Burgess of Athlone is the oldest department store in Ireland. It has always recognised the importance of marketing in delivering the bottom-line. However with no specialist marketing people, marketing fell to its very busy Managing Director. With a very difficult trading environment she recognised that she needed additional help both strategically and operationally.

Solution

Our Virtual Marketing Manager was the solution. For a fixed fee each month which amounted to a fraction of the cost of hiring their own staff member, Burgess had a senior Marketer with years of experience developing and implementing their marketing activity on a day-to-day basis. They also had access to other resources when they were needed, such as graphic designers and copywriters.

We worked with the client to develop a very cost effective marketing plan for the year. It included monthly campaigns on a particular part of the business to drive sales without adversely affecting margin. We developed the campaign concept and all creative outputs which typically included window posters, in-store point of sale, a promotional email and press. The marketing plan also included ad-hoc projects such as the development of an advertising template (to ensure all communications were consistent, but most importantly, could be delivered quickly and cost effectively), a store re-branding exercise and we also advised on the development of their e-commerce website.

Our Virtual Marketing Manager service provided a complete Virtual Marketing Manager solution. We worked closely with key internal staff to ensure marketing delivered what was needed while also taking full responsibility for managing all suppliers.

Results

Burgess are expecting to break even this year, despite the most difficult retail environment since the 30s and significant additional investment in the business and marketing in particular.