Unsworth Sugden Blog

The foundations of any company’s business model, irrespective of their size or sector, are formed by their corporate identity and brand positioning. This is somewhat common knowledge but of increasing importance as marketing budgets are tightened.

Establishing a strong, well known identity is not an easy task but the gains of successfully doing so are prosperous. Recent weeks have seen Apple overtake Microsoft as the most valuable technology producing company thanks to its extensive profits.

Effective communication of Apple’s identity and product lines means very few would fail to recognise their logo, associate them as a leader of ground breaking home and office technology or name any of its products. Mass enthusiasm surrounds Apple’s identity as consumers aim to get their hands on the technology and suppliers compete to sell it. 

The question that dominates in the current economic climate is where do you prioritise your marketing communications spending to raise the profile of your organisation? An especially tough decision when tight budgets increase the pressure for clearly visible results.  

Such budget management is even more difficult with specialised communication agencies competing for a large share. Full service agencies offer an attractive means of consolidating marketing, advertising and public relations under one roof with many also having a digital arm to coincide with the expanding opportunities offered by interactive media thus offering multi platform reach.

Using such agencies allows all areas of your marketing strategy to be easily co-ordinated to communicate consistent, clear and direct messages. These are key to any branding campaign as the profiles and values expressed build a relationship between the audience and your corporate, product and/or service identity; an awareness that encourages future business.

The communication of success stories and strong products and/or services through PR, advertising and marketing alongside an establishing identity further enhances brand strength. A strength which continues to grow as awareness of your brand does, opening more opportunities for future business and expansion.

Such growth reflects the need for the continuous management of your identity and brand positioning. Once established, they need to prosper through regular up to date communication rather than fade into the background if they are to be successful.  

This is as time consuming as it sounds but it is essential. Again a full service agency can be of great use here as they can tailor and progress communication activity across all areas with this purpose in mind.  

Although just the roots of marketing activity, it offers the foundations from which future campaigns can be built. Once established, corporate identity is further enhanced by all positive future communication increasing business opportunities and therefore providing significant returns on investments in it. 

Unsworth Sugden’s web division, USdigital has launched a new website for Midland Handling Equipment. Midland Handling Equipment based in Leicestershire specialise in the design, manufacture and installation of numerous conveyor systems, including overhead chain conveyors, belt, slat, power and roller conveyors. The new website design can be seen at www.mhel.co.uk USdigital will also be helping MHE with its digital marketing strategy, which will include an SEO and email marketing campaign.

Marina (centre) receiving her award from Colleen Marples from CDS Global (left) and Hannah Elwell, Unsworth Sugden (right)

The PR department is celebrating this week as one of its recruits picked up a 1st class degree from De Montfort University as well as two student prizes!

All our congratulations go to Marina Boor who on top of graduating, has earned herself the title of Best International Marketing and Business Student and picked up first prize in the Employeer Award for Performance in the Workplace during her year with the company in 2007/08.

Well done Marina!

Email Marketing could be the answer.
 
Email marketing is an immediate and relatively inexpensive way to communicate with your customers. In the last few years the use of this marketing channel has increased significantly due to the benefits and large savings that can be made compared to other marketing activities like press advertising and direct mail.
 
Businesses are realising the importance of email marketing.  According to a poll published by the Online Marketing Blog, 17 per cent of respondents claimed email is one of three marketing channels they are looking to emphasise during the course of 2009.

Unsworth Sugden’s web division, USdigital, offer a cost effective email marketing package.  We can manage the whole of your company’s email campaign; from the design and build of a professional looking html email, through to its fulfillment, and online reporting.