Product category:
Integrated marketing
News Release from: Purple Pilchard
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 20 April 2007
Purple Pilchard grows into big fish
Two years ago marketing consultancy Purple Pilchard first took to the waters as a nervous limited company: now it has a national network of underdog clients.
Before May 2005, Purple Pilchard had existed as little more than a vague belief that no one was servicing the distinct needs of premium-oriented start-up companies on tight budgets; small personality-packed operations that needed to find more creative ways to keep away from them their big competitor's clutches Today Maidenhead's most fleet-finned marketing agency is proud to boast a national network of discerning underdog clients, including a Devon-based soup company, some crumbly Yorkshire fudge, some Midlands-based biscuits and some Belgium-owned functional chocolate
Closer to home it also champions the interest of Cawston Vale juices, Salty Dog and Darling Spuds crisps, a local, upmarket handbag provider (Frisby Adams) a high-profile Henley chocolatier and an under-fives footy franchise.
Pilchard founder, Ian Hills, an ex-Ben and Jerry's marketer, said: "Throughout my 17 years on the client side I was constantly disappointed in my dealings with big arrogant agencies who professed a heartfelt appreciation of personality-packed discovery brands.
In reality these agencies saw small ambitious clients as little more than a handy playground for either breaking in a junior account manager or providing the perfect vehicle for some hairbrained idea they'd devised to demonstrate their so-called creative streak".
Having met fellow marketer Vicki Hazel at a creative writing night school in Beaconsfield, Hills decided the time was now ripe for a compact agency that provided affordable strategic solutions brimming with enthusiasm, creativity and vision.
"Our goal," added Hazel, "wasn't simply to launch an agency, but to create a job model that allowed us to work around the all-important needs of our respective children.
"As we approach 40, we are both only too aware of friends whose obsession with climbing up the career ladder has resulted in their family set-ups suffering.
Hills added: "Pilchard isn't about making oodles of money, because on that premise we've already failed horribly.
"Our goal was to have fun, do something that exercised the brain and retain the right work-life balance with an emphasis on life".
Working on the premise that a daring small brand with real ambition can always outsmart a bigger, cash-rich competitor with a dull, safety-first mindset, Pilchard insists it will only grow organically by continuing to target ambitious clients with an extra dash of derring-do and professional, hard-working employees with the right life priorities.
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