contract or using it in conjunction with your own in-house team.

Marketing strategies are adjusted as your business grows to reflect your needs alongside the development of effective marketing activities to reach the target audience. In building a professional and creative relationship, there is a collaborative environment ready for any future goals that you want to achieve.  Likewise, the resource and expertise on hand seamlessly adapts and flex’s to meet the marketing needs of the business at any given time.

4.     Efficiency

Quick response strategies are developed to ensure that your brands marketing is fulfilled to the highest of standards whether the team are working virtually or in the office. When your business needs to scale up quickly, outsourced marketing can provide the resource boost you need quickly and cost-effectively.

Consumers are becoming increasingly more reliant on e-commerce sites, especially due to the recent global pandemic; with outsourcing marketing you can quickly adapt your brand to the digital marketing strategies to keep your business accessible for all your customers.

Curzon Marketing offers a solution, whether it is on a temporary or permanent basis, to provide expert marketing so your business can keep on growing.

Get in touch to find the effective marketing solution for your business and brand growth.

Supporting Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival 2021

The food marketing event of the year is back!

Here at Curzon Marketing, we have long been supporters of Suffolk’s Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival and are delighted to be supporting the festival marketing team as it makes a very welcome return to the calendar after last years’ covid-cancellation.

The festival takes place on the 25th- 26th of September in the beautiful setting of Snape Maltings, next to the River Alde and close to the Suffolk coast, where reed-covered marshlands stretch into the distance towards Aldeburgh.

The first Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival took place at Snape Maltings in 2006 to celebrate and publicise the abundance, variety and quality of food and drink in Suffolk. This year, with over 100 food and drink brands from Suffolk, many from just a few miles away, it is sure to be something you don’t want to miss!

Look out for a mouth-watering array of products including raw milk, organic vegetables, sourdough bread, cyder from Aspall, delicious street food plus award-winning beer & spirits from sponsors Adnams.

We have worked with many Suffolk brands among our food and drink marketing clients and are delighted to be offering our marketing support to promote what is the leading food & drink marketing event in Suffolk. Our marketing support includes creating and managing social media activity, social media advertising plus event brand identity design.

For many brands the marketing landscape has changed over the past year couple of years, and many have had to adapt with more online marketing, improved packaging design, stronger brand identities and more effective campaigns to drive sales. We’ve helped clients such as Gressingham Foods, Mackie’s Ice Cream and Fairfields Farm Crisps navigate these times with a combination of effective brand strategy and impactful marketing campaign delivery.

We share some of the valuable lessons learned in our blog post: 5 INGREDIENTS FOR BUILDING A FOOD & DRINK BRAND . And you can put your own marketing to the test by taking our Brand First Marketing Health Check to see what areas you can develop in your own brand marketing.

If you would like to discuss ideas for your brand, we’d love to hear from you, with no obligation on your part and no expectation on ours. Click here to contact us.

We Are Hiring - Marketing Account Executive/Manager

Curzon Marketing is a fast-growing marketing consultancy working with many of the region’s leading brands (most with national or international coverage) across a wide range of industries. We are now looking for a Marketing Account Executive/Manager to join our team based in Woodbridge, Suffolk, on a permanent basis.

Are you enthusiastic, energetic and creative with 2 to 5 years’ consumer brand experience? If so, you could be just what we’re looking for.

The position of Marketing Account Executive/Manager will ideally suit someone educated to degree level with client marketing, account management, or digital marketing experience.

But more important than your job title is you!! We are looking for an enthusiastic individual who can bring energy to our team and grow into the role. You will be a team player, with a creative eye, who can generate new ideas and implement the marketing services we provide to new and existing clients.

Interest in the role? Please click here to apply, or send a copy of your CV with a covering letter giving details of why you are interested in the role to; brandfirst@curzon-marketing.co.uk

Twelve Tips of Christmas

This festive season, we wanted to share our twelve top tips for building brand growth and marketing strategy, as our Christmas gift to you!

We know this year has brought many trials and tribulations, which has taught us to be more resilient and resourceful in times of crisis. But we feel fortunate to have come through it and look forward to starting 2021 with a positive outlook.

Keep reading to find out our top tips for growing your business into the new year…

Tip #1.       Always Put Your Brand First

When it comes to marketing strategy, we always take a brand first approach. This means we focus on the core strengths of every brand we work for. We craft the strategy, develop the brand drivers, and create campaigns all whilst keeping the brands first and foremost of all marketing activity. Click here to read more from our blog post, the Power of Putting your Brand First.

Tip #2.      Build Your Brand Online

There were many aspects of this year that have been unprecedented, but one which has at least had a positive impact on businesses is the growth of online sales. The Office for National Statistics showed that UK sales, as a percentage of total retail sales, was tracking at 19% - 21% before rocketing to 33% through April and May, as the impact of Covid-19 took hold. Earlier in the year, we also share a blog post ‘5 steps for building a brand online’ which you can read here.

Tip #3.      (Relevant) Content is King

As the saying goes, content is king, but only when you are sharing relevant and engaging content, which fits with you brand. Over the years we have worked with some well-known food brands, such as Sutton Hoo Chicken, Metcalf’s Popcorn, and Mackie’s of Scotland, so we know a thing or two about creating mouth-wateringly good food photography, which you can read about here.

Tip #4.       The Power of Video

As far as content goes, brand and product videos are still the most engaging form of content. Give your marketing a boost and find out more, by clicking here to read our ‘8 Reasons Why You Should use Video Marketing’ blog post.

Tip #5.       Keep Focused on Goals

There are so many parts to building your brand and developing your marketing strategy, you can easily get lost between to-do lists. Make sure you set clear goals and objective, for each quarter and each year, which have measurable outcomes. This could be a general goal of increasing your brand awareness, which could be measure by an increased number of unique users to your website or growing your following on social media platforms

Tip #6.       Sell Through Social

Social commerce is only on the rise, with the recent updates on Instagram, Facebook stores, and Pinterest all converting into e-commerce platforms. While your audience is already engaging with your brand, why not make a quick sale and strike while the irons hot? Find out more from our Social Commerce blog post, click here to read.

Tip #7.       It’s Okay to Outsource

Sometimes you might feel like a one-man-band, acting as a brand ambassador, head of sales, social media manager, and graphic designer; and more often than not, there just aren’t enough hours in the day! We discuss the benefits of outsourced marketing teams in a recent blog post, which you can read here.

 Tip #8.       Being Responsive is Key

After such an unusual year, one lesson we have learned is the importance of business agility, being aware of the current climate and understanding how you should respond is key and will be crucial in a post-covid world. Read our top tip on Tactical Marketing here.

Tip #9.       Be Data-Driven

Now, more than ever, data analytics is an important aspect of your marketing strategy. Understanding your audience, and how they engage with your brand is vital when it comes to strategy and campaign planning. Data also give you the ability to segment your customers based down and target them with relevant and personalised communications.

Tip #10.   Measure Your Results

As mentioned in point five, setting goals and measuring results is important when it comes to brand growth, and seeing if your marketing is making an impact. Click here to read our blog post on the four simple ways to start measuring your results.

Tip #11.   Review your Brands Health

Is your marketing in good shape?  Earlier this year we launched the Brand First Marketing Health Check, a useful tool that allows you to review your marketing efforts and where you could spend more time and energy. Click here to complete your free health check.

Tip #12.  Invest in the Future

Investing in your brand is investing in the future of your business.  Ensure you continue to put time and energy into positioning your brand and ultimately brand growth. This will solidify your area of expertise and continue to attract the right kind of customers.

If you would like to discuss ideas for your brand, we’d love to hear from you, with no obligation on your part and no expectation on ours. Click here to contact us.

5 steps for building a brand online

With 30 years of marketing experience behind us we throw a spotlight on the growth opportunity for brands online and how to capitalise on the growing home delivery market. How can you grow your online sales?

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that UK online sales, as a percentage of total retail sales, was already tracking at 19% - 21% before rocketing to 33% through April and May, as the impact of Covid-19 took hold. Research specialists, Mintel, forecast online grocery sales through the grocery retailers is expected to grow by 33% in 2020 accounting for 16% of all grocery purchases. So, whether you sell direct to consumers or via retailers there is huge potential in getting it right online. What can you do to improve your online brand?

Growing your own e-commerce business is achievable and accessible but only if you work at it consistently. This is a huge topic but here are our five tips for success:

1.     Think Brand First!
We believe brands should always, always start with a crystal clear view of what makes them distinctive and then communicate that as succinctly, creatively and memorably as possible, whether online or offline. The ability to communicate and transact with people online is nothing without a compelling and enticing brand proposition at its core. There are many digital tools to work with but they are just that, tools. Their success and effectiveness depends on the quality of the material, your brand, they are given to work with. Our advice is invest time in making your brand as distinctive, attractive and relevant as possible to the customers you seek.

2.   Build traffic
Know your audience and how to reach them then invest in the activities that will pull people in to your site time and time again. Social media advertising, (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube), email marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) search advertising are all flexible, affordable options for many businesses now, with the ability to drive sales and help you learn even more about your customers and their preferences. Your brand and your content is what makes you attractive and relevant but the you need to be visible too! The more you know about the people that love your products, the more you’ll be able to find more like them. Social media polls, online reviews, postcode analysis, customer surveys, website & social analytics...these are all techniques readily available to help brands learn more about their customers.

3.    Deliver a great experience
It’s one thing to bring traffic to your site, and another thing entirely to get people to buy when they are there. Think about the websites you like to buy from and how easy they make the process of shopping – from browsing the range, to studying the product detail, reading others’ reviews right through to the checkout experience and sales confirmation. Can shoppers navigate your site easily? Do you make it easy for them to get straight to the shop? And what is the mobile experience for your site?

4.     Love the numbers!
Growing sales online is a marathon not a sprint fueled by a love of the vast array of numbers. Web traffic data, social media engagement, e-mail open rates, online conversion and average order value levels; just a few of the many metrics available to help determine what delivers an effective return. But it’s because every brand and business is different that what works for one may not work for another. Digital marketing comes with plenty of data to help understand what works and what doesn’t so use it. Is one ad creative more effective than another? Is Facebook advertising better than Youtube or Instagram? Which pages on the website attract more traffic or sales? What’s the best day and time to send emails? Test & Learn!

If you love the numbers you’ll learn what works and your chance of online success will be vastly improved.

5.      Invest in content….regularly!
The phrase “ a picture is worth a thousand words” can be traced back in history to a Chinese philosopher yet it is as relevant today in this digital world as it has ever been. Good quality image content, either photographic or video are hugely valuable assets for brands today. Producing good quality imagery imagery week in, week out, for social media, email marketing, web content or digital advertising need not be prohibitively expensive but it does require commitment, planning and some investment. These images will create a lasting impression, they will help cement your brand in the minds of your customers and will resonate and communicate far more than a list of features or benefits can ever achieve. They are the fuel for your brand, so don’t hold back.

Additional notes for food brands, selling through online grocers:

It may come as no surprise that to capitalise on the growing online grocery retail sector (the home delivery offer of Ocado, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Waitrose etc), the principles described here remain just as true as for your own e-commerce.

• Plan carefully about how you present your brand; develop imagery and content that is fit for purpose in the online grocery retailer environment.

• Pay attention to the detail – get the right descriptors and key terms in to your product listing.

• Invest in retailer-specific online marketing or advertising (though tread carefully, it is fearfully expensive!) .

• Test & learn with any investment – which search terms are the most effective? How do get your brand to “stick” in the shopping list?

We understand consumer brand marketing, working with many of the UK’s leading food and drink brands as well as some of the most innovative farming and family-owned SME food businesses. Gressingham Duck, Mackie’s Ice Cream, Fairfields Farm Crisps, Sutton Hoo Chicken Metcalfe’s Popcorn, Paddy & Scotts Coffee, Kettle Crisps, and Stokes Sauces are just some of the brands we have worked with.

If you would like to discuss ideas for your brand, we’d love to hear from you, with no obligation on your part and no expectation on ours. Click here to contact us.