Intelligent Marketing

Who are you?

Tricia Weener, MD and founder, Intelligent Marketing.

What do you do?

We’re a marketing and communications agency. We build brands and inspire desire. In terms of our services, we offer strategic marketing advice, run promotions, create and implement direct marketing campaigns, provide design services and online marketing, corporate and brand identity, event management, plan and run advertising campaigns. In 2005, we won the Women in Business Award at the Startups Awards and were rated Fastest Growing Promotional Marketing Agency by Marketing magazine. We’re also the world’s first CarbonNeutral® integrated agency, meaning we neutralise any carbon emissions the company is responsible for.

Why should I care?

Marketing is vital to the majority of businesses. The value derived from marketing is also highly measurable – from the asset value of brands on balance sheets, to the specific returns that can be achieved as a consequence of highly targeted campaigns. Investment is needed up front – that said, marketing should not be perceived as just another cost, but essential to the long-term success of the business or brand in question.

What can you do for me that I can’t do for myself?

We take an external view. Businesses often get caught up in their own internal rhetoric. They forget about their customers’ needs and can drop balls as a result. Intelligent Marketing is customer-focused and considers audience needs ahead of everything else. We have an internal division called Marketing Intelligence which uses both primary and secondary research sources to develop IntelligenceIM (our terminology for insights). This is used to help define strategies for our clients’ brands and businesses.

What mistakes will you stop me from making?

We find that companies will often have bought a poorly targeted list or that their marketing did not have clear response mechanisms, such as a phone number, URL or email. We’ll also save you money in the long run. Our expertise across all areas of the marketing mix will give you more effective advice from the outset, which in turn will lead to a higher return on investment. We generally achieve a return of up to 12 times investment, but achieved 50 times for office interiors business Morgan Lovell last year.

How else will you save me money?

We’ll refine the marketing activity over time. We’ll make it more effective as a consequence of testing and learnings applied along the way. By doing this, we can reduce the marketing budget.

Give me an example of one business you worked with this year?

Clearstone, a lorry driver training and recruitment business, was launched in 2003 and now has an annual turnover of £8m. We started working with this business at launch providing marketing advice and implementing campaigns as required. Essentially we work as its marketing department. In terms of specifics, we designed, built and optimised its website www.clear-stone.co.uk, created all marketing literature for trainees and clients, designed all training and recruitment ads and supported its media buying strategy.

Why should I trust you?

We have 120 years of industry experience across six directors and clients include Diageo, HSBC and Lex Leasing.

So how much will it cost me?

It depends on the size of the business and the amount of work involved. We can work on a project-by-project basis or retained. We have hourly (£60-£155) and daily rates (£420-£1,040) and provide full fixed project costs in advance, unless there are major changes in the brief.