ICM - Leeds Design Agency

As the wonderful world of Twitter picks up pace, becoming one of the most talked about and important social networking tools online, many brands are dipping their toes in. Last year it was all about how brands can tap into the marketing potential of Facebook, an area where nothing seemed to materialise and marketing departments struggled to work out how best to open communication with the millions of users. This year brands are already starting to turn their attention to Twitter and some have a phenomenal number of followers.

A good example of this is @starbucks. The Starbucks brand lends itself perfectly to the kind of communication Twitter is designed for. They built their brand on reputation alone, spending little on advertising and so the word of mouth nature of Twitter fits perfectly with this ethos. It has turned out to be a great way for them to communicate with their loyal customers and being at the forefront of social media raises their reputation amongst their obsessive fan base.

I’ve recently been researching how the travel industry uses social media as part of building up a top tips for the travel industry style newsletter (this is in response to our client Superbreak using banner ads on several high profile sites such as Digg). I found, to my surprise, that several travel brands were already using Twitter, and I found a great list of travel twitterers on travel industry blog Journeys through travel. The only twitterer that I would follow is @richardbranson as I am interested in him. I thought about following @icelandexpress, mainly due to my obsession with Iceland, but it appeared to be a little dull to follow an airline. (The Iceland Weather Report is a great blog about Iceland if you share my obsession.)

So I think that brands with either personality or a personality that is part of a brand are going to find that Twitter is littered with potential riches, but many brands will flounder and possibly come in for criticism if they don’t tweet rig…

Read the rest...

I found an interesting article today on www.startups.co.uk, which describes how the founder of Pride Valley Foods, which incidentally has been taken over by Mission Foods, researched his market thoroughly before deciding on the product he wanted to sell. The part that caught my attention the most is when he says:
“People think that marketing is selling. It isn’t. It is finding out what the customer wants and selling it to them.”

Too often sales people phone up ICM without any knowledge of the company or even of what we do. They ask to speak to the owner of the business, or a particular director who isn’t the correct person to talk to. We have four directors who all deal with different aspects of the business and so when you ask the sales person what their call is regarding they get annoyed that you’re not just putting them through. They have then lost my respect and the opportunity to sell to ICM.

In the climate of companies instinctively rejecting sales calls, mainly due to the quantity that they just can’t handle, it is notoriously difficult to get through the gatekeeper. The last thing you want to do is irritate them. I’ve found over the years that asking questions is more important than your sales speech. Once people are talking to you they feel more at ease and as long as you ask the right questions you remain in control of the call. Whether it’s the gatekeeper or the decision maker, make them feel like they are really helping you out and be nice to them. Thank them for their time, show that you appreciate all of the information they are giving you, even if it feels like the information is a red herring to get rid of you and, most importantly, never get annoyed.

The more cold calling I do, the more I think that it is mostly about determination, plugging away and not losing faith that the next call will be an appointment. And of course to find out as much as possible about the company before you even pick up the pho…

Read the rest...

Our MD Ian has been in business for 25 years and has masses of experience, which is going to come in handy during the current economic climate. Recently he’s been interviewed a number of times about this experience and what advice he would give to other businesses.

The following article really reflects his business insight and expertise:
Rollercoaster of a start-up

There’s also a great photo of him…

Read the rest...