The Mulberry Square team photographed by the Buttermarket in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire

I recently chatted with local reporter Tom Pegden to discuss the state of play in the local business economy as news of a high profile media success had made its way along the grapevine to Leicester Mercury towers – the launch of Leicester based luxury hand made leather satchel brand, Zatchels!

Zatchels, the brainchild of local businessmen Dean Clarke and Brian Brady of Charter Street manufacturer Leicester Remedial and Sewing Ltd was launched to the world with its satchels, hand made here in Leicester, on their beautifully designed e-commerce website on 20th April 2011.

This is one of the most comprehensive product/brand launches we’ve ever undertaken for a client and we’re delighted about the reaction so far. The satchel is the ‘must have’ style accessory for 2011 and Zatchels has launched a truly iconic British collection of leather satchel style bags that have caused a major stir since it was discretely introduced to fashion observers and stylists during this spring’s London Fashion Week. It was essentially a UK launch but already Zatchels are getting interest and media coverage from overseas, so we’re delighted for our client.

Since the Zatchels.com website went live three weeks ago it has had more than 6,600 visitors/hits, with orders coming in from the UK, USA, Australia and France as well as from UK based retailers who want to offer Zatchels satchels to their customers on the high street.

The new website features 71 different bags, with high quality creative studio shot photographs taken by Mulberry Square account manager and Leicester Photographer Ian Bursill, who has gained world wide acclaim for his photojournalistic style of photography.

We were involved right from the early stages and worked with our client to develop a logo and identity for the brand that was really strong and represented all of the key values and strengths of the product; and this in turn led to the introduction of the branding to the product itself with the stitching in of the distinctive woven label which coupled with its fantastic designs, materials and finishes sets Zatchels leather satchels apart from competitors in their market.

As well as designing the Zatchels brand identity and website, we have also been involved in leading and managing the launch campaign which benefitted massively from PR and media relations being added to the usual marketing mix. This involved product placements with magazines and newspapers such as Bliss, Heat and the Daily Express, gifting to members of the band McFly coupled with a social media campaign using Twitter, Facebook and blogging.

To visit the Zatchels website click here
To enter the Zatchels Facebook competition click here
To find Zatchels on Twitter click here

Our marketing services business based on Loughborough Road in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire faced a tough time in the height of the recession in the later part of 2009 but has really bucked the trend over the past 18 months with a full order book keeping our six fantastic staff very busy indeed.

We will build on our historic turnover of £300,000-£320,000 p.a. this year as we have really focused and tried to get across our message that we cover all aspects of the marketing mix and therefore can really make a difference to our clients, some of which have been using our marketing services knowledge and experience for the past 18 years.

To view our portfolio click here

As a result of our networking efforts we have been working on the launch of another new brand for a £20 million turnover Leicester business, with the launch of this planned for later this month. Rather than being fashion with the emphasis on consumer marketing this new brand will be very much B2B and will feature another eCommerce website designed and built on the Magento platform.

We seriously have seen an upturn in the local economy, especially from manufacturers who have ridden out the recession and are now investing to take advantage of a better economic climate to come.

Are we aiming to win more big clients? You bet we are!

Mulberry Square feature on the thisisbusiness East Midlands website

Read Tom Pegden’s article at www.thisisbusiness-eastmidlands.co.uk/news/Marketing…/article.html

View the Leicester Mercury version here Mulberry Square feature in the Leicester Mercury 060511

Screen grab of the Zatchels online boutique

We can safely say the launch of the new Zatchels brand – a range of contemporary and stylish satchels – has been a resounding success.

A successful media campaign (albeit almost under the cover of darkness to keep the launch a secret!) plus the launch of the Magento e-commerce website at www.zatchels.com means that the fashion world now has a new star.

The reaction to the Zatchels range has been incredible; everyone who’s seen the products and viewed the website seems impressed. We’re pleased, our client is pleased, the journalists were warm in their praise of the products, and the consumers seem equally impressed.

It would seem then that we’ve bucked the economic trend. With retail sales down, consumers struggling with bills, and the whole world seemingly on a bit of downer at the moment, we could have been forgiven for thinking the timing was all wrong.

The fact is though that fashion does buck trends. In 2008 leading fashion pundits were forecasting that the recession, which had still to really bite deeply back then, would take its toll. By 2010, the retail sector was suffering but it didn’t collapse. Even if some brands did suffer it basically came down to a question of image.

The fashion industry can sometimes be seen as decadent and self indulgent so what sets Zatchels apart from the crowd?

Well, it seems everyone’s agreed that satchels are the ‘must have’ accessory of the year, which is all well and good so long as people can afford the ‘must have’. And fashion, accessories and cosmetics spend is also considered therapeutic; when all else fails buy yourself a new dress or a new lipstick.

Where the Zatchels range really is a winner is in sensible pricing, affordable quality and the fine craftsmanship that lies behind this very British brand.

And apparently being British – especially in the world of fashion accessories – can be cool.

The recently launched Unecom IT Services website

The web development team at Mulberry Square Marketing Services today launched a new updated internet marketing driven CMS website for Leicester based managed service provider, Unecom IT Services.

Unecom IT Services have an enviable reputation for providing IT support services for businesses and organisations across the East Midlands. They recently introduced industry leading remote managed support to their proposition and needed to beef up their online presence to better represent the progress they are making.

Mulberry Square were privileged to be chosen by a business with such cutting edge services and were able to respond with web design and development services to match the very high standards that Unecom IT set.

The content management system (CMS) chosen to provide the platform for the development of their website was chosen because of the robustness and flexibility it provides in the construction of the website but also because of the ease of use for the client when updates need to be made.

The website has a built in IT support calculator coded by the Mulberry Square web developers and also accommodates a Wordpress blog and Twitter social media feeds in order to encourage enhanced natural search results. The copy on the site was developed following keyword research being performed by account managers at Mulberry Square with a view to not only providing enhanced search results but also with a view to improving the results of an Adwords campaign that Mulberry Square will be implementing on Unecom’s behalf.

As well as internet marketing, ongoing maintenance and support of the website with be provided by Loughborough based marketing services provider, Mulberry Square.

To take a look at Unecom’s new website or to find out more about the managed services they provide, please click here.

As Mulberry Square think ahead when designing branding and logos, they can be easily used in all aspects of future marketing and merchandising, both online and in print. The quality you get in all levels of services from Mulberry Square is well worth the cost of their services, if not more.

The first design and layout of the Bizzing website was also spot on and not much had to be changed. I told them what Bizzing will be doing and they came back with a website design and layout that really reflects what I wanted. This just goes to show they listen and how professional they are.

Mulberry Square have a very friendly and professional team of people who provide a very high quality of service and work whether it’s a temporary website or a full long term one. The people at Mulberry Square really try to understand your business and its goals and work with you to achieve them. Whether you are self employed or a big company the level and quality of service are always high. I fully recommend Mulberry Square and all its services to every one.” ”

Del Young
Bizzing

Custom Lynx Magento E-Commerce Website Design

Custom Lynx are a trade company specialising in providing a wide variety of custom length cables for their customers. For those systems needing a lot of cables, they also offer the useful option of customising the colour of both the cables and Neutrik connectors so you always know which cable is which!

Our graphic design team designed the look of the magento e-commerce site and its layout, whilst the products were catalogued and professionally photographed by our award winning in-house photographers. The result is a very good looking site with a clear layout and excellent product images, all of which are held on the large database contained within the website design.

The new Custom Lynx website is now up and running and ready to take orders! See it here

We were recently approached by a new company called Bizzing to provide graphic design services to design and develop its branding, in addition to offering marketing services to support the company in its promotion.

As well as the branding development, we were asked to design and develop a website for them to include many different levels of functionality, including password protected user accounts for customers and forum capability.

We have designed a temporary static website, which can be seen here, to showcase Bizzing whilst we are busy with further web design and web development behind the scenes. In designing this website, we have been involved in creative copywriting, including SEO enhancement, as part of our marketing services and have sourced a range of images to support the website design. We have also employed our creative copywriting services to provide captions to these images to further enhance their message.

Watch this space for the upcoming fully functional website for Bizzing…

Whether it be the pressures exerted by the recession or clients becoming more demanding, value no longer remains in being a small cog in the great machine that is the creation and delivery of marketing communications. Very small, and lets face it one dimensional, players who are scrapping to stay alive on the one hand and some very cute purchasing on the other perhaps baiting the situation have put paid to that. Just take a look at the examples being set by the print management giants of this world such as Communisis, St Ives, the Lateral Group and the GI Group, all of whom printed, mailed, managed data and now offer platforms to deliver communications by email and SMS through trigger marketing, whether that be via web pages, telephone calls, texts or some other way.

In the same way that Mulberry Square has looked to innovation to stay one head of the game, all of these big boys are doing the same by either developing their own platforms or working with the likes of Kodak, who themselves are looking for the next new angle, to develop solutions to knit the whole complex mixture together into a marketable product. Where Mulberry Square are ahead of the game is that we have outsourced the more commoditized services of printing and mailing with high quality well managed partners and introduced services that deliver creativity and greater value, particularly in the internet services arena.

Where we are now is in a more mature place where clients want us to help them deliver clear measurable results for their organisation whether that be the way that they present their propositions on just a campaign level, an overall strategy or across their business as a whole. That way it is not just about a question of price, it is about creating, managing and delivering communications that justify the trust placed when working intimately with the client by creating true return on investment (ROI), with lead generation, customer retention and enhanced data t’boot.