Michael Cleland, marketing and business development manager at Assembly Coffee, explains why the business should win the marketing and PR category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition.
Assembly is a coffee roastery which launched in April 2015. We are unique in the level of input, interaction and relationship maintained with our wholesale partners. Each wholesale partner is incorporated to become an intrinsic part of the service and the focus of promotion.
We employed an ‘influencer’ marketing strategy, incorporating an awareness, interest, desire and action (AIDA) promotion model to both control market positioning and maximise exposure to our target market. To date this has resulted in the acquisition of more than 30 wholesale partners.
As we progressed through the AIDA model we broadened our promotional channels from word of mouth and selectively distributed merchandise to include social media, industry publications and brand presence in cafes.
Assembly promoted its official launch by sponsoring and supplying the Coffee Masters competition at the London Coffee Festival. The event, which featured the highest profile figures in our market segment, was viewed by more than 25,000 guests and an online audience of 250,000.
Following the coffee festival we directed marketing activities into driving website traffic with engaging content. This has grown traffic monthly by approximately 300%.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
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