I went to my local car dealer the other day. “Make me the fastest chick in town!” I cried, pointing to the ridiculously shiny beast of a car, growling at me from the corner of the yard. “Certainly,” said the dealer, “that will be £25,000.”

 

“Well,” I said, “I have £10,000.” The dealer’s face began to darken. “No, wait!” I said cheerily, “you haven’t heard all of it yet! I want to add a few things. Now – let’s see. I want some nice new alloys on it. And a new paint job – metallic pink obviously. And a satnav system. Thing is I don’t want to pay any more for any of that, but I would like it all done this afternoon. Oh and I’m sure I’ll add a few more bits and pieces later on. I take it that’s all OK?”

 

I left the dealership rapidly and not by my own propulsion.

 

It’s a fanciful tale but a familiar one. Every day we cope with projects that grow and grow, budgets that stay rock tight, and timescales that are to say the least demanding. Every business wants to be the fastest chick in town, and some have the insight to see what exceptional marketing can do for them. But when it comes to the reckoning, do businesses really value marketing? Or, and it’s hard to believe we are still having this debate, is it still seen as an overhead, a place to cut costs, a place to scrimp rather than invest?

 

Perhaps we marketers ourselves are to blame. It’s a troubled profession, famed for its bullshit and rightly so in many cases. Marketing has been raised to a religion, the true path to bottom line bliss, and like many religions can be taken over by the wily, the loquacious and worst of all, the incompetent. With most companies having been the victim of some bad marketing at some time or other, it puts us in a difficult position. The real bottom line is, it’s difficult for a marketer to gain trust. Difficult to convince people that a decent, strategic marketing approach takes a bit of time – time you’d pay your mechanic for, time you’d pay your lawyer for, but time you’re somehow loathed to pay your marketing agency for.

 

And so – a constant need to justify ourselves. No harm in accountability mind. I’m a great fan of Peter Doyle and his value-based marketing philosophy. Marketers, he argues, are increasingly marginalised in business because of their abject failure to measure, or even produce, financial results. But inspired marketing really can bring results – just ask clients like Menu Shop, Audience Systems and 3Sphere.

 

Smaller companies are often scared of spending their marketing budgets. After all,  the smaller the marketing budget, the more every penny spent has to count. But those pennies do have to be spent. A website for instance may look like a bunch of words and pictures on a page but leading up to that point are hours and days of planning, design, copywriting, image manipulation, coding, checking, changing, changing, and inevitably, changing again. And every change sparks off more planning, more redesign, a tweak to the copywriting, a change to the image, more coding and – well you see where I’m going.

 

With web projects in particular, there’s usually a point sometime in the development of a project when the client sees its true potential. Of course, they saw potential from the start, or they never would have commissioned it. But suddenly the imagination goes wild. “We could do this! And this! And maybe even…. could you….. is there any chance of…. [hushed tones] that?” This we blame ourselves for, and we’re proud to have ignited the spark that fired the imagination. But this takes an hour. And that – a day. And sometimes, just sometimes, we just can’t squeeze it all into your budget.

 

Look, I know we marketers are a strange species. We say “brand” a lot, we like lining things up and we get weird thrills from your web stats. But please just try to understand us. Just as you understood the car dealer who gave me the boot earlier in our tale. We can double the number of products on your website half way through its development. We can help you exploit a crazy new opportunity by totally rewording your brochure a day before it’s due to print. And we KNOW it will give you the results you crave (else we’d tell you not to do it). But please don’t make us apologise for billing you just a little bit more for it. After all there can only be one fastest chick on this block – and we love it to be you.

 

Listening to Radio 5 while taking my morning shower, the news is full of doom and gloom: it’s the most depressing day of the year apparently. They even called it ‘Blue Monday’ which, as those who know me will be aware, has very different connotations for me personally! For sure, trading conditions are proving tricky as the masses finally take the hit from helter-skelter consumer spending, corporate greed and the reckless mayhem caused by the sheer unadulterated madness of the financial sector.

But, what did we expect? An economy based on ludicrous property prices and access to unparalleled (plastic) wealth to continue for an eternity? We have a barely elected government floundering under its own self-created identity crisis, and totally irrelevant opposition parties that really are just wasting everyone’s time including their own.  Last straw was the sight of Gordon Brown crawling up Branson’s backside over the weekend without the wit to notice that it was all part of a corporate PR plot so he can get his grubby fingers on Northern Rock.

A long-overdue rain check is in process and the weak and frail will ultimately fail. Perhaps this is no bad thing, and just maybe it will have a positive effect on the future attitudes and offerings of businesses the world over. The consumer is no longer the willing sucker at the end of a retail gravy train, and is no longer prepared to shell out exorbitant prices for sub-standard product. In the wonderful words of Kevin Roberts, “companies no longer aspire to being irreplaceable, they have to become irresistible”. It is all about an emotional response, trust and desire. Doing business is increasingly more akin to relationships: don’t work at it and it will collapse.  Feel the love and drive the passion.

Despite the political abyss into which we are being dragged, the charmless corporate business landscape and the prevalence of talentless Z-list celebrities, the world and, in particular, Britain is a wonderful place. A gradual devolution of centralised political and corporate power is taking place on the ground with entrepreneurs and creatives inspiring a new attitude, a new energy based on independence, innovation and technology. I feel it every day in my dealings with the SME world who refuse to kowtow to the conventional wisdoms of government, banks and a moaning culture fuelled by a mass media bored with even its own existence.

The internet has levelled the playing fields and a sassier consumer is responding. Ditch the grey- suited conventions and use the New Year as a springboard for realising ambitions, living dreams and embracing the underground creative culture bubbling on our streets. A taxi driver recently got more than he bargained for when telling me that their are no decent bands anymore and that youth culture was dead. Oh dear. He had obviously not heard of Ladytron, The National, Soho Dolls, Foals, Puressence, Futon (mega), Shiny Toy Guns or Client to name but a few of my personal faves. Creatively things have never been better either - check out Plastique, Wonderland or Object magazines, let alone the talent on display in Creative Review, Grafik, .Net and Dazed & Confused.  Inspirational stuff all round.

So, perhaps Blue Monday is an appropriate title for today - after all as it was written by New Order which is what Impress is about.

While Impress works with a huge variety of businesses, many of our clients represent the bread and butter of the economy – the noble small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The more aspirational owners and marketers within these businesses (and these are our favourite clients!) are often to be heard musing on how they can be the Mercedes, Apple or Prada of their industry – and quite rightly too. These businesses have built their brands to such an extent that their very names conjure up instant perceptions, respectively, of reliability, innovation and style.

But while there IS plenty to be learned from these big hitters, there is also a great deal that larger organisations could learn from some smaller businesses. I have worked with and for a real variety of businesses – from a five person start-up to a multi-billion dollar corporation, and the following points consistently hold true.

Firstly, when it comes to marketing, the smaller the budget, the more ingenuity is needed to make it work. A marketing budget should be anything between three and ten percent of a company’s turnover – but when that turnover is in five or six figures, there is little room for error in marketing.  The best SMEs use their budgets only where they can see significant effects on the bottom line. They advertise to create footfall for specific sales, events and exhibitions. They use PR to deliver brand messages to a clearly defined audience. They put in place pay-per-click campaigns to drive closely targeted prospects to their websites. All this drives sales – and grows the business.

Secondly, with a limited budget, you need an agency or agencies who really deliver. SMEs do not want to pay hordes of agency personnel to sit around conceptualising, beard rubbing and, God forbid, blue sky thinking. They want an agency who instantly understand their business, and simply deliver great marketing. The question is, do bigger brands always make their agencies follow the same discipline?

Thirdly, for SMEs, knowledge of the business is not dispersed over departments, divisions and even continents – it is often held in the head of one individual. While large corporations struggle to implement effective Knowledge Management Systems to speed up labouring decision-making processes, smaller businesses can already have reacted to a change in the environment, effected a change, marketed it and be selling it to the corporation’s customers! And, while larger businesses sometimes need to pay consultants to answer the most fundamental of marketing questions: “who are my customers?”, smaller businesses know who their customers are – they have met them, they know what they want, and in Impress’ case, they are probably going for a drink with them later.

So finally to the most important aspect of a business – its people. While individual incompetence can be disguised in a poorly managed larger organisation, in SMEs there is nowhere to hide. While everyone has a crucial role to play in the success of the business, any individual failings can be disastrous for the business as a whole. Smaller companies can only succeed buy recruiting only the most excellent and driven people – and larger businesses should do the same – but this for any business is probably the biggest challenge of all.

Nina’s comments on the Home Page of the Impress site absolutely capture the essence of what the agency is all about and the breathtaking speed with which client expectation is pushing us into new marketing territory. The onslaught of the digital age is transforming the promotional activities of our clients and I sometimes actually lose track of the number of projects we have on the go at the same time.

Quite apart from the thrill of the creative process, the sheer joy of witnessing marketing strategies leading directly to commercial success is hitherto unparalleled in my professional career. Potentially lucrative enquiries stem from our clients’ websites on a daily basis and it is fantastic to see relatively small companies punching way above their weight due solely to their commitment to the web. The Internet has flattened the commercial playing field and even the tiniest organisations can appear ‘global’ online.

Google Adwords and emailers provide affordable advertising mechanisms that render size of company, turnover or status as completely irrelevant. In the words of Kevin Roberts, “companies no longer have to be irreplaceable, they have to be irresistible”. What a fantastic ethos this is. With competition never so ferocious, transparency never so essential and price never so inconsequential, companies now have to focus completely on service, customer care, brand values and delivery. A quick reference to some of our clients -Thermaglaze, Big Bang Events, Audience Systems, 3Sphere, Orchard Park and Fit2BSeen - who all personify the ‘Lovemarks’ philosophy so central to Impress.

So, as the year approaches its final curtain call, I reflect on the agency's achievements this year and they are many fold. Some fabulous brand work, new businesses successfully launched, lots of new clients, existing relationships cemented, profitability, some truly wonderfully talented  new members of the team and the foundation for further expansion in 2008. There have been casualties too and we are far from perfect, but we have worked out what we are very good at and where we are going.

The journey is perhaps only just beginning for Impress. A new brand ID and website is almost complete and will be finally unveiled in January once we have all chilled out for Christmas. I have started writing a company magazine, but this might have to wait until a few massive projects are complete.

Before I sign off, lots of congratulations to various members of the agency family: Big Bang’s Cannon Bridge Roof Garden for winning the award for the Coolest Reception Venue by Prestige Events magazine, Chloe and Tommy for the birth of Beau, their second child, Martin (ever Martin) on his engagement to Laura and Nina for, well, just being Nina…..

Those of you who know me will be aware of my avocation of the Lovemarks concept pioneered by Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi worldwide. You will know of my belief in the 21st century marketing concepts of “loyalty beyond reason”, “engagement not interruption” and “irreplaceable to irrespirable”. Those not familiar with these statements should check out Kevin’s www.lovemarks.com site which enables users to champion brands, products, places and people they truly love. Contrast this with my own recent experience with BT. Again, those touched by Impress will know that BT cut off our broadband supply without warming on the same day that we were pitching for a £40k website in West London. Not only this, we were scheduled to receive five grand for the pitch regardless of winning or not. Now, we thought we were being smart by actually building a website as the actual pitch. We worked our bollocks off to get the site ready and all we had to do was upload via our broadband connect ion that had been working flawlessly for a year. So, it was a shock to find ourselves without a connection last November. No worries said BT; it will be back on again in an hour or so. Off we went to London full of hope and optimism. The atmosphere became more frantic as we cruised up the M4. The office staff were panicking as it became increasingly apparent that BT had no idea why they had cut us off. A straight answer was impossible to find.   more »

 

Scandalous that I have neglected the Impress blog, but clients’ requirements really have had to come first over the past few months. And I did nip off to Formentera for a delightful week of shabby chic relaxation on white sandy beaches under blissful azure skies. Almost a distant memory already, although I must give a plug to the wonderful Las Banderas hotel on the island. Perfect for anyone who truly wants to escape the rat race, with a location to die for and an ambience that adds a new dimension to the term "chilled-out". The atmosphere is positively horizontal, but with Ibiza just a 20 minute ferry trip away, party culture and madness is within easy reach. The contrast could not be more stark.

And so the Impress bandwagon hurtles forth, with clients experiencing the ups and downs of the marketing mix. As ever, it those that who commit who reap the most rewards. Sue Kingston’s new exciting online fitness clothing business (www.fit2bseen.co.uk) has quickly established itself on the back of an ambitious marketing strategy. Google Adwords milks the cash, but has put thousands of visitors on the site including Trisha Goddard of chat show fame.  Trisha is releasing a fitness DVD at the end of the year and wearing clothing provided by fit2bseen. The associated PR, marketing tie-ins and advertising strategy have provided this embryonic business with the impetus it needs to really challenge some of the bigger players. Full page ads in the consumer fitness magazines have also been instrumental in kick-starting the site and this exposure promises just to be the start of a fabulous journey for both Sue and Impress.

Having mentioned Google Adwords, it is worth noting that Impress is now a recognized Google agency which enables us to have direct contact with the ‘search gods’.  The relationship is beneficial to all parties and enables Impress to liaise directly with Google when formulating client campaigns. Benefits include a much improved return on investment and a deeper understanding of the techniques that make Adwords the most effective direct marketing tool ever invented.

An update on Big Bang Events which continues to blaze a trail through the London events industry. The brilliance of the brand vision was typified at a couple of stunning events at the Cannon Bridge Roof Garden in The City recently (www.cannonbridgeroofgarden.com). View the website to check out this breathtaking venue which never looked more spectacular that during the Open Day party held on a blissful summers day (before the floods!!!) in May. Sipping champagne while watching the sun go down behind St. Pauls as the lights of London began to flicker was a joyous start to the season. No words can do justice to the effort that the Big Bang team dedicate to putting on the perfect event; subsequent PR exposure in RSVP, Event and Prestige Events magazines, plus The London Paper (24^th July) tells its own story.

We have launched numerous new sites of late and four of  these can be viewed at:

www.trio-marketing.co.uk                                        www.ridgewayintl.com
www.pythouse-organics.co.uk                                  www.topbananateam.com

Lots more new sites being launched on a weekly basis, plus numerous other marketing initiatives that I really should write about here. I will in due course, but the late arrival of summer only seems to have increased the agency workload as clients prepare for autumn product launches, marketing drives and online strategies. For our part, a new set of agency sites are in production and Impress Tuesday continues to gain momentum. The last couple of events were vibrant, passionate affairs and stimulated considerable debate among the invited guests. A new programme of seminars is being devised and details will be posted on the site over the next few days.

As ever, Impress is a fast-moving thing as our clients increasingly demand the full range of integrated marketing services previously the preserve of the corporates. Lots more stuff to add in the coming weeks and we appreciate all the feedback, good or bad.

Enjoy....

 

 

If I had a pound for every individual I have met since I started Impress who wanted to pack in their day job and form their own business... Most of them never do of course. The stark reality of pursuing a dream, a passion or even a calling often dissolves in the face of the practical realities of a guaranteed income, the mythical comfort of a job for life or the sheer fear of taking the ultimate risk.

This is by no means a criticism of those who ultimately decide to stay within the comfort zone. From experience, I can tell you that working for yourself is far harder than taking the fixed monthly dollar from an employer. The hours are longer, the responsibilities greater and the fear of failure all the more acute. And if you do initially succeed, the nightmare of actually employing people can make even the most inspired, passionate and visionary entrepreneur question their sanity.  

The Impress client list is dominated by such free thinking entrepreneurs and their biggest gripe is always the frustrations caused by staffing issues. The topic dominates the Impress meeting room as some of the most inspiring business people I have ever met curse their employees, recruitment agencies and the restrictions of employment law. So anyone that truly takes the plunge and jacks in the day job in favour of following their heart has my absolute admiration.

One such individual is Sue Kingston who has just realised the first phase of her dream. Sue is a mum, wife and an employee of Nationwide in Swindon. She is a keen tri-athlete and this is where her vision initially took shape. Like many women, Sue wanted to buy stylish fitness clothing to enable her to work out and compete without feeling like her appearance or femininity was being compromised. Frustrated at the lack of retail outlets stocking a range of suitable apparel, she decided to form her own online store targeting women like her.

Being the woman she is, Sue wanted to do things properly and she was recommended to Impress via Andy Poulton at Business Link. Determined not to cut corners, Sue accepted the brand approach we presented and allowed the agency to develop an appropriate corporate identity that soon wove its way into logo, stationary, initial website design, posters, emailers and even stickers. The uniformity of the designs presented a strong, confident and professional image long before the company even started trading this week.

www.fit2bseen. co.uk was launched on May 9th and the reaction from friends and initial customers has already been positive in the extreme. The site itself is a dream: contemporary, stylish, user-friendly and equipped with full ecommerce facility and a content management system that enables Sue to upload new products, pictures and other content. She is in total control.

The site was launched via a promotional emailer and web traffic is already high. In less than 24 hours she has received her first wave of online purchases and we are about to promote the site via Google Adwords. Impress is a recognised Google agency and we are formulating an adword strategy directly with the search engine gods to maximise commercial returns on the campaign. PR and traditional advertising will follow shortly and word of mouth will undoubtedly do the rest.

Sue has now handed in her notice at Nationwide and is committed to Fit2bseen on a full time basis. All at Impress take off our metaphorical hats to her spirit, ambition and attention to detail. She now has an online business that has evolved in just three months since we sat down together for the first time with a blank sheet of paper.

It can be done and Sue's excitement, determination and desire to embrace proven, top-level marketing principles almost guarantees the success of her business. Impress is delighted to have helped make her dream a reality and remains committed to helping it succeed.

Congratulations Sue, enjoy the ride and I look forward to future meetings when we can both enjoy a moan about the joys of running our respective businesses. You are joining an elite club of 'Impress entrepreneurs'!!!!!

 

And so today, the end of another financial year for Impress and many, many of my clients. The annual shake down that reveals all. A flurry of activity with invoices hither and tither, plus a crazed admin. nightmare for us creative types!!!

The year has been superb for turnover, new clients, inspiring projects and profile, but we await for the accountants to tell us if we have found profit - that most elusive of ladies! Turnover is vanity - profit is sanity! As I mentioned, many Impress clients are going through the same process and the results will be varied. I have a fair idea of the ones doing well as they have marketed themselves consistently throughout the year; embracing new ideas, open to fresh thinking and not fighting the Internet revolution.

Needless to say, most can do more and the digital age offers limitless potential for targeted, relevant and stimulating advertising campaigns. Familiar themes I know, but the convergence media explosion is unstoppable and the natural habitat of the "digital native" (Maurice Saatchi).

So much opportunity and so many reference points to draw from; Kevin Roberts new blog (www.krconnect.blogspot.com) is a phenomenal source of visionary thinking, big ideas and examples of truly inspiring marketing/brand stuff. Richard Edelman's 6am blog (www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog)  is also a provocative and a rich seam of corporate insight and media vision.

I borrowed from both sources at this week's Impress 'First Tuesday' Babington House seminar and the themes found favour with a great audience. It was an excellent evening and personally very rewarding to have the opportunity to talk about my passions in such a wonderful setting. As ever, Impress attempts to bring the strategies and experience of corporate life to the SME market in an environment guaranteed to inspire. Shame on those who didn't attend without prior notice as lots of others could have taken your place if we were afforded the courtesy of a cancellation call or email. A minor quibble and thank you to those who made the evening so fulfilling for all - especially Mark Scoble (www.sales-star.com).

And finally, a few creative links that have caught my attention in the last few weeks:

www.lisagerrard.com - Wonderful new website for the angelic former Dead Can Dance singer. You will all know Lisa's voice from the Gladiator soundtrack and her heavenly music is now represented by a magical site courtesy of Clive Collier - www.storm-creation.co.uk.

www.shinytoyguns.com - A great site for a truly brilliant LA-based band that blast out a mega fusion of electronica and razor wire guitar rock. Check them out now or wait a couple of years until Vodafone or T-Mobile put one of their tunes on those oh so trendy TV ads.

www.brettanderson.co.uk - As ever, stylish and simple, from Brett who has just released his first solo album and shaken of the ghosts of Suede, eyeliner and the London underground! The voice remains his "credit card" and the album reflects the personal journey of a man coming to terms with his own place in the world.

Ok, enjoy the Easter hols. and recharge the batteries for the next quarter.

 

 

The painful but strangely satisfying process of web optimisation - from the client's perspective. By Nina Simpson, Audience Systems

 

My boss asked me today what exactly we had done to optimise the Audience Systems website. “Well, “ I said, gesticulating knowledgably at the HTML, “we changed all the titles, descriptions, keywords and picture tags so they were completely relevant to the content of each page. And, err, we changed the body to make sure it was chock full of keywords. That’s it really.”

 

But that’s not it. I felt I had cheated myself with my own explanation. There is far, far more to optimisation than a few code tweaks. It’s about living in the heads of your target customers. It’s about knowing exactly what you want your website to deliver. And it’s about obsession and persistence.

 

There are a few things you need before you embark on the optimisation journey - the first being a borderline compulsive personality. If you’re not stirred by spikes in your web traffic, or cheered by new incoming links, if you don’t punch the air when your Google page rank improves, you may not have what it takes to see the optimisation process through.

 

The second prerequisite is a deep understanding of your customers. When they sit in front of a search engine, what are they really looking for? What questions are they looking to answer? And in what terms would they couch this question?

 

And what else? Well, time, time and more time. Not forgetting patience, dedication and the charm to inspire your agency to keep trucking along with you….

 

Our odyssey started with Andrew trawling through our site. Hours of analysing keywords, rummaging back through links, looking at our Google rankings… I believe many a midnight flew by unnoticed in the course of this endeavour but really only Andrew knows what passed in those dark days…..

 

Next I came into play. Using a combination of my knowledge of customers and their language, our Google Adwords stats and referrers to our website, I compiled a list of keywords that I wanted to feature strongly in our campaign. Next I trudged my way through every page of our website – all 56 of them – to customise the titles, descriptions, keywords, image tags and body text to ensure the page would capture attention of Google – and thus the attention of anyone floating past on the world wide web. It took days. I sent Andrew emails with idle thoughts about sharp objects.

 

Next – back to Impress to implement the XXXX pages’ worth of changes (let’s not talk about how many, it’s a sensitive topic) and then, when they were finally in place – sit back and set my baby free for the Google-spiders to find.

 

This is just the first phase of optimisation – to take it further we need to not only get as many incoming links as possible to point to our site, but also get those incoming links speaking the same language as our customers. We need to create a blog so that we can excite humans and spiders alike with our dazzling stream of new content (which incidentally will be about chairs – but that’s the power of the web – it gets you engaged with people who share your fixations; who you can dazzle about pretty much anything).

 

And that’s the point – because it’s about spreading the passions of your organisation, optimisation can’t just “be done” by your agency. Well, it can – but not in a way that gets to the heart of what your customers need from you. Deny it if you like, but you’re the one that speaks their language. So optimisation needs commitment from both sides.

 

But, even with this commitment, what have we achieved so far? Apart from weariness and a growing obsession with our webstats? Well, this week, the changes seem to have wormed their way through the ether. Unique visits are up from their usual average of 165 per day to around 195 per day. Percentages. But what happens when we add the links? And the blog? And take it another step further? Those percentages become customers. Those customers become cash. And so our obsession – my obsession – Andrew’s adopted obsession - helps to grow the business. And I still get to sit and drool over my statistics. I love it when things work out.

What is with Spring? Everything seems to happen at once and the Impress family continues to grow and evolve.

Firstly, a big welcome to our new company administrator - Simone Camode - who joined the company in January after a successful marketing career at Warminster School. Simone has added a new dynamic level to the agency with her unfailing cheerfulness, calm demeanour and wonderful telephone manner. She is lovely and sweeps up all the chaos caused by Andrew and Mark.

Secondly, another new face is Chloe George who has swapped the London life for the tranquil waters of West Wiltshire. The capital's loss is our gain, as Chloe is one of the most talented web designers we have ever come across. Her portfolio includes web designs for the Diesel brand and a wealth of other blue chips. Current Impress websites in development for Bodyline Books, Fit2beSeen and Longleat already look absolutely stunning.

Thirdly, Martin Palmer, the rock of Impress, is to become a Dad in May for the first time and massive congrats to him and Laura. Martin has been the one constant feature of Impress since the company's conception in 1999 and he is the undoubted Mac-master. To a point of madness, Martin is the ultimate graphic designer with a heart of gold and we all look forward to seeing Martin Junior in a few weeks' time. Well done matey.

Some agency friends are also embarking on life-changing journeys. Gemma Read from Orchard Park has decided to give up her job in the Lagan Farm Shop and take time out to work in a bar on the island of Kos for the summer. Can't believe you won't miss the fame and stardom of having your face splattered all over the OP newsletter, but enjoy the ride babe and come back soon.

And so, Impress reflects life and life reflects Impress. As ever, the evolution is good and the bar is constantly raised. Financial year end just around the corner and much to do. We move into a new era now and the fresh faces inspire new ideas, brilliant creative thinking and a true agency spirit I could only have dreamed of.

We all know, this is just the beginning....

 

 

A long overdue update on agency life. The truth is that Impress is an ever-changing entity that inspires some and infuriates others. It is the same for many a small business striving to be a real 'player' and learning the harsh lessons of business reality on the fly. One just keeps hearing the same story: staff problems, cashflow, client demands and a host of other frustrations that drive the entrepreneur to distraction.

A commonality exists among many lead clients and, as their agency, I can empathise and offer advice, but I have the same issues too. This is why Impress is what it is. We are on a journey together and some days it can be fabulous, other days it can drive you to distraction. As ever, today has been a mixture, but one client totally thrills me for their endeavour, passion, commitment and sheer belief in what they are doing. That client is Big Bang Events (www.bigbangevents.co.uk) and I had a long meeting with their managing director, Alison Welsh, this morning.

Impress have been working with BBE for around a year, building their websites, developing an online strategy, negotiating media deals and extolling the wisdom of the 'brand thing' as Ali memorably described it. Now, this 'brand thing' is actually really starting to work for the business, even if I say it myself. Web traffic on both company sites is growing week by week, Google loves the SEO, PR articles are appearing in the trade press, enquires are pinging in from listings on various online directories and the magazine ads have been unified and now look genuinely cool.

The timing is spot on as it is prime time for BBE. The company has an exclusive on a fabulous London venue, Cannon Bridge Roof Garden (www.cannonbridgeroofgarden.com) which is exactly as it says: an outdoor garden with a marquee perfect for summer parties. We are currently promoting an open day at the venue on the 19th April across all media channels. The facilities are wonderful and the views absolutely stunning. Sipping champagne, marvelling at the capital's skyline, whilst being waited on hand and foot... just imagine, it's that good.

And so together we are slowly but surely building a brand: the values, the principles, the corporate ID, the tone of voice, the structure, the culture, the communication. Brand is never easy, but the Big Bang girls have collectively bought into the concept inspired by Ali and the constant witterings of their marketing agency!

Out of all my clients, and there are many, Big Bang Events has the best chance of truly establishing a brand identity - as the passion, the will and the belief stems from the head of the company. Now we go a step further and I have agreed to become, in effect, BBE's Marketing Director working out of their offices for five days a month. I have done this for one reason and one reason only: not for money, not for a cushy life, not for the trips to the smoke, not because every company employee is female, but because the company embraces the big picture and is prepared to go through the pain, the disciplines and the processes of brand building. It's about ambition, values, trust, integrity and vision.

The omens are good, and three things have happened today that convince me this is the right thing to do. Firstly, an email came into BBE today from a potential client, part of which read: "I spotted your ad in several magazines and your venue on the search engines and was incredibly intrigued. Then I saw an advert for the open day; if this is available to the public, please can I attend with a colleague?" Think about it: the ad, the strategy, the search engine optimisation, the event - all integrated and working in harmony. Wonderfully, this email was sent by a representative of a leading PR agency operating in the event sector.

Secondly, for months I have been trying to facilitate a contract between BBE and the influential London Launch website. It has been tricky. Numerous promises from commission-hungry account managers, email tennis, standing my ground, convincing Ali that it is a few quid well spent. Twitchy. Nervy. Understandable. And then tonight, the weekly London Launch Enewsletter is broadcast to the industry and there we are, sitting almost at the top of emailer under the headline "Start the season with a bigger bang"... logo prominent, copy strong, the right picture, timing perfect. Strategy, strategy, strategy....

And finally a defining moment during our meeting, and this was the deal-maker. Readers of this blog and those who know me will be aware of my admiration for Lovemarks (www.lovemarks.com), the brainchild of Saatchi & Saatchi CEO, Kevin Roberts. I have a personal profile on the Lovemarks site and once in a blue moon, I add one of my own Lovemarks. The other night I posted a Lovemark about Babington House on the site. I soon forgot about it. It's my online world that I thought no-one ever took any notice of. (Perhaps I am an avatar after all!)

And then, towards the end of our meeting, Ali says, "I read your Babington House thing on Lovemarks last night". I was amazed. She has added her own profile too. Somehow, my witterings have sunk in. Lovemarks inspires and Lovemarks is inspiration. That was it for me. We have to take it all further. We have to take it to the max. "Loyalty beyond reason", "life beyond the brand", "winning the consumer revolution" and all that...

We even got onto Richard Edleman at one point, but that really is another story....

One step at a time!!!

My great-grandfather was not only the person who set up and developed Cadbury’s Chocolate into the world brand that it is today, but was also a Quaker and an altruist.

 

The reason he and his brother set up Cadbury Brothers in providing cocoa (drinking chocolate) was to give people an alternative to gin and the prevalence of gin houses and alcoholism – as a Quaker he never drank alcohol.

 

George Cadbury was an amazing man in many ways; building the model village of Bournville and the Primary Schools for the good of all, having doctors and nurses in the factory, putting huge amounts of money into pension schemes, and one of his lasting gifts was to set up a charitable trust that gives significant donations to worthy causes, charities and of course Quaker foundations.

 

The idea of giving away money to charities is strong within my genetic make-up, I feel strongly that people should be given the opportunities to develop themselves and many charities allow people to take those opportunities.

 

I know that the George Cadbury Fund has been looked after by generations of the Cadbury family and I hope that one day I will have the opportunity to contribute to looking after the trust and make donations to the charities that I think are important.

 

I have to take my hat off to the thousands of people, who every day, do some crazy things like jumping out of perfectly good aircraft with a parachute for charity, who run marathons dressed as chickens, half-marathons, triathlons and many other types of activity in order to give money to needy causes. In most cases there is a personal connection with the charity, for example knowing someone who has suffered a disease and wanting to contribute to the future fight against it.

 

Impress Media have recently contributed to Julia’s House in Dorset and are keen to work with charities in developing awareness through our expertise in marketing, whether it is website creation, advertising or simply contributing our time.

 

I want to make a difference by ensuring charities are looked after, which fits in with Impress Media’s strapline of ‘creating the difference’.

 

It’s Red Nose Day this coming Friday and I’m sure that we will all be moved by the images on the television, so give generously.

 

For any charities that are interested in discussing their marketing requirements or the George Cadbury Fund then please contact Mark Cadbury on 01985 219996.

Like so many businesses we have as clients, Impress is going through a period of change. Not change for change's sake, but because we are maturing as a business, learning many lessons and understanding more about our own unique selling points (USPs). Impress is not a design house, or a web agency; we are a genuine marketing agency with the capability to produce design-based marketing collateral such as corporate IDs, advertising campaigns, printed literature and websites. It is this USP which is responsible for our ever-expanding client portfolio, and the increasing dexterity of our service provision.

It is our ability to provide a realistic and viable marketing-based business proposition that sets us apart from so many other agencies. This capability stems froms the strength of the agency's personnel and provides our clients with a deeper understanding of marketing theory and implementation. It appears that our product offering is finding favour with many who are simply tired of using agencies that only focus on a single facet of activity; web-builders who don't understand SEO or consumer expectations, ad agencies that don't do strategy, designers that imitate not innovate... and it goes on. We hear it all every day.

With momentum building, we are in the process of striking strategic alliances with a variety of other service providers who specialise in key areas in which Impress work. Specifically these include: Google, a national data company that will enable us to broadcast emails to literally hundreds of thousands of potential customers in any sector, various web agencies as far flung as Paris and Cornwall, and a multitude of contemporary designers seeking an outlet for their work in a commercial environment. On this note, any creatives with the proven desire and portfolios to join Impress in either a full-time or freelance capacity should contact us immediately.

The traditional business landscape is changing apace, and many of our clients' strategies are reflecting the shift from traditional practices to an imaginative and streamlined approach that harnesses powerful tools such as the internet and consumer profiling. Via the web, our clients are reaching out to specific individuals that actively desire their products or services. From double glazing to fashion, we are seeing a striking transition.

Websites that generate leads, sales and profile are now at the heart of so many of our clients' marketing activities. Thermaglaze's site is receiving more online quote requests than at any point in its three year history, Audience Systems' triptych of sites are generating dozens of brochure requests every week, and Big Bang Events are building an online brand profile which is the envy of the industry. We know this is just the start of the revolution and love being at the epicentre of this contemporary approach. To paraphrase my own words, "the Internet is still black and white TV"!

And so we are approaching the era of colour. The point when consumer expectations outstrip the poorly designed website, when companies that neglect their online presence run the risk of killing their brand, when businesses are instantly judged by the quality of their internet profile. The dot bomb days are long gone and we as a society now believe in the power of the net. The entrepreneurs are coming back and realising the vision of the net pioneers that will forever be my inspiration for Impress. Now we have the technology, the demand and the commercial viability to create online brands that generate vast profile levels and, finally, hard cash.

Recently published statistics indicate that there are now over one billion global internet users and over a hundred million web addresses in existence. Almost 70% of the UK population is now online and the B2B community is catching on. Most Impress clients are embracing the revolution and riding the wave with optimism, ambition and adrenalin. We are building over thirty sites, creating numerous blogs, lining Google's pockets with Adword campaigns, broadcasting innovative email strategies and linking our sites with countless directories and affiliate sites. The results are commercially stunning!!!!

And so, you get the picture. Creating the Difference is our strapline and we mean it. It is not always easy, but our intellectual and analytical methodology is raising the bar all round. It is a shame that not everyone can keep up, but the vision is unstoppable.

 

 

 

 

The most evocative sense that we have is smell. Remember the smell of your childhood, your mother’s home cooking, perhaps her scent, that has an emotional bind beyond the sense of sight or hearing.

 

That emotional bond is the captivation of brand, where customer & product/service = brand, the & being the magic. It’s why people love certain brands; there is little logic but an amazing attachment. Andrew has already eluded to this in the blog on Lovemarks the brainchild of Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi CEO.

 

Why when people sell a house do they put vanilla pods on the radiators to give the potential buyers a sense of homeliness or have real coffee percolating at the same time? There was a time when Estate Agents in London had these things in their pockets to encourage sales.

 

So now I have read recently that the smartest corporates out there are investigating the sense of smell with branding. What does that mean? Well, if you’re passing by a retailer and smell something deeply evocative and cannot help but buy then you know that the ultimate brand sensory technique has got you.

 

Apparently when men’s clothes have been diffused with smell of rose maroc then the sales have doubled. De Beers, the diamond dealers, selling the hardest mineral in the world have scented their showrooms with the smell of flowers, citrus and green tea.

 

Sony is developing the idea in not only their retail stores and carrier bags but also to impregnating the hard plastics used in their gadgets with fragrance.

 

What next? The smell of brand new laptops or leather car seats from a bag of Walkers crisps.

 

Brand is truth because it reflects the human psyche.

So the new year dawns and Impress kicks off it's third year proper in a blaze of activity, pitch wins (ironically) and a mountain of work to crash through in the coming months. Perhaps it is just my imagination, but the word seems to be spreading organically. The referral network that envelopes the agency is becoming a vibrant, commercially dynamic and positive environment for not just us, but our clients too. Wonderfully, many Impress clients are starting to do business with each other and we seem to be acting as something of a central hub for a group of like-minded and inspirational entrepreneurs. The atmosphere is electric when two or more of them are in the same room.

Similar themes predominate with the web the catalyst for so much agency activity. Despite the cynics, Alan Yentob's BBC Imagine documentary on the Internet captured the spirit of the age and broadcast concepts and (cyber) media trends to the biggest possible UK audience. Like tor loathe it, and most of the geeks scribbling on forum's and blogs seem to loathe it, but the fact is most of the British population is still oblivious to the potential of the web and have virtually no concept of Web 2.0, Blogging, Flickr, My Space, You Tube, let alone You Porn!!!!!

The very fact that Yentob secured a large wedge of Auntie's dosh to make the programme in the first place and get it broadcast at what was effectively a peak viewing slot, highlights the growing power and influence of the net over the common man (or woman - "thanks Reg" - Life of Brian!!!!). Yentob is a pillar of the broadcasting establishment and he is one of that rare breed of TV-types who's opinion actually carry some weight. No coincidence that many Impress clients' are now requesting Blogs to be added to their sites, asking about their web stats and even submitting comments to Forum's. This was not happening even a year ago.

Many of the sites we manage are experiencing a phenomenal increase in traffic levels, enquiries and sales. The fear of cyberspace is dissolving and the dot com pioneers were right all along; it just took the western world a while to catch up with the vision. Bless you Martha Lane-Fox; you can look back at that interview with another BBC heavyweight, Jeremy Paxman, and have the last laugh. Nothing blinder than the man that does not want to see.....

The web is liberating all areas areas of business and the world of the soul trader or SME is catching on fast. Many a corporate is way behind the eight ball and even numerous oh so cool media companies are stripped bare by their lack of Internet understanding. Of the UK's foremost Bloggers' (and yes, it is now a job title) was writing recently about her work with a trendy London PR agency and her comments would have "shamed a politician" (to quote Echo & the Bunnymen).

So, the land of opportunity beckons and 2007 really will be the year when the Internet's potential comes of age. It really has very little to do with the geeks, but more to do with consumer demand, public awareness and a burning desire for the population to "educate, entertain and inform", which just happens to be the phrase by which Lord Reith, the first Director General of the BBC, is most commonly remembered. So you see, the technology may change, but it is human nature that is the heart and soul of any media revolution.

As with TV, the Internet is just about to go colour!

 

Re: My Last Blog Entry.

Yes, we won it and Mr Cadbury owes me a tenner!!!!

Always look up.

Yes Mark. I read your Blog entry tonight and it has been a tough month or two. But, heh, what did you expect? A walk in the park. Not on your life baby! This is the sharp end and we both know it. No cosy corporate cotton wool to snuggle up into when the going gets a little rough now matey.

You should have been with me right at the beginning of the Impress odyssey when no-one, and I mean literally no-one, gave it a prayer. But here we are. Doubling turnover year on year; more and more clients every week; losing the odd one on the way, but let's live and learn. The entity that Impress is still less than three years old and I kinda believe that we haven't even started yet. I know you love my comparisons with a past life in the music biz, so here's another one. We've just hit the tricky third album stage. Expectations are high and the audience awaits. Will the hype be justified? Or will the doubters have their day early? Well, guess what, there is only one answer. The third album will be the best yet; white noise overload and the lyrics of an angel. Just you wait. Wanna bet me....?

So, why so confident? Cos we produce outstanding work throughout. Cos we do deliver. Cos we are learning from our mistakes. Cos we have the humility to say 'I was wrong' (another Sisters' track) and apologise. Cos we take it on the chin and the spirit shines through. Cos the endeavours are heart-driven and cos we know what we have to do.

The old dame Lady Luck plays a part too. British Telecom - what do you really expect? A lumbering corporate monolith trying to hang on to the amoral monopoly it has always been gifted by God knows who. But it makes mountains of cash so our Broadband fiasco matters not a jot to them. I am even starting to enjoy the battle. Every call; every empty promise; every red bill. Sha la la la..... The battle will continue until the cheque arrives rest assured.

Pitching. Now there's another matter. So you have lost a couple of late. Don't worry about it. I admire your tenacity and belief in the concept that we do loads of work for nothing, only to be shrugged off like a errant fly. You know my view and I won't change. Just follow your instinct and crack on. You have won quite a few don't forget and what about Crown Paints!!!! I will follow my own (hooked) nose and do it my way following the labyrinth of referrals and introductions. It seems to be working cool my end and I am totally committed to our existing clients who really need their marketing agency at the mo. Business is tough for some of  them and we must stand shoulder to shoulder.....

Which brings me to Blue M. It was awful. Humiliating and a real wake-up call. We can blame BT or whoever, but we should have had a back-up plan. We should have. We were carried away by the concept we believed in so much. We missed a trick or two and the lesson has been a bitter one. Hopefully, the only loss has been reputation which can be repaired over time.

Two things I cannot change. Your age and your dog. Commiserations to one and all regarding the latter, but your age only matters if you start thinking about it too much. So keep the faith and get on with it. Oh, and buy the way, here are a few reasons to be cheerful agency-wise:

Orchard Park project cranking up into overdrive.
Winning Bodyline Books as a client - How cool is that?
The 3Sphere re-brand. Beautiful. Big thanks to Angela & Martin in particular.
Farm Shops everywhere and the irony of it all.
Everything that is Pythouse.

And, I nearly forgot, I did win the Top Banana pitch this week. Not that I'm rubbing it in or anything....

And we're pitching together tomorrow to a genuine multi-national!!!!!!!!!!!!

A tenner says we win it hands down!!!!

Personally the last month has not been the best time of the year.

 

Firstly we have been badly let down by British Telecom, we had no broadband access for 2 weeks, through BT’s faulty installation. This meant that we were unable to present a web-based pitch for a brand design agency for their global website. Not only had Impress done all the research work, presided over a workshop, interviewed some of their global clients in UK, USA, Australia and Europe, but also devised a site map. However, it was impossible to present the full extent of our work.

 

Secondly, I had a great idea for a really interactive and engaging website for a school in Dorset, Bryanston Public School. The idea was to engage with parents, pupils and staff both current and potential by online video – the way of the world at the moment if you look at Youtube.com (20 million unique visitors a month!) and Video Google. This was another pitch, against larger agencies, and Impress did not get the website work.

 

Thirdly, our family dog died of bronchial pneumonia which was incredibly sad, while all the above was going on. Lara, named after the cricketer Brian Charles Lara, was a 12 year old black Labrador who had the sweetest temperament you could ever wish for in a dog. She grew up as my three boys were growing up and is the same age as my oldest son. We all miss her terribly.

 

I don’t like the pitching process.

 

The brand design agency, Blue Marlin, one of the global leaders in brand packaging design, were incredibly generous in offering a fee for the pitch. They have worked on pitches for their potential clients over the past 12 years at huge cost to the organisation only to get a two-line email saying we’ll keep you on our books!

 

Bryanston had 5 agencies pitch for the website work, some going all the way down to Dorset from as far as Cambridge. Effectively each agency had a 20% chance of getting the business, and each of them (I’m sure) put in hours, days and weeks of preparation.

 

Impress do pitch for work and have successfully pitched for 4 or 5 pieces of work that include websites in the past 3 weeks. However, we always maintain that we are a marketing agency not a web agency or design agency in isolation.

 

Marketing is a broad area of expertise and we pride ourselves in delivering customer-driven solutions that involve strategy, branding, research and tactical delivery. Effectively you get what you pay for, and we deliver the highest level of strategic thinking.

 

Impress want to be in the position whereby potential customers come to us, talk to us, realise that what they are getting is a thought through strategic approach and not a simple tactical solution.

 

I was also my 43^rd Birthday on 7^th November!

Blogging is the new journalism and offers a liberated and self-publishing medium for individuals and companies alike. However, the B2B world has been slow to catch on especially in the dog-eat-dog world of the SME. Blogs also have phenomenal influence on the search engines and can provide a quick method for bolstering site position, traffic levels and site awareness.

Many Impress clients seem reluctant to embrace blogging. Perhaps it is just due to ignorance of a medium that can have profound benefits for their company sites. Clients are rightly obsessed by search engine optimisation and seem to be willing to spend a small fortune on adding keywords, links and new content in a forlorn hope of getting a first page listing on Google. The SEO freaks will no doubt be throwing their arms in the air with rage when I state that, in my experience, adding a Blog to a company site has far more instant benefits than any of the established SEO techniques.

Justification for this statement is only borne out of experience. Impress manage countless websites and all our clients want a primary position on key terms. By their very nature, the most popular terms are inevitably the most generic and this is where a reality check is needed. With the volume of sites competing for front page position, not every company can achieve this goal no matter how much effort or money is spent on keywords or links. I Wish this were not true as I could make many of my clients very happy if adding a few keywords and links could put them near the top of the natural listings.

Switch back to the power of the blog. My last entry featured Kevin Roberts 'Lovemarks' phenomena and I was contacted by Kevin's PR within 24 hours of posting the blog. Remember that Kevin is the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi and probably one of the most controversial marketing figures on the planet. No marketing  medium in the world enables me to establish direct contact with such an individual in such a short timescale; I would never get through to him by phone, but the Blog prompted an instant response. The complimentary copy of his latest book duly arrived from the US a few weeks later and an email interview has been agreed once I have finished reading the book.

Cut to an Impress pitch for a new website on behalf of Bodyline Books, the world's leading supplier of Wisden's. Those who know me will be aware that I love cricket with a passion so I really do want to win this pitch more than most. On a visit to Bodyline's premises in Farnham, I was like a child in a sweet shop confronted by literally hundreds of Wisden's including a copy of the very first edition. The guys that run Bodyline Books are looking to rebuild their site and secure a front page listing on Google for the niche areas they specialise in. Without doubt, these guys are the worldwide authorities on Wisden's, cricket books and other areas of sports memorabilia. They have expert knowledge and information unique to their company and clientele. I have strongly advocated the introduction of a Blog to their new website and hope to the cricketing gods in the sky that I win this pitch.

The case is the same for many Impress clients who possess unique and inspirational information that will find resonance with key target markets. At no point am I suggesting that established SEO techniques should not be embraced, but if you really want to communicate online, join the Blogging revolution that represents yet another level in the evolution of the Internet.

 

It's a rainy Wednesday night in Somerset and my cosy apartment is filled with the music of my beloved Sisters of Mercy. Outside, the first taste of winter upon the wind and a sleepy silence. The Sisters is the band that I love the most in the world. A band that for an all too brief few years touched the highest echelons of brilliance; lyrically intelligent with the subtle touch of a poet perhaps wasted on the pop medium; live - an exhilarating head rush of adrenalin that stole my heart every time, even the bands' logo, house font (Caslon Antique) and sleeve designs appealed to my design sensibilities even way back then in the pre-Apple era and only added to their magnificence in my minds eye.

So. What has this got to do with Impress, marketing and brand? Well, surfing the web I came across the Saatchi & Saatchi website and, more importantly Lovemarks (www.saatchikevin.com), the brainchild of the companies CEO - Kevin Roberts. For those who don't know, Lovemarks is a concept, a spirit and a 'vision thing' that looks beyond the brand. In his own words, "Lovemarks are brands that inspire loyalty beyond reason. People love them because of what they are, not because of what they do. Their appeal is emotional. Companies may own brands. But Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them."

And this is just the beginning. Within a few clicks I am reading some of the most inspiring marketing stuff ever written. The transcript's of Kevin's speeches just cut straight through all the crap and banish many traditional theories to the trash can where I have long believed they belong. Just check this out -

Management is a fallen hero. Doing things right, does not sustain enterprise. Nor does leadership, doing the right things. The message from the freezer box of business is that inspiration is the killer app.  That while none of us is as strong as all of us, it is the power of one that ignites. You are here today because as individuals you have the courage to make a difference in your respective fields. As instigators. As inspirers. As activators. After 35 years in business on four continents, my haka to you is to be an inspirational player. To be "in spirit". I ask you to inspire life. That means doing more than managing and leading. It means going to the end of the earth for what you believe in.

This is just for starters and I hope Kevin does not object to my cut and paste job from his text. His site is a revolution, an explosion of ideas, passions and expressions of the human spirit that is a 'must read' for every entrepreneur, marketer or brand manager, sole trader or company director. It warms the heart and is a rock-solid affirmation for all those great motivations which inspire anyone to start, run or manage a business.

On a personal note as MD of Impress, it is poignant stuff as I work with countless clients many of whom are having a tough time at the moment. Cashflow, economic uncertainty, staff problems; I hear it all and experience it myself on a daily basis. As their marketing agency, I urge positivity, visionary treatment of customers, aspirational values and unconditional dedication to the respective cause. It's hard, bloody hard especially for the SME market. Consumers, that most fickle of bunches, just want to feel loved over and over again. We are all human beings and love to be loved. Business is no longer just a functional transition. It is an emotional environment where feeling valued is king. Win the love and you win the dollar.

And so, The Sisters play on and on and I have now listened to all three original albums from start to finish. Joyous. This is the band that inspired me to write and publish my first fanzine which somehow (by default) dragged me into the marketing world in the first place.  

Each CD is being re-released this month. I already have the vinyl, the promos, the Japanese imports and Christ knows what else, but I have already ordered the remastered and repackaged versions from HMV. And all because I love and I will always love The Sisters of Mercy. Get it? Loyalty beyond reason..... 

 

 

 

At Impress we advocate the use of research to give real customer feedback on what your customers think about your brand, ideas, performance and won and lost accounts.

 

The key to research is to make the customer feel that their opinion is valued, and it is, in this sense it is a brand exercise in its own right despite the results.

 

Another key part of research is that it is conducted from an independent credible source so that your customers are as open and honest as possible, that they don’t hold back but tell you the truth – good or bad.

 

Recently we have conducted research on behalf of Space Works, an office design, fit out and furniture supply specialists; Blue Marlin, a brand packaging design agency with offices around the world as well as Big Bang Events, a corporate events specialist and Busy Bodies, a local gym in Wiltshire and Audience Systems, a seating supplier for stadia all over Europe..

 

The results have been fascinating and as always contain real insight into the customer perception (perception is reality) and real nuggets of information that can be acted on immediately.

 

The perception of your brand comes through time and time again, and how individuals and team dynamics in your company can make a real difference to customer perception, do they live the brand ethos and demonstrate it when communicating with your customers?

 

The research has delivered perceptions of company names and possible name changes, the sales process – information flow, is it timely and accurate? How you have performed on a project, and how to improve your products and services.

 

An area that Impress is particularly zealous about is the Internet, how people are using it, what they want from your website and how they view your competitors? Openness and honesty are themes that constantly come up.

 

Not only has the research given evidence of areas of customer concern, but also how they like to be communicated with, whether they have future work on the horizon that you can pitch/tender for or even how they found out about you in the first place and how and why they selected you or not, as the case may be. The results of which can be acted on and a marketing strategy implemented for the future.

 

Research is essential on making key business decisions and all the research projects that we have conducted have led to our clients changing the way they do business. So for an insight into what your customers really think, contact Mark Cadbury or Andrew Pinnell.

Last week a friend who I had been trying to persuade to talk to Impress about marketing confessed that he had probably done the wrong thing.

I asked him why he felt like that, he said that he had gone to another agency, highly recommended and very creative and they have eventually produced a rather beautiful brochure. Now, I had spent an evening chatting to my friend about 2 years ago about the power of branding.

You didn't have to spend millions on advertising but you had to be sure that you were doing the right thing by your business and therefore your brand.

Essentially I extolled the brand virtues that any company large or small can achieve. It's a simple formula but one steeped in art and magic - your product or service & your customer = your brand. Where the & is the key, the magic, the emotional tie that makes an existing customer so loyal and a potential one seduced by the brand.

My friend said he had a lovely brochure, with beautiful graphics, artwork and reproduction, but an older friend of his said "It looks great, but what about your brand?" He has a stunning piece of creative but where was his brand?

Each and every business contact that we meet we talk to them about branding, about owning a position, of sticking with your key messages and brand values, of creating awareness of your principles and remaining consistent to your core.

So, it's all about brand, whether it be your personal brand - your ethos, or your business brand - what your company stands for. It is like a faith, we all have belief.

Impress work with many entrepreneurs, some internationally successful others striving to create their own space, but whether your are big or small, hugely successful or a legend in your own bath time - when you come to talk to me or Andrew you know you are getting a strategic, brand marketing outlook on your business, and no matter how big the budget you will get the very best marketing advice that we are able to give to achieve your business and marketing objectives.

A brand is a brand is a brand - the triple mantra of many an organisation - from the Labour Party's education, education, education to Estate Agent's location, location, location - the brand is king and long may it live!

 

 

 

Impress invites friends and guests to attend the agency's monthly marketing forum at Babington House, Nr. Frome on Tuesday October 3rd 2006. Titled Second Tuesday, this event will feature a presentation from John Davies of Bath-based agency Salestar and will focus on the importance of the sales process to any business. The evening promises to be great fun as John is a vastly experienced entrepreneur and larger than life personality.

Places are limited to 25 so it is essential that those wishing to attend inform Rhian Williams (rhian@impress-marketing.co.uk) in advance. The event will be held in the library on the first floor of Babington and guests are encouraged to meet at 7 for a 7.30pm start.

For more information, please contact Rhian or Mark Cadbury at Impress.

I declare from the outset that I like my threads. A sharp suit from Boss or Hetcher used to be my favourites. Shirts from Nigel Hall, shoes by Oliver Sweeney or Jeffrey West all used to have me reaching for the plastic with barely a thought for the cost. So what has happened? Well, the aforementioned  brands all still produce great gear, but somehow they have lost me as a customer/client. Perhaps I am a clothes snob, but Boss & Hetcher are now stocked in department stores and Hall seems to have lost that edgy-cool design element that I used to love. West & Sweeney just don't seem to have moved on and clumpy, rounded toes have just never been my thing. It is, of course, hugely subjective and I thank these companies for raising the profile of male tailoring over the last five years in particular.

However, brand loyalty is rooted in the sub-conscious and my favour has been won by new brands that seem to stand for something that little bit extra. Reiss is one such brand. Every major city has a Reiss store in the High Street which are characterised by a slightly 'dark' image. I cannot speak for all the outlets, but recent visits to branches in Birmingham & Bristol seem to justify the statement. In a previous life, I was a regular visitor to Reiss' flagship store in High Street Ken. and adored their clothes even then. Now the brand seems to have upped the anti.

Beyond the shopfitting, the clothes are superbly stylish. Sharply cut and dominated by this season's greys, browns and dark reds. And of course purples. The pair of women's shoes that dominate the left hand window in the Bristol store are simply to die for. Purple with black pattern, heels that scream sophisticated girl power and a fabric as sensuous as a Saturday night, just demand to be worn. Matching skirts and blouses provoked a gasp from the girl on my arm and the plastic was unquestioningly removed from my wallet.

By the time I reached the men's floor downstairs, I was already a few hundred quid down, but captivated by the array of ties, suits and shirts that dominated my eye. The fact that the instore hi-fi started playing the second Nouvelle Vague (www.nouvellesvagues.com) album only enhanced the brand seduction that I was experiencing. I managed to resist the suits, but quickly purchased a couple of shirts and ties which I justified in my own mind as a much-needed Autumn collection. As if....

The staff were great too. Fun and informed without being pushy. Sympathetic and not at all patronising which is something many of those oh so trendy boutique shops in Bath could learn from.

The flash website (www.reiss.co.uk) reinforces all the company brand values with an emphasis on both sexy and contemporary. The global expansion plans of the group are outlined in the About section with an air of confidence and corporate ambition that captures the essence of the clothes themselves. So, congratulations David Reisse for the vision thing that your brand has become. Inspiring stuff for entrepreneurs and marketers everywhere.

 

Wonderland Magazine was launched in September 2005 after 29 year old entrepreneur Huw Gwyther managed to secure £175, 000 investment from telecoms millionaire and panelist Peter Jones on the Dragons Den TV show.

Quoting from the press release that followed the launch, Peter Jones says, ‘Huw was very impressive when presenting on Dragon’s Den and I was immediately struck by his knowledge of the international magazine and publishing markets, not to mention his passion for wanting to make a concept like Wonderland actually happen. For me, Wonderland is more than just a high quality magazine, it is a brand that can be nurtured and expanded in a number of exciting different ways. Huw has the vision and determination to make this happen and I’m delighted to be a part of it.’

The magazine is published on a bi-monthly basis and is a luxury publication aimed uniquely at both affluent men and women of sophisticated tastes, aged between 20 and 40 years. It promises to showcase the very best of the world’s best consumer goods and services as well as a stimulating round-up of contemporary visual culture. Moving away from the stereotypical ‘male’ or ‘female’ targeted publications of the past, Wonderland will focus instead on providing sophisticated, intelligent information and entertainment for everyone.

Huw Gwyther explains, ‘We aim to create an important, modern brand that will quickly become synonymous with good taste, style and originality, overflowing with the kind of information one might expect from a discerning friend.’ Wonderland will entertain, challenge and inform, assisting the reader rather than dictating to them, so that they may decide for themselves how to spend those two most valuable commodities: their time and their money.’

Wonderland catches the eye on the over-crowded news stands on account of an uncluttered cover design with a splash of spot uv gloss. The content is varied and style-conscious supported by global super brand advertising from the likes of Louis Vuitton, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci. Throughout the magazine, the photography is stunning and many of the pages of the latest issue (5) could happily be cut out and framed.

The product clearly draws inspiration from titles such as The Face, ID and Wallpaper, but avoids the trappings of the now standard format of GQ, Arena & Esquire etc. Perhaps this is because the magazine adopts a format not governed by the sexuality of the audience. If you like cool then it doesn't matter if you are male or female, is the Wonderland mantra.

Impress loves the vision and ethos behind the magazine and congratulates the team for putting something unique and creatively compelling on the racks of WH Smith et al.

 

Mark Cadbury, my co-Director at Impress, mentioned in his last Blog entry a site that we have built and managed for a local double glazing company. Many of you will need no convincing that the Internet provides an essential marketing or information sharing tool, but perhaps a belief in the absolute power of the Net needs a little reinforcing for some. Double glazing is not the most glamorous of sectors and yet, www.thermaglaze.com, proves beyond all doubt just how influential a website can be.

The site is interactive in every sense and enables users to find an online quote for double glazing products without even having to submit an email address or phone number. The site mirrors the transparent pricing structure of Thermaglaze which flys in the face of the stereotypical image of the double glazing business. No hard sell here and barely even a soft sell. The site simply tells you how much the company's products cost, allowing the user to make their own consumer choices without fear of a cold call or intrusive visit from a salesman.

Of course, thermaglaze.com took a long time to develop and the hand-coded technology that enables a user to get an instant price for any number of doors (with or without a door knocker or brass numerals!!!) is sophisticated. However, the Thermaglaze website now attracts 50+ unique visitors per day and a significant stream of online leads. The company's superb conversion rate ensure that the site is an essential profit centre for the business and now forms a integral element of the group's marketing strategy.

I recently pitched to another double glazing company who were interested in the same system. They had never seen anything like it online and are in the process of deliberating whether to change their business model to accommodate this wonderful online tool. I hope they do as Impress want to further refine the technology prior to marketing the system more widely.

Feedback from Thermaglaze customers has been very positive and the site continues to generate significant revenues. If you are a double glazing company and wish to discuss how this website can transform your lead generation strategy, then get in touch.

In my experience at Impress and before that in the corporate world, what people want from their website, is for it to be a lead generator.

 

Now, what that means, is someone showin