BREAKTHROUGH'10 Awards

UK marketer
of the year

Top dealer, manufacturer, 
etailer and manager

31 May 10

The closing session of the BREAKTHROUGH marketing conference paid tribute to the growing emphasis that dealers are placing on personalised marketing. In 2005, there were less than 5 UK dealers with a true focus on marketing productivity ideas beyond buyers, to the user choosers. Today there are 25 and numbers are rising fast. See the nominations and winners here...

Dealer Marketer of the Year

Nominations were: Bluefish Office Products of Northampton; Commercial of Cheltenham (previous winners in 2008); Langstane of Aberdeen (2009 winner); and Penketh’s of Liverpool.

All of these dealers have shown terrific commitment to marketing, branding, appointing a marketing specialist, CRM database , selling to the C-level, emarketing, low carbon processes, and webstore development.

And the winner is....Bluefish Office Products. Bluefish CEO Mark Heath has committed his team to lower operating costs and appealing to customers as ‘Your low-cost office provider’. As a result, Bluefish has achieved the highest productivity ratio for a stocking dealer at $500,000/head worldwide. Bluefish is a leader in eco-productivity practices with a carbon footprint of less than 300 tonnes...the lowest in the industry per £m in sales.

Outstanding progress as captured in Mark Heath’s presentation at the conference. Laura Gale VP of marketing for United presented the award to Mark ...see pic above.

Manufacturer Marketer of the Year

Nominations were: Durable; Fellowes; Logitech and 3M.

Durable were commended for its highly successful and captivating computer cleaning campaigns using shock and fear techniques. Fellowes were praised for its pioneering work in creating ‘100% jam-proof shredding and ergonomic accessories campaigns.

Logitech after a really tough couple of years, had bounced back with 25% growth rates in 2010 as a result of innovation in wireless mice, keyboards, webcams and smart remote devices. Meanwhile, previous winner, 3M were nominated its constant innovation in producing winning pipeline of new products e.g. Post-It Notes; pens; name badges and pocket projectors.

And the winner is....3M. Its ‘3M innovation’ mantra was never more in evidence than in the tough recessionary years. CEO Jack Truong (pic right) provided a stream of winning new products and exciting campaigns that appealed directly to women. As a result sales were up in 3M office division by 9% in Q1’10.

Etailer of the Year

Nominations in this new category were: DG Office Supplies of Manchester; Euroffice of London; Everythingoffice.com of Lowestoft; Paperstone of London W1; and UK OfficeDirect in Swindon. All showed strong  growth during the recessionary period,

DG were commended for doubling sales via its SEO model fired by Evolution Software. Euroffice continued its roll towards £30m including its successfully launched Italian business; Everythingoffice was recognised for its rapid growth and high customer service model; Paperstone for its flying start and UKOfficeDirect for building a powerful web business which had reached £6m in sales.

Dealer Marketing Manager of the Year

Nominations: Debbie Whipps of Ace Office (Bournemouth); Debbie Hunt from Irongate (Derby); Gwyneth Hume of Langstane (Aberdeen, and winner in 2009); and Karen Abel at Penkeths (winner in 2008) of Liverpool.

Back in 2005 the only marketing managers in the UK office world were effectively product managers and catalogue managers. At last, now that a big catalogue is no longer seen as a strategic advantage, these managers are turning to CRM and building email databases to facilitate personalised emarketing to drive users to the splash page in their open webstores.

All of the above nominations have made rapid progress in building user chooser databases from 500 names up towards the 5000 names goal and then profiling interests and responsibilities to determine relevance of information and single subject promotions.

All of the above have moved to marketing away from literature production and regular and relevant, personalised email promotions to named user choosers with great results. This is the ultimate in personalised emarketing.

And the winner for the second time is... Karen Abel of Penkeths (pic above left). Karen one of the first appointed marketing managers in the UK office market, has developed her role to include CRM, emarketing, brand development and comprehensive webstore development with terrific growth results.

Congratulations to all nominees for achieving such a high standard of performance