We Are Circle

2011 has been an interesting year here at Circle HQ.  The recession has continued to have a devastating impact. The public sector closures and budget retractions were felt most strongly this year and this affected our clients greatly. With this change came an overwhelming desire to achieve a greater marketing return.  Many businesses seemed to innovate, launching new products and turning to Circle for help with improving their market position.  More than anything we noticed that organisations seemed to be following the mantra ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going.’ Read more »

The latest findings from the Quarterly Economic Survey published by the Leeds, York & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce and Leeds University Business School (Q3 2011), show that Yorkshire businesses have experienced a significant fall in business confidence . There has been a 33% drop in organisations that believe their turnover will increase in the next 12 months, compared to the previous quarter. 43% of the 700 businesses interviewed said they are performing worse now than they were over three years ago when we entered the recession.

The Chambers quarterly results come as little surprise. Here at Circle, we are finding that many organisations are being hit by the worst effects of the recession now. So why is this happening? Read more »

The Marketer Magazine has published an interesting article on smell that sells.  I can attest to the power of scent in marketing communications having used a scent in direct mail campaigns with amazing results.  We were inviting training managers to a Christmas themed seminar, all built around the concept of a Christmas Carol. What better way to evoke the feeling of Christmas than through the power of scent?  We achieved tremendous sales from a very low cost idea.

Read more »

Every job we undertake involves an element of marketing strategy.  It is what makes us different from a standard marketing agency.  But where do you start in developing your marketing strategy?

Read more »

Many business owners feel that their brand is ‘their baby’.  Just like your own child you would never be able to look impartially at it, or exclaim that is anything but beautiful.  You put blood sweat and tears into building your business so why would you invite someone to critique it? Read more »

The economy grew by just 0.2% between April and June, well below the 0.5% growth seen in the previous quarter. If your business is in decline remember the economy is experiencing a slow recovery.  It is behind where we would like it to be but there is growth!  How does your business compare?

Yes, many organisations have been dramatically affected by the economic downturn. However, is the economy alone to blame for the organisations decline or is it possible that slight apathy has set in? Is it easier to blame the economy rather than adjusting your strategy and upping your marketing ante?

I urge business leaders to look carefully at their organisation and how successful their marketing is in creating recovery.  Is your decline really down to the economy alone or is there a weak link in your strategy?  Are your competitors also experiencing decline?  Are you simply not getting your message out to market enough, or is your message wrong?

It is easy to blame a declining economy on poor organisational results, when really the economy is experiencing growth, albeit slow.

For further information on strategy and creating compelling, results driven marketing contact me today to find out how I can help.

For me, it has to be the Halifax latest adverts.  When I hear the ‘Isa, Isa baby’ tune and watch the annoyingly awful advert it really makes me grind my teeth.  I have to reach for the remote and switch the channel and have pondered the thought of personally contacting the Halifax’s Marketing Director to ask them to ‘stopppppp!’

Which advert makes you want to tear your hair out?  Is it the weird man shouting ‘you buy one, you get one free?’, or maybe the singing impresario exclaiming ‘Go Compare!’  Whichever advert drives you mad they all have one thing in common. Recall. Read more »

We have just completed one years’ PR activity for South Yorkshire Charity, People United Against Crime and what a year it has been!  Within the first 4 months we had surpassed the coverage achieved by their previous agency.

Gaining over 1 million opportunities to see and coverage including all their key trade publications, prime time ITV coverage, numerous radio interviews including the BBC and several articles in the Yorkshire Post, we have a very happy client.

Circle Marketing have just been awarded the remainder of the contract which completes at the end of 2011.

To read a full case study click here

Public Relations (PR) is not just about writing press releases.  Put simply PR involves managing the reputation of your business.  Your PR is the result of what your business and your staff do and say, what you communicate in the public domain and what others say about you.

Successful PR campaigns can be used to gain trust and understanding between your business and your key stakeholder groups – existing customers and prospects, current and future staff, potential investors and the outside community.  PR can have several aims: it can be used to build brand awareness, launch a new product, help to acquire and keep customers, encourage recruitment and retention; ultimately it should have a clear and demonstrably affect on the bottom line.

Read more »

Many organisations are experiencing departmental and budget cuts whilst still requiring growth. This anomaly leaves organisations without the support required to succeed in a challenging economic environment.

In a declining economy the need for exceptional marketing comes into its own. Agility is key. Securing new revenue streams, opening up new markets and launching new products all require the best strategies and communications if you are to beat the competition. The requirement for growth lies squarely within the marketing department who are likely to be under resourced, with reduced budgets. In some cases there may be no marketing department at all.

As a business leader you are likely to want to do more with your marketing for less. The solution for many is outsourcing. Read more »