Newsletter 4
Most of us are sick and tired of hearing about the economy but at long last there seems to have been some positive news with 0.1% growth last quarter.
On the one hand, not much to write home about, especially as many experts don’t expect to see a strong recovery this year. On the other hand, at least it’s something positive and gives us a reason to be more optimistic.
We think that just being in business at the moment is an amazing achievement and one to be celebrated. But there are statistics around that confirm that more businesses fail coming out of a recession than when in the thick of it.
With all this uncertainty one thing is for sure: marketing is going to play a key role in any company’s survival.
And not just any old marketing. A planned, integrated approach is going to be the name of the game. What does this mean to you? Well you can read our white paper on the subject but in summary, an integrated approach brings together the numerous channels available to the modern marketer with a co-ordinated voice delivering the right message, to the right customer, at the right time.
It’s certainly something we’ve been practising for years and perhaps why we are busier now than we’ve ever been. Indeed, we've taken on two people to help handle the increased business and to add some excellent skills to our team. And as you’ll see from the rest of our news we’ve secured work from existing and new clients working on a variety of projects.
So we think the message coming across loud and clear is don’t rest on your laurels as there’s a long way to go. It’s certainly a message we’ve taken to heart for some time now.
Annabel and Jen have joined the Through Creative team.
Annabel joins us as our finance and office manager and with official Sage training is well qualified to help us keep our numbers in order. Many of our clients will be hearing from her as she’ll also be acting as an additional account handling resource and keeping them up to date with the status of their projects.
Jen has taken the role of designer and will increase our capacity and skills set in the studio. Graduating from Staffordshire University in Graphic Design and she's already established herself as an accomplished designer. She originally did a work placement with us in 2009 before heading off to London for six months to work at some of the industries largest and most respected agencies. As talent like this doesn't come along very often we quickly snapped her up on her return to the north west.
We’re delighted with both appointments and are already having great fun working with them.
Through Creative has developed and launched a new website for Manchester-based warehouse management software specialist, Chess Logistics Technology (Chess) – www.chess.uk.com.
In addition to refreshing the design, the brief was to create a site that would enable Chess to take full control of their content through the integration of a Content Management System (CMS) allowing the update of the website to be completed in-house via multiple-editor access.
The ability to regularly update site content, including adding and deleting pages and uploading new copy and images, has the added benefit of aiding search engine optimisation (SEO) which Through Creative will be helping Chess with going forward.
An RSS feed has been added to the site to ensure that customers and other stakeholders are able to conveniently keep up-to-date with new information as well as a newsletter sign-up to capture vital contact information to enable the company to grow its database and spread its message.
Alex Mills, sales and marketing director at Chess, comments: “The website is an important part of our marketing activities but one that we found difficult to control. Since the new CMS has been put into place our site is now an asset to our business and offers so much more to us and our customers. Even though it’s still too early to see any meaningful results from the SEO we’re confident that Through Creative will deliver as we’ve seen throughout our five year working relationship.”
Two businesswomen from Cheshire have launched a new regional magazine called Families Cheshire. The free publication, which is part of the Families Group of publications, is aimed at families with children aged 0-12 years.
The magazine has been produced by Macclesfield-based mothers and businesswomen, Jayne Keep and Caryl Hall. Current circulation is 16,500 with the fourth edition currently available through nurseries, schools, libraries, play centres, activity classes, selected shops and other points throughout Cheshire.
The pair decided to ‘keep it local’ and appointed two Macclesfield businesses to help produce the magazine. Through Creative developed the design and TenEight supplied the cover photography.
The pair are well qualified to produce such a publication, both being mothers and one of their passions is to push the community angle to ensure it remains a magazine for families of Cheshire.
Each edition, of which there will be six in the first year, majors on one particular aspect of family life. In addition there are opinion articles, book reviews and a Parent’s Place offering useful advice on a series of issues.
“We are both busy mums with young kids so understand how hectic life can be,” comments Caryl Hall. “We love the concept of Families and felt that Cheshire was crying out for its own version. We’re delighted with our relationship with Through Creative and how things have gone so far.”
The Families website which can be viewed at www.familiesonline.co.uk and anyone with local news and events should contact Jayne and Caryl at events@familiescheshire.co.uk.
Through Creative has worked closely with Manchester-based John Hogg, one of the world’s leading specialists for marking fuels and lubricants to help combat fraud and smuggling, to develop its new website.
The company wanted a creative partner to undertake a web design refresh using the existing brand identity and then supply the built templates for John Hogg’s technical team to populate and launch.
In addition to identifying the site navigation and new design, Through Creative worked closely with the John Hogg team to ensure the best possible result.
William Webb from John Hogg comments: “We’re very happy with the results and the support that Through Creative gave us. We really did work as a collaboration and in my opinion have achieved the best possible result.”
The Chartered Institute of Marketing has awarded Through Creative’s Ed Beattie Chartered Marketer status.
According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Chartered Marketer status is the mark of an up-to-date, experienced and qualified marketing professional and its achievement marks the commitment Ed has shown to continuing professional development (CPD) in learning new skills and obtaining knowledge.
As a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and having already achieved the Diploma in Marketing, Ed has to commit to 35 hours of CPD activity annually in addition to his day to day activities. And this commitment is ongoing as regular, random auditing is carried out each year with a failure to comply resulting in loss of status.
Ed comments: “I see Chartered Marketer status as a prerequisite for any marketing professional otherwise how can you be expected to offer best possible advice? It is a commitment that I enjoy and know that it helps me to deliver best possible advice and add value where possible.”
The world of social media has taken off dramatically and is having a huge impact on organisations large and small, with the likes of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn amongst many others leading the way.
Because of the power of ‘word of mouth’ social media is an ideal platform for brands to engage with their audience and communicate through blogs, commenting, reviewing and generally entering into conversation. It can be used to achieve many goals, examples being to help build links and generate site traffic, to get an insight into what people think and to promote products and services, amongst others, so don’t get left behind.
If you'd like to talk to us about how we can develop an appropriate strategy then feel free to get in touch.
Stay in touch with our latest news by subscribing to our RSS news feed, follow us on Twitter, or if you would like to read our latest rambling on something and nothing check out our blogs.
By Rob Hawley, Mathys & Squire LLP
Marketing professionals know that brand identity is the reason why customers choose one product or service over another, and that embodied within a brand are all the values, qualities, characteristics and personality that a brand owner aspires to communicate to its customers.
Sadly though, what many brand owners overlook is how vulnerable brands can be unless they are protected effectively. Take, for example, the brand belonging to a Premiership Football Club. The Club will sell replica shirts, scarves and hats, as well as numerous other products such as posters, bed linen, lunch boxes, watches, pens and even screensavers depicting their brand; and not just here in the UK, but to fans all around the globe. Much of the income for the Club might come from the sale of branded goods, and thus counterfeit goods (on which no royalty has been paid) can make a serious dent in their finances, in addition to damaging their reputation if the quality is not up to standard.
Holding and protecting a Trade Mark relating to your brand can ensure that income is not lost, and prevents the abuse of your brand by competitors or criminals trying to mislead consumers. Take the example of Toblerone®. Through its registration for the 3D shape of its product it has the exclusive rights to produce triangular chocolate bars. Any competitor producing chocolate of a similar shape would be infringing Toblerlone’s Trade Mark, and goods could be, and have been, removed from the shelves and destroyed for such an infringement.
Owning a registered Trade Mark means that all advertising spend becomes an investment in a tangible asset – your brand and product reputation. Coca Cola is probably the best known brand in the world, and of its estimated value of $60 billion over 75% is associated with the brand alone. Little wonder that they take their Trade Marks very seriously.
Contrary to popular belief simply writing ™ after your logo affords you no protection, and the ® symbol can only be used for Trade Marks that are officially registered. It costs less than most people assume to protect a brand in this way and, provided they remain in use, registered Trade Marks can be renewed indefinitely by their owners.
Before embarking on the launch of a new product think seriously about the existing brands in the market and take steps to differentiate your branding in such a way as to ensure you do not infringe any registered Trade Marks and, more importantly, that your new brand is itself protected.
Rob Hawley is a partner at Mathys and Squire LLP, one of the country’s leading Intellectual Property firms with offices throughout the UK. The company advises some of the best known brands in the world including Google, BBC, BP, E-bay, Harley Davidson and Chelsea Football Club. If you would like to know more about protecting your brand then please contact Rob Hawley or Gary Johnston on 0161 870 5900 or visit www.mathys-squire.com
