"Passionate about promoting a Good Food Economy"
MARKETING & BUSINESS SUPPORT
Advising business growth by effective identification of their target market, the profitability of their offering and defining a practical plan to deliver on strategy. We can work on individual projects that help business owners create clear strategies and project plans.
Marketing & Business Support: Campaign Management, Plug in Marketing
THE LENSBURY CLUB
Client Requirement
We were approached by The Lensbury Club to help them market the 1m investment into a new gym and studios. We helped them create a member communication programme, set up their social channels, ensure the smooth transition for members to the new facilities through an internal member newsletter and a new member acquisition campaign all in the space of 12 weeks.
What we achieved
In eight weeks, we successfully integrated ourselves with the leadership team, delivered three member communications to successfully navigate through the refit programme with resulted in no loss of members or refunds. We successfully launched a new “mywellness” app in partnership with market leader Technogym which saw over 1300 members download and create individual fitness programmes. In less than 12 weeks, set up all new social channels, oversaw a photo shoot to deliver over 100 new images for The Club and have grown the Instagram following to 600 members. We developed a successful local marketing campaign using targeted leaflet drop, a new landing page for the website, paid for ads on social media and local press advertising to attract new members to the Club which resulted in a 40% increase in new member sign-ups.
“Rice Marketing and Create7 have done an excellent job for The Lensbury Club.
It was important for us to deliver a sensitive, well thought through communication campaign to help our members navigate the changes and enjoy the benefits of the new gym.
We also wanted to showcase the new gym to a new audience, something The Lensbury has not done before. Their strategic expertise combined with practical delivery resulted in an effective design which saw a 40% uplift in new member acquisition and minimal negative feedback from our members during the disruption."
— Peter Woods, Interim Ops Director, The Lensbury Club
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Marketing & Business Support: Plug in Marketing
BLITZ, CROSSFIT GYM
Tim Hagon, Founder of CrossFit gym Blitz, approached Steph and Mary because of our local marketing expertise and our reputation for delivering strategic yet practical marketing campaigns. He wanted to invest in marketing to grow the awareness of his brand locally and to appeal to a wider audience who would have not thought CrossFit could be for them.
We focused on delivering powerful content to articulate what CrossFit does, its benefits and to de-mystify the jargon and image. It was helped by the fact that we became members to see the experience for ourselves.
The strategy for the first 12 months was to trial all forms of local media to see what worked. An advertorial in a leading local title boosted awareness and led to the best performing month ever for the fitness company.
By creating a content plan which was shared with the coaching team, we were able to produce regular blogs with content shared on social and supported by Facebook and Google Ad campaigns.
“My business has gone from strength to strength since employing Rice Marketing.
My customer numbers have grown, with 19% increase in customer, 13% increase in revenue years on year.
The results tell me that the marketing effort is paying off.
Steph and Mary are the easiest people to work with as they are both practical and flexible which suits a busy business owner like myself. “
— Tim Hagon, Founder, Blitz Gym
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Marketing & Business Support: Strategy Planning
SIMPLY FRESH
Simply Fresh approached us to help articulate their vision for the business to their franchisees at a time when they were growing at an unprecedented pace. They instinctively understood their brand but did not have the time or expertise to articulate it to themselves, their management team, potential retailers or investors.
We listened to the management team and a number of selected franchisees and reflected this into a clear strategy against which we highlighted what was working well and where there were inconsistencies in delivery by the franchisees and the support offered to them. Using the strategy, we delivered a practical local marketing plan for new store openings
“Stephanie and her team were extremely professional throughout the project, and although we initially questioned whether we were ready for external support of this kind, the report they produced proved extremely beneficial to us in helping clarify our current position in the market, giving us the tools to build our future offer.
We still use this document today, and it's proved to be of great value to us.”
— Kash Khera, Managing Director, Simply Fresh
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Marketing & Business Support: Profitability Modelling
THE SCHOOL ROOM
"I had been a classroom teacher for 30 years when I decided to set up my own tuition business. With absolutely no experience in the business world, I had no idea where to begin. Steph offered to help me, guiding me through the start -up process and steering me through my first year.
Our weekly meetings became fortnightly as I gained confidence and learned to stand on my own two feet. Four years on, Steph continues to mentor me and we meet monthly to review my business and to discuss how to keep abreast of a very fast changing world.
Without a shadow of a doubt, my business would not be in the happy position that it is now without Steph. Her experience, knowledge and understanding of business is immense, but over and above all that, she is so encouraging and makes what seems impossible possible by breaking everything down into manageable goals.
Every start up business needs a Steph!"
— Jannette Simpson, Founder, The School Room
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Marketing & Business Support: Profitability Modelling
MINT COACHING
MINT Coaching has a unique offering of Strength & Conditioning training for kids and teens. Stephanie and Mary listened to MINT founders, Chris and Tristan, talk about the passion, expertise and goals they had for their business. Together they brought all these thoughts together into a clear strategic plan.
Stephanie modelled the strategy into a business plan that highlighted where they needed to focus their efforts and where they needed to cut back on activity that did not fit the strategy or was unprofitable.
Mary created and delivered against a communication plan to raise the brand awareness within the local area which was then reviewed on a monthly basis against agreed targets. A key deliverable being to ensure that there was as much growth in the number of girls taking part in the classes as well as boys.
As image and video were important marketing tools for MINT to get their USP over, part of the project included design and delivery of a brand refresh including a new logo, photography and website.
London Retail Expertise: Improving the food environment
LONDON STUDY TOURS
WESTFIELD
MEC’s client, Olaf Thon, is Scandinavia’s biggest shopping centre owner and they wanted to visit world class shopping centres in the UK to specifically understand the role of digital marketing. MEC were unable to fulfil the brief because they lacked both retail and digital marketing sector experience and local knowledge in the UK, both of which we could provide.
Rice Marketing researched, compiled and delivered an inspirational sector study tour for 22 senior management delegates, to inform the development of Olaf Thon’s strategy. This included a presentation and walking tour encompassing UK insight, with leading examples, leading edge technology, analysis of matrix of the sector, customer messaging across all media platforms and customer positioning.
The client found the study tour to be inspiring, informative and challenging, with all aspects of the logistics having worked well - in fact, so successful was it that we were asked to carry out a repeat study tour several months later.
"Stephanie has a keen insight into the UK food segment. She is not only knowledgeable, but inspires through her market tours. She truly cares about the consumer and the retailers and making connections that will be a win-win. We had great discussions as we walked the city of London with Stephanie and have a list of ideas that will inspire innovation for our team."
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— Lyn Hochberg, Director of Product Development, Wawa
WAWA & INSIGHT RESEARCH
Wawa is one of the US market's leading convenience store retailers. Insight Research asked us to distil the best of London consumer and retail trends into a day walking tour for this leading global client. We were able to plan a route that was a practical demonstration of how food and food service operators were responding to the changing consumer demand for fresh, fast, conscious food.