Category

Case Study

Apr 14
0
The Scanafy website displayed on a mobile

Growth partner for start-ups

By | Branding, Case Study, Digital

Business challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted plans and changed priorities, and at the same time has seen true entrepreneurial spirit; meaning a series of new business ventures have popped up and are growing successfully.

One such start-up is Scanafy – who are bringing temperature reading technology to venues, sports stadia and the hospitality industry post-COVID lockdown.

Working with a start-up is something that we at OnBrand relish. It’s the chance to fundamentally shape a marketing strategy, with customer insight at the heart to solve a business problem.

Scanafy needed to be market-ready and most importantly, wanted to ensure their brand reflected the nature of their product and have a credible, confident approach.

Strategy

Launching a start-up is an exciting process, but making it look and feel right comes from planning and taking the time to really understand the product, its audience and how it should be perceived by others.

To help new business owners on this journey we have developed a methodology and brand discovery workshop that channels passions and ambitions into strong credentials, values, a mission statement and a marketing purpose.

We worked with Scanafy to evolve the brand and language they had already developed including:-

  • Reviewed existing logo, colour palette and all brand tools
  • Developed  their mission, values and purposes, so there was a clear written articulation of this
  • Looked at the language and semiotics of the brand

Solution and outputs

Following the brand workshop, we then developed a marketing strategy with staged launch recommendations including a new website, a pdf sales information leaflet and additional branded, printed collateral to get their business market-ready.

Richard Costa, from Scanafy told us:

“Daniel and his team were proactive, and moved very fast to ensure we had the tools we needed to grow our business, and we’re delighted with the results of their work. We are in continued discussions with them about social media, and paid ad campaigns for lead generation”

scanafy branding examples
Mar 15
0
open shop

April 12th. We’re ready. Are you?

By | Blog, Shopping Centres

According to Helen Dickinson OBE, Head of British Retail Consortium, the cost of lost sales to non-essential stores during lockdown is now over £22bn and counting. This means April 12th for thousands of businesses cannot come quick enough.

Whilst there is trepidation amongst retailers that customers won’t be returning when the shops open, consumers have an air of excitement that there will be a semblance of normality to everyday life.

We know that Lockdown 3 has been dynamic and multifaceted and consumer’s behaviour has changed since 2020.  We have seen an increase in online trading and in February some online channels recorded strong sales, some up to triple figure growth. A trend, which is predicted to remain the same after lockdown. This means, for retailers having an omnichannel approach is absolutely essential.

A recent report from McKinsey stated:

“We expect these changes will shape consumers’ habits even beyond the effects of COVID-19,” says McKinsey. “In…the U.S., upward of 60% of consumers who tried a new behaviour plans to stick with it post-crisis.”

Brand loyalty has also decreased, with up to 62% of people changing their brand preferences since March 2020, so consumers are making broader choices than previously.

are you back to business ready?

So. The challenges to reopening on April 12th are tough.

The great news is, that there is huge pent up demand for spending and economists are predicting that we will see spend rebound, and UK stores can expected a 47.9% week-on-week leap in footfall, according to Springboard data.

Are you aware of what consumers feel about returning to face to face shopping?

How are you preparing?

Here are a few thoughts for you to get yourself ready to go with a smile and doors wide open on April 12th:

  • Welcome shoppers back into a safe & trustworthy environment
  • Re-build brand loyalty around enjoying retail again
  • Remind them to keep a safe distance for now
  • Allow them to look forward to getting back to normal soon
  • Plan for the future – themes, events and campaigns to look forward to

The most important thing is that your customers have the best shopping experience, you and your team are taking charge, and you’ve created the most positive, engaging experience possible.

We create #backtobusiness marketing plans for retailers looking forward to reopening their doors and need a kick start!

Get in touch TODAY for a free 30 min strategy chat – sayhello@onbrand.co.uk

To see our news & tips first, follow us on LinkedIn or call us on 03333 220022 for a friendly chat with the team.

Jan 27
1

15x return on advertising spend in 4 weeks! 

By | Case Study

Call us on 03333 220022 to see how we can help you.

The Challenge

In early April 2020, we helped many business owners develop a new online presence, to respond quickly the pandemic. The digital marketing team successfully delivered brand new websites, social media plans, engaging content and paid advertising activity that hit the right note to encourage online shopping while staying safe in the community.

One example is Adam Nathan Catering (https://adamnathancatering.com/), originally an event catering business based in Radlett, Hertfordshire, looking forward to a busy year, when suddenly they saw the hospitality industry immediately closed down.

Luckily Adam Nathan’s last event was for our OnBrand MD, Daniel Graham, and after a coffee and brainstorm, Adam realised he had to promptly reinvent his business.

Adam turned his attention back to the kitchen and took the delicious food he cooked for event guests into a high quality, cost effective home delivery service to his already loyal catering client base.

The Opportunity

Within two or three months, Adam’s business had started to gain traction and Adam recognised the process of handling orders on WhatsApp, payment and delivery needed to change.

At this point, he came to OnBrand and tasked us to create an e-commerce and online ordering platform.

This opened up operational efficiency and allowed Adam to turn the weekly fresh food menu into frozen food choices as well.

The Strategic Insight

Within weeks, Adam could see the benefits of the website that we had built, which had paved the way for continued growth, so we connected again and work with him to develop a clear social value proposition:

“Whatever you love to eat the most, we’re here to deliver, to both your doorstep AND your taste buds. Delicious ‘ready to heat’ meals, brought to you locally, at the click of a button”

We also helped to identify his next business goal:

To increase online home delivery orders and establish Adam Nathan as the no.1 ‘ready to heat,’ ‘multi-cuisine’ meal delivery service for restaurant quality food, in the local area.

Marketing Approach

In order to deliver his new proposition, Adam needed OnBrand’s expertise again, this time with an internal audit of all local competitors; spending time looking at what the likes of Cook and HIIT Kitchen were doing.

We reviewed Adam’s social media accounts to review which posts seemed to be working well.

We looked at consumer sentiment & thought about how Adam Nathan could authentically tap into it over the Christmas period and create ownable content that would disrupt the newsfeed to drive engagement and reach. 

Social Media Approach

We then created a social media strategy to grow the customer base beyond existing customers and launched a paid advertising campaign in time for the most unusual Christmas 2020 ‘stay at home’ season.

Good creative, a social strategy in place, and a stream of planned and targeted content, coupled with the specialist skills of paid social media and its’ necessary data and analysis, we felt certain that the results would follow.

Results

The results already speak for themselves: We produced a return on advertising investment of £15 revenue for every £1 spent, with new orders, new customers, increased turnover and a massive increased reach and audience, we unlocked a formula for Adam that we are sure will help Adam Nathan At Home going from strength to strength.

Adam explains:

“OnBrand made the whole challenge easy, comprehensive and very slick. Websites and technology aren’t my forté, so it was credit to Daniel and his team that they grasped really well the business model, what we were trying to achieve and we’re able to go away and deliver a great end product” 

We would love to see if we could do something similar for you. Just click the button below to get in touch and find out how we can help grow your business.

Get in touch
Dec 09
0

OnBrand Talking Resilience In the Workplace

By | Blog, Social

2020 has proven to be one of the most challenging years for business. Here, at OnBrand we are proud of how we have worked with our clients during this time, supporting them with both strategic thinking and effective delivery of sales campaigns, virtual events, on-site collateral and reassuring content both during and after lockdown.

Not only this, but as a close team we have supported each other through the upheaval and changes into home working and adapted our ways of thinking and working quickly. We often talk about needing to be ‘resilient’ and wanted to explore this further to make a real commitment in 2021. From investing even more in staff wellbeing, taking on board our learning’s from this year and engraining wellbeing into the company ethos. By helping ourselves thrive, we will then be better placed to deliver successful business growth for our clients.

This week, we have a fantastic guest blog from Emma Hossack, the founder of Transforming Minds for Business. Looking at what we mean by resilience and how this impacts business success.

Have a read below:

I am passionate about the impact of wellbeing and resilience in the workplace. Having coached hundreds of clients over the years, I have seen what the mindset can offer in terms of great performance and personal outcomes.

The Oxford Dictionary defines Resilience as: ”The ability of people or things to recover quickly after something unpleasant, such as shock, injury, etc. and the ability of a substance to return to its original shape after it has been bent, stretched or pressed.”

While this definition may describe the ability to ‘bounce back’, what we now know is that resilience is something that can be taught, can be grown and can evolve. The old saying ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ is untrue. Neuroscience now teaches us that we can change, flex and adjust our brains to change our mindsets at any age; they call this ‘Neuroplasticity’.

So why is resilience in the workplace so important?

Resilience is the foundation of our wellbeing, and when good mental health is a priority within businesses the results are clear.

According to Deloitte’s 2020 Monitor Report, poor workplace mental health costs businesses around £45Bn a year, yet for every £1 spent, the return is £5. In 2012, Royal Mail invested £45m in wellbeing and resilience strategies and experienced a £225m return on investment. So you can see, there is a direct correlation between mental wellbeing and performance.

At Transforming Business Minds, we believe that resilience and wellbeing should start from the top.  Leaders that foster an open culture, share vulnerabilities and place real value in wellbeing are more likely to see high performance.

While many businesses develop a wellbeing strategy, few adopt a tailored approach to individual resilience and wellbeing. While blanket strategies may offer short term solutions, understanding where each individual is at in terms of mental health and resilience enables each individual, teams and companies to understand where they are and strategies to bridge gaps and build on existing strengths.

How can I enable my business to thrive not just survive?

There is a fine line between performance and crisis, and as we move into 2021, investment into people has never been so important. 80% of our performance is attributed to our mindset, while only 20% technical ability.

We know that businesses that really understand the needs of their people and are committed to implementing strategies around achieving good mental health reap rewards through low attrition and high profitability.

While wellbeing may well be on the agenda, the key is to really understand where you and your people are from a mental health perspective, and demonstrate investment through a wellbeing programme and coaching programme that is designed to bridge the gaps of each person, team and business. This will not only make your people feel listened to, it may also shine a light on how the people within your business that show high resilience and enable them to lead from the front.

So if building resilience isn’t on your agenda, what will be the consequences to your business as we pick ourselves back up from 2020?

Emma Hossack is a Coach, Resilience Practitioner and Founder of Transforming Minds for Business. They look at how good mental health, wellbeing and resilience is achieved through the whole person approach to coaching. Using the WRAW psychometric tool, it focuses on the 5 pillars of resilience: Energy, Future Focus, Flexible Thinking, Inner Drive, Relationships. Measuring individuals to a cohort of 400 worldwide employees, this robust tool marks the overall resilience levels and is also able to split the measure into resilient thoughts and actions. WRAW is an excellent tool that offers evidence, helps create and drive strategy and measure the success of wellbeing strategy and coaching.

You can also learn more about Transforming Minds by clicking here!

Dec 03
0

OnBrand Supporting Local Charities to Brighten St Albans this Christmas

By | Blog, Events, Shopping Centres

At OnBrand we are great believers in bringing the community together. We absolutely love what Sustainable St Albans are doing to brighten up the wider area and bring a Christmas spirit with their Festive Streets project.

The project encourages homes, shops and businesses to decorate their windows during the festive season, to create a safe way of celebrating and bringing local communities together. 

As experts in retail design, we want to support this initiative and have created a template of a 2-dimensional Christmas star, as well as a more dynamic 3-dimensional option.  

  

Both of these can be downloaded below and have easy to follow guides. It can then be decorated with some materials you may have at home, for example some old newspaper, left over wrapping paper or just get the kids crafting! 

Click below to start downloading. 

Download sustainable star option 1

Download sustainable star option 2

Download sustainable star option 3

We’ve also seen “The Rainbow Trail” that started earlier this week, which is an amazing way to bring the community together whilst raising money for local charities. Check it out here.

It involves creating festive displays, virtual Christmas decorations and Spotting the Red Robin. Just like the rainbow drawings for the NHS over the summer, please look out for the Red Robin in people’s homes.  

Also, keep an eye out for the fantastically Christmas dressed post boxes in aid of charity too. You can do so by clicking here!

So, get decorating and let’s work together to make Christmas in St Albans 2020 a bright, sparkly one! 

Nov 17
0
person using a tablet

Helping St Albans Businesses Beat The Pandemic

By | Case Study, Digital

There may be a global pandemic but here at OnBrand we are constantly looking for creative solutions to help our customers through the challenges, and navigating many into a new online world by developing cost-efficient digital services to businesses.

We wanted to share some fantastic work the OnBrand team have been up to in the last 6 months:

  • We are working with Waterers Menswear on their brand positioning and social media, and have just launched their new website last week:  https://waterers-menswear.co.uk/
  • We have also created lockdown e-commerce services for a Radlett based caterer who was taking orders via WhatsApp/text message and needed a much better platform: Adam Nathan Catering, https://adamnathancatering.com/
  • For local eco nappy manufacturer based in St Albans, Mama Bamboo, we have updated their Shopify payment portal, homepage design and digital advertising campaigns on https://www.mamabamboo.com/
  • Not ignoring B2B professional services, we have updated branding, new business materials and website design for Harpenden based HR experts https://www.practicalchangepartners.com/
  • We are in the process of creating a brand new tiling website for the owner of Verulam and Ebberns Tiles – all to be revealed shortly to give them a new e-commerce channel, as they currently miss out during lockdown scenarios with the showrooms having to close down

We have also supported numerous local walk-ins and enquiries, totalling around 30 different proposals in the last 3 months!

Right now, we are looking at how we can support Sustainable St Albans by using our experience in retail to create window displays and decals for local independent businesses, as well as providing downloadable Christmas decorations to local parents and communities to display.

We thought this might give you a real-life flavour of how OnBrand have been steadily helping out and invite local businesses to get in touch to see how we can support you and your business moving forward.

Oct 26
0

SUCCESS! How we increased organic REACH on our client’s instagram account by 2548% in just 3 months

By | Case Study, Social

Earlier this year, an Essex shopping centre came to us, as they had BIG plans for their Instagram, and challenged us to work up a strategy which would:

  1. Evolve the look & feel of the grid, creating premium & professional content that would resonate with their audience
  2. Increase reach and engagement by:
    • Engaging with their  community not only on their own page, but within the wider local Instagram community
    • Posting insta stories which highlight our retailers’ offerings, in a fun & engaging way.
  3. Grow their follower base, focusing on an audience within the local community

These challenges were RIGHT up our street and so we, of course got ‘to it’ straight away…

Our Approach

Challenge 1: Evolving grid content…

Whilst previous content had been informative, when it all sat alongside each other, together on the grid, it lacked an aesthetic ‘flow’ which prevented it from looking premium.  With our new approach we ensured we incorporated bright and bold imagery with colours and tones linking across each piece of content. Additionally, we added branding to each post to help raise the centre’s profile and give it a professional ‘sign off.’

It was vital that we created content that not only looked great, but resonated with the client’s audience and was, of course, relevant to their offering.

Having run our client’s facebook and twitter social platforms for a while, we had insight into the content themes and topics which resonated with their audience.  We used this insight to help us plan each post, ensuring each piece of content also related back to shopping centre and its retailers.

A key take-out, for Instagram,  is that it’s vital to think ‘consumer’ first and ‘business’ second.  Why? If you think about it, consumers scroll through their feed at speed and you have less than a second to grab their attention.  If your content is too business-centric, it’s likely to pass the consumer by.  If, however, you use imagery and content themes that appeal the consumer’s needs, wants or passion-points, you’re more likely to grab their attention.  You can then add your comms message into the copy once they’re engaged.  Simple when you know how, hey?

Challenge 2: Increasing reach & engagement…

One of the main client objectives was increasing reach and awareness of the shopping centre within the local community.  This objective was tied closely with engagement, as in order to truly reach the locals, it was important to be engaging with them….after all, Instagram is a social platform!

Our main strategy to achieve this was to raise the shopping centre’s profile by following local businesses and people and doing daily outreach, where we would look for conversations where it seemed natural for the shopping centre to comment on outsideof their own grid.

We followed local hashtags and dedicated time each day to joining in the local conversation so that we would reach and engage with as many people as we could, particularly those not yet following us.

It wasn’t long before we noticed a huge increase in conversation and other local pages tagging the shopping centre….scroll on to see the incredible results!

We also started posting daily insta stories for our client in order to further reach the community and ensure the shopping centre was always top of mind, appearing at the top of users’ homepage on Instagram.

We created a series of branded and eye-catching templates which encouraged the client’s audience to interact with them….

Ultimately, the new story content formats:

    • Drove engagement with the local community – giving their audience fun, added value to interact with
    • Enable the centre to support their retailers in a more engaging way
    • Allow the centre to show how the strive to be a part of the wider local community

Challenge 3: Growing a local follower base…

Our final challenge was to grow a local follower base for the client.   Our strategy for this was really based on the success of the content we were producing and our success at engaging and reaching the local community.   Why?  Our logic is, if you are authentically engaging with your audience and creating relevant content that resonates, the follower numbers will look after themselves….and they certainly did in this case….scroll down for the results.

The bit you’ve all been waiting for: the results…

Well, it’s fair to say, the new Instagram strategy was a success.

We ran the new strategy for 3 months before looking at the results compared to the previous 3 months and this is what was achieved:

Pretty chuffed, doesn’t come close.

There are few things we love more than driving results that deliver for our clients.  If you’d like to discuss how we can do the same for you, get in touch to arrange a friendly chat with our Social Media team!

Oct 19
0
success story written on a chalk board

Success Story: Developing Brand and Comms Strategy for St Albans based HR business ‘Practical Change Partners’

By | Case Study

Whilst 2020 has been a bit of a topsy turvy year so far, we have to say that, we’re also incredibly lucky that it’s brought us some incredible new clients; one of which is Practical Change Partners, an HR Solutions company based in St. Albans.

We first met HR gurus, Claire and Jo, the owners of Practical Change Partners way back in January at a ‘Jelly’ networking event where they introduced themselves and told us how they had been finding it a struggle to articulate their business proposition.  At the end of the event, Emma offered to help them work through their business storytelling over a coffee at the Slug and Lettuce (which happens to be just opposite our office FYI….we’re always very happy to take prospect & current clients out for a coffee/cocktail to discuss their marketing challenges!).

All it took was Coffee and a chat…

At the end of the meeting, we identified that their main challenge was defining succinctly how they had helped HR Directors with organisational change and people challenges – they tended to arrive to complete one task and continue working across all HR and change areas of the business, which was tricky to explain in an elevator pitch!

We’re pleased to say that Claire and Jo felt in safe hands and enlisted the services of the OnBrand team to help them develop their comms and marketing plans.

The Approach: Looking through the eyes of the Consumer…

We needed to help Claire and Jo get their comms right, so that businesses could easily understand their offering and feel assured that, working with them, would mean working with two highly experienced HR professionals.

We really like the idea of positioning Claire and Jo as the ‘glue’ to help fix the gaps in the HR Director’s day to day delivery – whether through being in too many meetings, not quite having the right team to deliver, or simply needing experienced HR professionals to take on the challenges and get board level buy-in to deliver new data systems, leadership training or recruitment programmes.

Next, we established that the overall reason for businesses to invest in the services of Practical Change Partners; it became clear that this was, ultimately, to achieve accelerated business success.

Once we had defined the ‘what’ and why’, we decided there was a need to break things down even further in order to make their offering as consumer friendly and easy as possible to digest.

With this in mind, we created 6 core product areas to explain each separate HR discipline that Practical Change Partners could help with so that businesses can easily identify which area of their specialism is most likely to help them.  Sometimes it’s about putting yourself in the shoes of the consumer and working out what they need to see and understand, in order to make an investment decision.

Finally, we redefined their proposition from a general sounding ‘HR & Change Solutions’ to a more end-goal focused ‘Joining the dots on your HR strategy: We turn complex people challenges into accelerated business success’ – elevator pitch = nailed!! 😉

Once the positioning was agreed and we had clear consumer-friendly content pillars, it was time to get busy bringing everything to life across the Practical Change Partners marketing channels.

  • We updated their website from a simple 1 page brochure style structure to bespoke pages and site navigation that promoted their 6 core product areas, with an improved customer proposition and journey for prospects arriving at the site to understand what they could deliver, past success stories and high profile customer testimonials to reinforce their expertise and delivery
  • We updated plug-ins, created SEO improvements and developed more detailed editorial copy to improve organic page ranking, as well as engaging content
  • We created a 1 pager PDF as a new business tool, plus a rebranded PowerPoint deck that could be used for client proposals and further explanations of the company proposition.

Practical change partners website

Then it was time to tell the world….

  • We then moved on to social media strategy, creating brand content pillars, rebranding the LinkedIn company and personal pages, and developing a content plan that could easily be delivered alongside their day to day client work.

The Results: Drum Roll Please….

LinkedIn followers grew from 431%  (and counting!) in just the first month!

That’s not all though, we’re pleased to say we now have the pleasure of working with this dynamic duo on a retained basis on their new business growth strategy – right now, we’re focussed on helping them target  specific industry sectors using things such as past case studies, customer testimonials and topical introductions…busy busy!

2 More Happy Customers…

Here’s what Jo from Practical Change Partners had to say about working with OnBrand….

“We are a relatively new business, and one of our challenges was how to get clear on our brand proposition so we could explain our products to potential clients.  On Brand helped us explain our offer and develop our brand, collateral and contact strategy.  What has worked really well is their ability to chunk the work into straightforward and logical steps while challenging us to take brave steps forward.  Together we have tackled website content, LinkedIn following and direct marketing in ways that work for us from a time, cost and confidence perspective.  

 I would highly recommend them to any business looking for a fresh, innovative way of creating the right brand messaging.  Experts in their field, they are challenging, positive and encouraging and we have been really happy with the progress we’ve made.”

We’re pretty chuffed to be working with Practical Change Partners too…

OnBrand Director, Daniel Graham says,

“We’re delighted to broaden our local St Albans client base, particularly in the B2B sector, and Practical Change Partners were one of our first new local clients as soon as we moved our agency to St Albans. They are a delight to work with as their marketing partner, and we look forward to helping them expand their business over the next year”

So there you have it.   Another St. Albans success story.

If you’d like to be our next success story, get in touch for an initial chat….drop us an email: sayhello@onbrand.co.uk or give us a call on 03333 220022……(and, importantly,  don’t forget to tell us whether you’d rather meet for coffee or cocktails 😉 )

Oct 12
0

Preparing for a very different Peak Season: a summary of webinar insights by ShopperTrak UK

By | Blog, Digital, In-Store, Shopping Centres, Social

As a marketing agency working across numerous retail clients, from independent stores local to St Albans, to multi-store shopping centres across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, at OnBrand we were keen to hear from retail footfall experts, ShopperTrak, on their Q4 predictions, given the rather unpredictable year we have been having so far.

The agenda covered Summer Traffic Trends, Current Propensity to Purchase, Consumer Sentiment and Q4 Predictions, delivered by a panel of experts: Andy Sumpter and Chris Fowler from ShopperTrak, plus Kyle Monk from the British Retail Consortium.

UK footfall in recovery

Starting with a snapshop of footfall trends across Europe, the UK’s position was explained as slow but steady recovery. Having gone later into lockdown than other countries, but alongside the others in coming back out, the overall impact on footfall was reduced compared to others such as France and Spain, still struggling to encourage consumer demand onto their high streets.

UK retail traffic numbers improved quickly post-lockdown, despite active cases of COVID-19 increasing. This suggests that retailers succeeded in acting quickly to create a safe shopping environment, and that the UK saw a surge of pent-up demand for shopping when stores re-opened, beyond topping up on essentials. As trips to the high street and shopping centres became part of normal life again, many felt the need to escape the lockdown bubble of a restricted home, work and family life, confined to the same four walls.

Cities suffered the most from decline in traffic

With commuters worldwide told to stay home, understandably, the major cities have suffered most from the sudden drop in footfall. We know a huge majority turned to shopping online, but interestingly, UK retail parks have bucked the footfall trend, outperforming all other shopping options, both throughout lockdown and with an ongoing trend in recent months.

Compared with traffic levels seen by high streets, shopping centres and outlets, retail parks have jumped ahead of their usual path since early March and are still welcoming the majority of visitors today. This could be down to shoppers feeling safer in a predominantly outdoor setting, with easy car parking, established click and collect services and a relatively speedy shopping experience.  It also fits with DIY and home improvements growing in popularity during lockdown, with many of us finding time to finish that ever-growing list of home projects.

Saturday shopping now spread over the week

One of the most interesting facts to come from the webinar was new evidence of a change in daily shopping patterns. Saturday shopping has changed since the pandemic: it is not the big family shopping day that it once was.

The average weekly traffic mix by day of the week is either slightly more or equal to the pre-lockdown %. But Saturday traffic dropped the most during lockdown, and has remained lower than before. Pre-pandemic, Saturday enjoyed 20% of the week’s traffic, dropping to 16% in lockdown, and only creeping back to 18% in recent months.

Perhaps, with offices closed across the country, instead of shoppers looking forward to weekend family retail and leisure time, they have become used to spreading their visits across the week?  We welcomed the news during lockdown that working from home had a positive effect on rediscovering the local high street.  Popping to the shops now doesn’t need to wait until the weekend, with reduced commuting time and more flexible working hours making #shoplocal mid-week trips more accessible.

 

Shoppers know exactly what they want

And now for the good news! Shoppers are more purposeful when they visit. They are planning fewer spontaneous purchases, so are more decisive and make a journey for a specific reason, which means conversion rate and average transaction value have both seen a jump since stores reopened. With a resulting 26.9% increase in Sales per Shopper, this is positive news as we approach peak shopping season. With footfall continuing to climb, every shopper walking in through the door has become more valuable.

 

What does this mean for retailers?

Now, more than ever, retailers need to work hard to get their customer experience right first time. Ensure the right staffing levels are in place across the whole week, not just at weekends. Train each and every team member on new safety measures, and how to manage a customer’s needs in the current climate.

The retail environment needs to be seen with new post-COVID eyes, where touching and testing products is restricted, shoppers are cautious to enter and spend shorter time just browsing. How can retailers reassure shoppers? By making sure their payment process is slick, ideally contactless. By working hard to make click and collect procedures satisfactory for both those shopping in store and those dropping by to collect. Anything to avoid delays, frustrations or unsightly, lengthy queues.

At OnBrand, we have helped clients through the pandemic by using their marketing channels to better communicate with shoppers who may not be currently visiting stores. What time of day is the best to visit? Which stores are open? Are there special offers available?

In the webinar, ShopperTrak suggested that footfall counters could help share this information with the shopping public, perhaps recommending lower volume shopping days by making the stats highly visible on a retailer homepage?  We implemented exactly this tool recently with Fairhill Shopping Centre in Ballymena, using a simple traffic light system indicating when the centre was at its busiest, and therefore best to avoid, or calmer and safe to visit.

We have also created social media plans that share friendly reminders of new safety measures put in place, ideally with day to day real customer satisfaction. In this time of uncertainly, all shopping information shared needs to be up to date, whether on in-store posters, Google My Business directories, local community websites or social media chat groups, especially when opening hours change regularly, or new government measures are put in place.

We have found that shoppers can handle change, such as a new one way system, separate entrances and exits, or the requirement to wear a facemask, but they do need to know in advance and it may take a few reminders before it becomes the norm.  Our OnBrand radio and messaging system, Centre Radio, has proven essential to many of our clients, giving them the ability to create and load their latest safety messaging and government procedures in record production times.

Will 2020 be an online Christmas?

When surveying consumer sentiment post-COVID, and shopping intentions for the rest of the year, ShopperTrak found a number of positives for the high street.

Customers have more choice than ever to buy online, and unsurprisingly, 64% of consumers expect to use websites with home delivery this Christmas. But, alongside this online commitment, the intention is still also there to shop instore, use click and collect or buy online and collect curb-side.

Festive planning has been brought forward this year, as something for everyone to look forward to. For over a quarter of shoppers, Christmas shopping will have already started by September, with only 16% intending to leave festive planning until December. With the lack of opportunity to spend this year across both travel and hospitality sectors, there is potentially an opportunity for the retail sector to increase its share of pocket towards the end of the year.

However, shoppers are still price-conscious, with 48% mentioning that price would be a key factor when shopping in-store this Christmas. And the aversity to weekend shopping looks here to stay, with 82% of shoppers choosing weekdays rather than waiting for the weekend.

Despite 18% of shoppers planning to shop exclusively online, the in-store customer experience is still high on the agenda. Gifting inspiration, try before you buy, general convenience and advice from sales staff were all quoted as top reasons to visit stores this year, even with social distancing measures in place.

 

Unfortunately for high street retailers, 63% of those surveyed stated that they would shop less in-store this year, compared to previous years. This follows the post-COVID behaviour pattern mentioned earlier, identifying current shoppers as more focused on fewer trips, but spending more money per visit. This year they are not intending to hang around to browse or enjoy shopping as a leisure activity.

Safety is the key concern, both around how fellow shoppers will adhere to the rules, and the risk of contracting COVID-19, as well as the impact of social distancing on the overall shopping experience. Again, retailers should bear this in mind when preparing stores for shoppers currently in a different state of mind from past peak shopping seasons.

ShopperTrak’s predictions for peak shopping days in 2020

The webinar presented the following as critical factors that needed to be taken into account when predicting peak shopping days this year:

  • Weekends will lose emphasis as weekday shopping has levelled out
  • Retailers have brought forward some sale opportunities, which may impact traditional Black Friday or Super Saturday pre-Christmas peaks
  • Shopper surveys indicate that most people intend to shop less this year
  • As well as shoppers planning to shop earlier this year
  • E-commerce will have significant impact on in-store retail sales this year

 

The following dates are predicted to be the peak in-store shopping days for 2020:

  1. Saturday November 28th – Day after Black Friday
  2. Monday December 28th – Bank Holiday
  3. Saturday December 19th – Super Saturday
  4. Saturday December 12th – Saturday before Super Saturday!
  5. Saturday December 26th – Boxing Day

We will certainly be using this insight in our own marketing plans, as well as advising clients on how best to use their remaining Q4 marketing budgets. If you would like a pre-Christmas marketing strategy audit, website customer journey review or social media content refresh, please get in touch on 03333 220022 or sayhello@onbrand.co.uk.

 

Sep 17
0

Getting the Comms Right: How we increased bookings with ONE Advertorial

By | Case Study

THE BRIEF

Tony from Tielsi Hairdressing came to OnBrand just after lockdown had started to ease off;  He and his team had been working hard to ensure all the necessary safety measures were in place at the salon to make customers feel at ease during their visit, however, he needed help spreading the word!

He wanted to show prospect clients what they could expect when they came to have their hair done, and asked us to bring the salon to life within a double page spread advertorial in the September issue of St. Albans NOW magazine.

THE CHALLENGE?

With a print deadline looming, we had to come up with an engaging angle to capture the attention of the magazine’s audience, and have the design and copy ready for print, with little more than 24 hours to spare!

WHAT WE DID

First things first, we needed a ‘hook’ for the story.  Indeed, many businesses have been putting things in place to help their customers feel safe whilst visiting, so we had to think about how we could really ensure what we printed had stand-out.

After meeting with Tony and seeing images which brought the salon to life, we came up with the idea of positioning the salon as the ‘Most Covid-Safe Salon in Hertfordshire.’

We got to work writing copy which highlighted what a safe environment had been created to help clients feel relaxed and safe, and selected imagery which showcased the new-look salon ready to embrace the ‘new normal.’

The article we wrote demonstrated how Tony had gone above and beyond to make Tielsi Hairdressing Covid-Safe.  From customer screens to an isolation room for the more vulnerable customers, Tony really had thought of everything. The health and safety measures were even put in place by an expert, senior healthcare professional.

Check it out for yourself…

We even made front cover…

 

ANOTHER HAPPY CLIENT…

We’re pleased to say, Tony had some very positive feedback:

“Since the advertorial article was published, we’ve been particularly busy.  The phone hasn’t stopped ringing and many of our clients have commented that they felt reassured to book an appointment when they saw the article.  Leading on safety was definitely the right decision and I would thoroughly recommend the team at OnBrand to anyone needing help with getting their comms right.”

WELL, THERE YOU HAVE IT…

It was a pleasure working with Tony and we’re thrilled to say we’re now working with him again as we build his new website!  Of course, we must give a big shout out to Tony and the team at Tielsi Hairdressing – if you’re needing to sort your locks out, get yourself down to the most Covid-Safe salon in Hertfordshire!

AND IF YOU’RE NEEDING TO SORT YOUR COMMS OUT 😉

Get in touch here!