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ABOUT OUR MARKETING STRATEGY CONSULTANCY

We work with brands and agencies to help them optimise every interaction with consumers and clients

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With 20 years experience working for some of the UK's most loved brands - Johnson's Baby, Muller, Cadbury's and some of the worlds best advertising agencies we have the experience to help bring a best in class approach to your business - whether it be a small start up or an established business.

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The brand space is becoming more and more cluttered, with more consultants, more media choices than ever before, making it not only confusing, but harder and harder to find that cutting edge Marketing Strategy to grow your business.

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We passionately believe that one solution doesn't fit all, and while digital & Social Marketing plays a fundamental part in the mix, having the experience of the full marketing mix, including PR, TV , VOD and how to launch new products, allows us to bring a more holistic approach to our marketing strategies.

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For agencies we believe that bringing a brand owners perspective to pitches, understanding the category and being able to have more nuanced holisitic conversations with clients leads to more wins in chemistry sessions, pitches and ultimately better creative work. 

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Based in the North we work on a freelance basis, we are approachable, passionate, and chomping at the bit to get stuck into helping you realise the branded potential in your business. 

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Get in touch we would love to hear from you! 

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SERVICES

Below are a snapshot of some of the ways we work with Brands, and Agencies to bring focus and clarity to their Marketing activities.

SOCIAL & DIGITAL MARKETING

You know your brand needs to focus on Digital and Social Marketing - but where to start? It all sounds so confusing.

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Let us help you see clearly in this area. We will cut through the blur and devise the correct strategy using 

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  • Google Ad's (pay per click)

  • SEO (on page and off)

  • Affiliate Marketing 

  • Social Media marketing - Organic and Paid

  • Content creation 

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We are accredited by the Institute of Digital Marketing with the best practices and approaches

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MARKETING STRATEGY

Does your brand have a clear Strategy that outlines a clear roadmap for growth that your business can orientate around? Who your key consumer targets are? If not we can help develop a Brand plan that will give you total clarity on the following 

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  • Consumer Targets 

  • Competitor Analysis

  • Growth plan - 5 year 

  • Media plan with channel approach

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We work with a number of small emergent brands that have a great idea at their core, but struggle with how to scale that idea. This service is perfect if you feel your brand is in this position

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NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH

Possibly the most exciting and scary part of business growth. You have an exciting product idea, but how do you make consumers aware of it? 

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Over 20 years we have launched new products for a raft of big companies, and we can bring this experience to help you. We will help with the following 

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  • Size of opportunity 

  • Refining the concept - research qual / quant

  • Media plan to drive awareness 

  • Retailer launch plan 

  • Category story 

  • Retailer/customer sell in decks

New Products

BRAND DESIGN & IDENTITY

Your brands visual identity, including it's logo, it's packaging, website etc is the first thing your customer sees.


It's the distillation of all of your strategy work, your brands History, and your point of difference. It's a nuanced, and complex process to get right.


We have years of experience doing just that! We also have a network of designers and agencies to suit all budgets.

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We offer:

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  • Brand logo design 

  • Brand/Corporate Identity 

  • Packaging design (management of agency)

  • Social Headers 

  • Creative development 

Logo Designer at Work

AGENCY - CHEMISTRY SESSION 'KILLER TALKING POINTS'

This is your first opportunity to convey your passion to your prospective client and prove you are the right agency for the job. 

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Prior to the session with the client we will pull together a set of 'killer talking points' - and the so what for your agency.

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These will be grounded in the clients language and business context to leave them in no doubt that you understand their business and the challenges they face. 

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 We will include:

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  • Current client performance in market performance 

  • Macro influences affecting the brief 

  • Interpretation of clients data and the 'so what' for you and the brief

  • Brand owners perspective - what does a client look for in the chemistry session 

  • Using our extensive network we will also augment our 'killer talking points' with input from industry experts

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AGENCY BRIEFING

Following a successful chemistry session we can brief your agency teams on what we feel are the key elements that the client is looking for, again using our experience of 19 years client side we will prepare a briefing that includes:

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  • Market and category context

  • What sets great pitches apart 

  • What the client is looking for 

  • Re-iterating key 'Killer talking points' 

  • The watch-outs and area's to focus on 

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Presentation

AGENCY - PITCH PROCESS

Following the chemistry session, we can further help with the refinement of pitch materials and review the final pitch presentation - ensuring it delivers against the clients objectives from our brand owners perspective. 

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Given our 19 years in the industry working for some of the most loved brands, and most revered agencies we are in a unique position to ensure your proposition delivers to the clients objectives, but that it stands up from a best in class perspective so you can be confident walking into that pitch

Brainstorming

AGENCY - PLANNING FUNCTION

It is fantastic to see so many small start up agencies - we know from experience that often a strategy planner is sometimes the last element to be added to a design / creative agency

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As part of our services we can offer a strategic planning function to augment your proposals, including 

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  • Brand proposition creation 

  • Macro insight evaluation 

  • Overarching creative strategy planning

  • Background strategic planning 

  • Macro insights

Image by Austin Distel
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OUR PREVIOUS WORK

A few examples of brands we have transformed

BRAND REGENERATION

Pilgrims Choice is a great brand with masses of potential, but was in need of a general overhaul. 

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We set about creating a challenger positioning for the brand that celebrated the brands core strength of flavour - 'live a life full of flavour' was the positioning that was borne out a strategic review of the brands positioning. As well as the following elements of the Marketing mix 

  • New comms approach including TV / Digital and social media 

  • Disruptive in-store / POS / and shopper activity

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GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGN

Kerrygold is a worldwide mega brand - valued at £2bn, and is the biggest butter brand in Germany and largest imported brand in the US

Marketing had previously been at a local market level. The objective was to deliver a Global brand campaign that would not only bring synergy to the creative approach, but also drive emotional engagement with the brand. The following were delivered as part of the campaign 
·    New emotionally engaging TV / Press / Digital / social assets
·    Brand creative guidelines (clarity of creative approach

BRAND IDENTITY AND POS

Our first client, and one we still fondly recall.

The brief was simple - the small family business had performed really well over its 20 year history, but had never had a strong 'brand feel', and hadn't embraced digital marketing. So we set about delivering the following 
·    New design identity to bring more premium and modern cues 
·    An approach to digital / social media that could be employed by a small number of staff. 
·    New POS creative and banners and item tags

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We would love to be part of your brand journey. Get in touch today to find out what we can do for you.

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CONTACT US

Malpas SY14, UK

mike@wearespecs.com

+447808667000 United Kingdom

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Do you have a minimum contract period to work with you?

Nope! We work on a day rate, and there is no minimum number of days. 

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Typically the following are good guidelines 

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  • Brand Planing - 1 month

  • Chemistry session 'Killer talking points' - 1 day 

  • Briefing your Agency - 2 days 

How do you ensure there are no conflicts of interest?

We work across various agencies - so this is something we take very seriously

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We ensure the following 

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  • We won't work with competing agencies on an individual pitch 

  • All information shared in individual conversations with agencies is bound by NDA 

  • We actively try to ensure we work across creative / BTL / design agencies to minimise overlap between agencies 

We already have a planning department. What will you bring in addition?

We have worked with agencies with significant planning departments - and our service augments existing planning department, specifically 

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  • Brand owners perspective 

  • What are Marketers looking for in pitches?

  • Category context 

  • Holistic Business context 

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Do you offer the option of an ongoing consultancy service? i.e 2 days a month?

Yes we do offer this service - obviously this is dependent on the resource availability, and the duration of the project. 
But please do call, or drop us a line if you have a specific ongoing consultancy project in mind.

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