Resources Q10: Talking Heads Managing director of Black Pig, Sarah-Jane Higgins | Managing director of Black Pig, Sarah-Jane Higgins |
| Written by Tony Quested | ||||
| Wednesday, 19 December 2007 | ||||
Page 1 of 2 Tony Quested poses 10 questions to Sarah-Jane Higgins, managing director of Black Pig The company
01.Why is it critical for even the best companies to market themselves professionally? How we perceive who’s “best” in business is often down to good marketing and in light of that, chances are that the best companies are already marketing focused. These organisations have dedicated marketing budgets and strategies that encompass their brand values which ensures consistency across communications both internally and externally to effectively exploit each opportunity to interact with its audiences. .02.Is the role and benefit of marketing misunderstood or underestimated? During times of crisis, marketing is often the first department to suffer with budgets being slashed but it’s during these times that companies need to sustain their efforts, communicate brand values and raise their profiles to increase sales.Over the past few years we’ve seen more and more clients approaching us having tried their hand at marketing and being enthused by the results. We attribute this in part to the Internet boom of the nineties when marketing was better understood as the results became so visible; the tweaking of keywords for search engines can cause sudden surges in site traffic and the reports that can be produced are a fascinating insight into user behaviour. It’s this tangibility that has persuaded businesses to invest in new media and has in many ways, made marketers lives a lot simpler as more channels of communication open paths to new audiences. What we find is that clients come to us asking “where next?” from which we can guide them in creating an effective strategy, marketing plan and campaign evaluation mechanism to ensure that they’re making the most of any marketing budget and achieving results towards their business goals. .03.How greatly has the internet transformed the way in which you can help companies market themselves? It’s turned marketing on its head; there are now more tools than ever before available to marketers to convey brand messages to audiences. In some respects it’s also made the process of marketing a lot harder as budgets have to be split over increasing numbers of communication channels.It’s not always been the case that one new medium replaces another but it can impact the quantities of activity in each medium and the problem with new revenues for marketing activity is that to maintain an image of a progressive company these have to be used to their full effect. When researching a business or product more often than not we turn to the Internet and not being able to find what you’re looking for is not a good first impression. .04.Is there any single, or any combination of tools or techniques, that have evolved in the digital age that have really helped you deliver the ‘wow’ factor to clients? The number of personalisation tools available has helped us in that respect; these range from blogs, video streaming, podcasts, email marketing and online forums. The next stage in the Internet’s development is taking a on a more personal, user content driven focus and regularly updated, relevant websites and communications are what we recommend. .05.Is it possible even for companies doing similar things in the same sector of business to find marketing differentiators from their competitors? Of course, this is in essence what marketing is about; standing out from a sea of competitors. In cases like this any marketing communications must focus on the brand`s values; these are essentially the company’s personality and stance in relation to business. . |
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Black Pig is one of the UK’s top 100 award-winning full service creative agencies with offices in Royston, Hertfordshire and Soho, London. It has proven in-house capabilities in branding communications, design, new media and public relations. 
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