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Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

Helping to Win Awards

Friday, May 18th, 2012

Just heard some great news from one of our clients, regarding a recent campaign that we produced for them in partnership with Wirral Council.

Studiowide created the Warmer Wirral campaign for Energy Projects Plus. The campaign which ran from October 2011 to March 2012 greatly contributed to the overall uptake of the scheme and included, direct mail, email marketing, videos, website and press releases.

"The Gas Industry Energy Efficiency Award went to Wirral Council for their highly successful community scheme, which delivered insulation to nearly fourteen thousand homes, created over twenty local jobs and which will have saved more than a quarter of a million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the measures."

We provided a complete strategic marketing service to Energy Projects Plus and Wirral Council, including; web design & development, graphic design, video production, printing, copywriting and review of sales strategies.

Read more about the award in the Liverpool Echo.

Tags: marketing
Posted in Chartered Marketing, Copywriting, Graphic Design, Our News, PR, Video Production, Web development | No Comments »

Starbucks is not Apple

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

Written by Carl Da-Costa-Greaves

“Marketing is a foundation on which creativity flourishes. It requires marketers who are passionate about quality of information and guidance that is offered’’ Howard Schultz.

Having just read the new book ‘Onward’ by Starbucks current CEO, I wanted to thank the company and Howard Schultz for not being Apple Inc.

The Onward book written by Howard Schultz offers a candid insight into how one of the world’s biggest brands lost its way.

The first thing that struck me about this book is how inspirational Howard Schultz is. By the end of the book you grasp a total understanding for the concept of image, personality, identity and reputation, and how shareholder pressure on profits can sometimes threaten and detract from the core values of what a brand stands for.

So many academic case studies immediately point to the giant that Apple Inc, is, and all the success the company has enjoyed – I even completed a case study in my final Post Grad exam titled ‘Can the iPad save the print industry’.

Quite frankly, in my opinion it gets a bit boring studying a company whose only problems point to how many iPhones they can physically produce in order to keep up with demand. I am a great appreciator of technology and I love the apple products BUT, the company lacks depth and emotion – this does not make for a rounded story.

With marketing students learning the importance of a market orientated company very early on in their studies, and how businesses who do not have a sustainable market oriented model do not truly understand the concepts of marketing. Onward demonstrates this principal in a way that has not resonated with me before.

This book is the real deal – no fictional case study, but pure business. If you’re from the school of hard-knock business then you will probably cringe at some of the personal and emotional struggles Howard Shultz deals with. For the majority, it will strike a chord and leave you feeling that if you owned Starbucks, you would like to think that you too would make the same decisions he did.

Howard Schultz believes in his coffee experience and quite simply wants to create a company that rewards its employees and investors and delivers a superior product and experience. Don’t be fooled by thinking that this is just another bunch of CEO Clichés. Starbucks lives by its values and well done Howard Schultz for sticking to them, and thank you for not being Apple.

Tags: howard schultz, marketing, starbucks
Posted in General Marketing | No Comments »

Brochure design for NHS

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

We have successfully finished and delivered a graphic design, copywriting and marketing project for the St Helens & Knowsley Health Informatics department of the NHS.

The project brief was to create an organisational brochure from the ground-up which could then be used to promote the Health Informatics Services across other primary care trusts within the NHS.

This was the first company brochure the Health Informatics team had commissioned, which meant we had a totally blank canvas to work from. The only stipulation we had was to meet a deadline to deliver the final printed brochures, ready for a regional NHS exhibition on the 30th March 2011.

We approached this brief with our marketing hats on. We held a half day mind mapping session with 10 senior managers and directors from the Health Informatics team. We chose to use the mind mapping tool as we find it to be a very creative and visual way of brain storming, plus it engages everyone from the start.

We gathered some flip charts, an easel and a pen and just let it all flow. After the four hour session we had about 30 flip chart pieces of paper, all blue tacked around the walls of the meeting room. The overall idea of the event was to engage managers in discussions about segmentation, target markets, positioning and overall market orientation – these are subjects we find that aren’t discussed too often in public sector companies.

Following the morning event we came away with a lot of large pieces of paper and some very clear ideas about the identity of the Health Informatics organisation. This knowledge acted as a foundation to feed back to our designers and provide detailed information for the copywriting of content.

The brochure was finished ahead of time and delivered to the NHS St Helens & Knowsley Informatics team 1 day early. The project included full design and printing of brochures. Our standard procedure for printed brochures is to utilise our digital publishing service to turn all hard copy brochures into fully interactive versions that the client can also utilise on their websites. See above. View the full interactive brochure.

Tags: brochure design, graphic design, marketing, Publishing
Posted in Chartered Marketing, Copywriting, Graphic Design, Publishing | No Comments »

Facebook Guerrilla Marketing

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

Facebook’s controversial new feature takes the profile picture of members who ‘like’ a ‘sponsored story’ and creates a mini advert to encourage their friends to like the product, with you as the ‘face’ of the brand. Although Facebook has insisted this fits its privacy settings, its privacy policy hints that advertisers “may be permitted to use member’s pictures independently at some point.”

So what do you think…? Would you want your friends to see your face as the ambassador for a product?

For me personally, I choose not to like things on my Facebook, not just products but of any sort. Some of my friends litter my News Feed with pointless ‘likes’ to obvious things such as – having a lie in on a Sunday, Pringles and hugs… what’s the point guys? Does anyone really care if you like Pringles, who the heck doesn’t like them? And would it make a difference to my opinion of a product if I found out via Facebook that my friends like it too?

Technology websites are advising how to disable this through the account settings…So next time perhaps think twice before you choose to click ‘like’ to a certain product via your Facebook, and make sure you actually want to endorse that product because you don’t know how long it could be out there for…

Tags: internet marketing strategy, marketing
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

Friday Feeling

Friday, March 18th, 2011

By Beki Reilly – Creative Designer

Yesterday we were wearing green, today we're wearing red. And for those of you who didn’t know; it’s Red Nose Day! So whatever you’re up to, sporting a red nose, shaving your head, wearing your pyjamas' all day through town… (Oh wait that’s no different to any other day to the folk where I live.) … Have fun doing it and happy fundraising!

Its Friday again, this week has gone so quickly! I’ve coined a lot of terms for Friday, Hawaii Friday; because the office has heated up so much its shorts and t-shirt weather in here, and Friday film swaps where we trade movies to watch over the weekend. As well as our weekly swap this is what I’m looking forward to watching this weekend in the pictures – Submarine.

Watch the Trailer

Submarine is Richard Ayoade’s British comedy, about a boy desperate to lose his virginity. If you don’t know Ayoade, he is the kooky ‘Moss’ from the IT crowd and ‘Saboo / Dixon Bainbridge’ from The Mighty Boosh. I can’t tell you much, as I have yet to watch it but I love Sally Hawkins and Paddy Considine… So let’s just say I am ridiculously excited about it!

Also I want to post about my good friend Tom Cleeland, who I met before I started working for Studiowide, back when I was working on a placement in Manchester. He has entered his self-promotional video – a parody of 'Downfall' into The Chip Shop Awards. I think it’s brilliant so I want to give it a mention. So check it out, and if you like it enough, vote…!!

Peace out, and have a great weekend everyone…

Tags: creativity, marketing
Posted in General Creatives | No Comments »

Marketing and the small company

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

Written by: Carl Da-Costa-Greaves

As we begin to climb out of recession and new business ventures are created, we must remain with the same focus that has kept UK industry moving. New company owners, managers or MD’s must have an appreciation of marketing and the impact it can have on the whole of their business, especially so in the early stages of growth whilst forging a position and a brand.

With technology moving quickly, fuelling the boom in internet marketing, for those companies who aren’t large enough to have a dedicated marketing function, it’s important to source professionally qualified assistance in order to discover the true potential of what marketing can and cannot do for them.

I find many of the issues that SMEs want help with don’t initially appear to be marketing related, but at the root of the problem it turns out to be so. There needs to be a clear understanding of where marketing drives new growth and how this fits in with the financial and business needs of an SME. As we’ve mentioned before, marketing is not just about the communications end of an organisations strategy, it’s not just about pushing out advert after advert – it’s a lot more than that – it’s the whole process of the business.

Those companies who are marketing focused end up being the ones that create sustainable growth in the down turn and reap rewards once the economy has recovered.

Tags: marketing, small businesses, SME
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

Triple Bottom line

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

By Carl Da-Costa-Greaves

Now that our economy’s been stripped back to basics and we’re starting to move out of recession, I’ve been wondering, what will be left in its place and also, what will move to top of agenda for the future?

Triple Bottom Line is something that I feel is worth mentioning here. There was a shift towards sustainable practices prior to the recession, this has sort of taken a back seat whilst everyone’s priority jumped to survival; but we’re moving out of that period and there’s certainly evidence of an increase in awareness for sustainability. That said, few companies’ have a strategy for sustainability, or even a stance on how they think about sustainable practices.

Image courtesy of Poppy Dots Crafts

The triple bottom line – economic, social and environment – is a very practical method that’s gaining momentum for companies who want to become more actively involved with sustainability; more so to SME organisations. Rather than just focus on environmental issues, triple bottom line (TBL) understands that businesses have a responsibility to be financially viable and to turn a profit. Therefore, TBL considers the financial bottom line which is vital to the long term growth and economic success, along with social and environment responsibilities.

I see this change (2nd order) coming as a result of the recessions and it will be driven by consumers and stakeholders. Similar to what happened in the consumer markets with Organic and Fair-trade; food producers have adjusted their sustainability policies as result of consumer pressure. My prediction is that sustainability will begin to move up the value chain into the business markets.

So, what do we need to do about this? Well, the extent of this will be first seen by your field representatives such as; marketers and sales people in customer facing roles. It’s these people who’ll be able to gauge the response of your customers, see how they’re planning their sustainable practices and then use that knowledge to inform and influence the future decision of your company.

Some business owners would argue that business is business and not their place to consider sustainability issues. However, this view will simply not stack up any longer. If steps are not taken to make all businesses more sustainable, then there won’t be a business future at all.

This week sees ASDA criticised for sustainability performance and ranked the least green of the 5 big supermarkets. It will be interesting to see how consumers react to this news.

Reference;
CIM, (2007) Shaping the Agenda. Triple Bottom Line.

Tags: Business to Business, marketing, new marketing, technological changes
Posted in General Marketing | 1 Comment »

Social media or social mediocre?

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

By Carl Da-Costa-Greaves

Ok, so we all know about social media; Facebook and MySpace are officially entrenched in society; Twitter is closing ranks, with corporate blogging on its heels. Because of this popularity many companies conclude that the time is right for them to enter this new found ‘meeting space’. However, the question shouldn’t be ‘is social media ready for you’? But more like, ‘are you ready for social media’?

We’ve put together a hit list of things that companies, in particular business to business, should run a check on prior to doing any social media campaigns;

1. Does your senior management team understand? And even more so, do they support social media? This is one of the single biggest road blocks to making social media work.

2. The Corporate website – Before you take the next step on the web, it’s important to have a good foundation. If your current site needs a new design or has usability issues and doesn’t really reflect your business, then direct users to the current site first rather than to a social media space. Social media can wait. Leveraging social media comes with a new set of customer exceptions. At the top of that list is a usable and robust web site.

3. You love the web but does the web love you? For social media to help impact organic search traffic it’s important that your organisation goes through some basic optimisation of your web pages.

4. No rest for the wicked – a lot of social media is free, but they also take time. If you currently don’t even have time to read emails let alone post regular engaging content and be available to respond, then don’t pile on social media to your workload. Get support to make it happen.

5. How do you know if all is going well? If you’re going to spend time on the web then you need to manage your analytics and report statistics, hit rates etc, in order to gauge response and traffic. Google do a free analytics tools (amongst others – good ole Google!) Without information like this your social media strategy is about as focused as a gozzy kid with a patch on his eye. (I should know, I was that kid!)

6. What was I trying to say again? Social media can work for the good and the bad. If your message isn’t clear or you haven’t work out your positioning, then these weaknesses will be highlighted. Try to work out exactly what it is you’re trying to say before saying it.

7. To be heard but not seen – like it or not, transparency is a very important part of online culture. You don’t have to Tweet every business secret, but an expectation exists. If you can’t be sufficiently transparent then wait until you can.

8. My customers aren’t always right – If customer service isn’t a priority for your business then you’re going to find out sooner rather than later that social media doesn’t help the issue. That being said your customers are talking about you. The best way to fix poor customer service is to get them involved in the process to make it better.

9. ‘I “don’t” want that one’ – If your product’s a bit rubbish then social media will only help to tell more people that it’s rubbish. The only positive thing that would come out of this is that you’ll get valuable real-time feedback. However you’re probably better off focusing on making a better product rather than spending time on social media.

10. Sales Funnel looking like a garden hose? If you’re looking at social media as a possible lead generation source then it’s important to have a sales funnel that works to back these efforts up. Organise your sales process and all contacts through an effective CRM system.

Many of these items may seem obvious, but that’s the point. Social media isn’t a magic cure-all system. It can make bad things worse and good things better. My overall recommendation is that if you’re still in the investigative stage, keep on researching. Research is good, evaluate and think critically about how your customers will perceive you. It makes sense to get rid of the bad habits before you start.

If you want to read more about social media, in particular with regards to e-marketing then take a look at a previous post here; http://www.studiowide.co.uk/blog/?p=74

Tags: Business to Business, Customer Relationship Management, e-marketing, marketing, social media
Posted in Marketing | 2 Comments »

Black sheep of e-marketing

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

By Carl Da-Costa-Greaves

Social media is the black sheep of the e-marketing family, falling behind pay-per-click and email marketing in the minds of most marketers, but we predict that this is all set to change.

black-sheep

Generally, businesses are just wakening up to what social media can do and how it should be treated. Currently used as a fun way to immerse users in brands, rather than as a tool for direct selling. Innocent drinks and Compare the Market are two companies that have got it right. Both have used Twitter to great effect, with funny and engaging feeds that are ‘on brand’ and don’t do the hard sell.

With the onset of more open source programs and widgets that do almost everything imaginable through the interface of a browser, social media is no longer the finger-in-the-air medium it used to be.

We’ve started using blogs at Studiowide (you’re reading one right now!) and our target is to raise our profile as a leading marketing company in Liverpool. The posts that we make are replicated over the web through news feeds and also on twitter. This gives our followers and customers the opportunity to publically engage with us on their terms with comments and feedback. Ultimately, this level of activity is rewarded by Google who like content publishers.

Social media is moving at speed so it’s vital that you get to grips with new developments; a word of caution though; try first before you jump, see which one’s works for you and which ones don’t.

Tags: Business to Business, Customer Relationship Management, e-marketing, marketing, new marketing, online, technological changes
Posted in General Marketing | 2 Comments »