Posted in Industry News, MRM News, MRM Pulse Tags: COGS, COGS Awards, Hive, Institute of Promotional Marketing, MRM, MRM Client Days, Multi Resource Marketing, Peter Kerr
Thanks to Helen Joubert and Becky Windsor from the BBC, David Hutchinson from Paramount Restaurants, Nick Wills from Net Initiative, Beverley Saha from Marketing Legal Advice, Becky Wakeling from Hive, Graham Temple from Platform Marketing and of course Mel, Peter and Neil from MRM!
Posted in Industry News, MRM News, MRM Pulse Tags: COGS Awards, Institute of Promotional Marketing, MRM, Multi Resource Marketing
I must confess to feeling a little hungover today…the reason for this? We were out yesterday at the Institute of Promotional Marketing’s inaugural COGS Awards – designed to recognise suppliers in the marketing services industry.
Thanks to our wonderful clients, and a rather cheeky email request to vote for us – we walked (or rather staggered) away with first place for Fulfilment and second place for Handling.
To top it all, Marion Seeney was awarded third place for the Individual of the Year!
What better recognition and thanks could we ask for from our clients?! Thanks so much to everyone who voted for us – we had such a great day.
Posted in Industry News, MRM News Tags: coupon clearing, Institute of Promotional Marketing, manufacturer coupons, MRM, supplier coupons, Tesco, Tesco to destroy coupons
Following a number of discussions over recent weeks with Tesco, we wish to provide you with an interim update to their proposal to destroy all supplier coupons from 15th June 2010.
Despite our best endeavours to persuade Tesco to take their foot off the pedal and work through the major issues, and this process has included a number of stakeholder meetings, Tesco remain determined to continue with their decision.
Our advice to you as our client is:
1. Continue to coupon as usual
2. Any data you are collecting via coupons (PIN and name & address) will be lost via Tesco redemptions.
3. Do not avail yourself of Tesco’s proposed validation system as the cost and specification has not yet been provided. What we do know is that it has very limited scope at present
4. If you have any coupons in the market via Fixed Fee or Insurance you must contact your provider immediately to discuss any possible impact
We will continue to update you on this situation as it develops. Tesco have taken our objective appraisal of their EPOS system and we await their development of this service. We understand Tesco will provide better reporting than currently on offer, but we don’t have full details on this yet. In our most recent meeting, we lodged our concerns about the validity of their current reporting as this already shows up the inaccuracies of their EPOS system and we’re hoping they will address this so that reports produced beyond 15th June will become more accurate and hopefully reliable.
I hope you understand we will continue to update you as we have more information to share, and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any queries.
Posted in Industry News, MRM News, Uncategorized Tags: COGS Awards, Euro RSCG KLP, Institute of Promotional Marketing, IPM, ISP Awards
…to Euro RSCG KLP for being named the Institute of Promotional Marketing’s agency of the year at Wednesday’s Awards Dinner in London. Peter was there representing MRM and meeting colleagues and friends in the industry. We’re off to the COGS Awards next month as we’ve been nominated for an award, so we’ll be keeping everything crossed…
Posted in Industry News, MRM News Tags: coupon clearing, Institute of Sales Promotion, manufacturer coupons, MRM, supplier coupons, Tesco to destroy coupons
We promised to keep you updated as the situation developed and can now confirm that Tesco plan to destroy all supplier coupons from 15th June 2010.
For further information on what this might mean, please contact your MRM Account Manager or contact mrmsales@mrm.co.uk to request more information and we’ll be happy to help.
Posted in Industry News, MRM News Tags: coupon, coupon clearing, Food and Drink Federation, Institute of Sales Promotion, ISBA, MRM, Tesco, Tesco coupon, Valassis
We have learned during the last few days that Tesco has decided that from June 2010 they will no longer return manufacturer coupons they accept in part payment on your behalf. We understand that Tesco will continue to deduct the value of your coupons from your trading account but will then simply pass on the information as they do now but not the physical coupons, these will simply be destroyed.
This decision has been taken by Tesco for what we believe to be cost reduction reasons. There has been no prior consultation with suppliers, stakeholders or any of the representative bodies such as ISBA or the ISP. With so little time left before implementation we assume you will be contacted quite soon by Tesco.
As the coupon agent working on behalf of many manufacturers we have immediately brought this to the attention of the ISP, ISBA and the FDF and will do everything we can to help repeal this decision, if at all possible. We are concerned about this decision on a number of levels:
• How do we know coupons are securely destroyed and not re-circulated?
• As far as we know there will be no exceptions, so any coupon you have circulated with PIN data on it will be lost
• Uniquely personalised internet coupons that can be validated will be impossible to track
• ‘Free’ coupons can be claimed at any price without reconciliation
Ultimately if this is forced through we will need to discuss the impact and to consider what we can do to help our clients deal with any matters arising and future couponing activity to ensure they are not disadvantaged by this arbitrary move.
We question why you would continue to pay the same rate of handling allowance when the service has been removed?
This change would be difficult to accept in any circumstance but given the backdrop of last year’s misredemption issues with Tesco and the continued shortfall between the values claimed through the direct recovery process and those verified by ourselves, we believe this initiative:
• Reduces your marketing options
• Leaves you open to fraud (by customers/staff) within Tesco
• Loses your right to verify and challenge
• Will leave you open for redemptions against products Tesco do not stock, without recourse
We have brought this news to you as soon as we were confident about Tesco’s intentions. We will be actively involved at an industry level and would be happy to take forward any specific issues you may have. If you would like to be involved in the ISP’s consultation please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Please contact mrmsales@mrm.co.uk to register your interest and keep checking back on www.mrm.co.uk for more information.
Posted in Industry News, MRM News Tags: data, despatch, Mail Order, MRM, multi channel, reporting, storage
MRM has made considerable investments in the facilities required to manage the complete mail order process from start to finish. Whatever your requirements, we have the knowledge and experience to guide you through this process with budget, quality and timescales at the forefront of our key objectives. We currently work with a number of large online retailers, managing the fulfilment of books and DVDs.
We have the capabilities to manage multi channel response handling including web, email, post, SMS and phone. The mail order service provision is located within our dedicated Business to Consumer operation with a purpose built storage and despatch area for the goods.
We also offer: -
This makes us the one-stop solution for your mail order activities outside of your core business.
Posted in Industry News, MRM News Tags: Hive, IPC Media, ISP, MRM, Sales Promotion Magazine, SMP, Varsity, Wax Communication
Here are some photos from the Varsity Match yesterday – enjoy!
Posted in Industry News, MRM News Tags: British Gas, free swim, MRM, SmartCoupon
LONDON – British Gas is giving customers free swimming sessions at their local pool as part of its sponsorship of British Swimming.
Customers can download and print ‘free family swim’ vouchers from the British Gas microsite www.britishgasswimming.co.uk. The campaign will be promoted through TV and online ads and was launched during the centre spot of X Factor on Saturday night.
MRM has worked closely with British Gas to deliver this campaign and will be handling all elements of the customer fulfilment from the provision of the print at home swim voucher using MRM’s SmartCoupon technology through to customer services management, redemptions and payments.
Posted in Industry News, MRM News Tags: acquisition, CFS, charity, government, Mail Order, MRM, public sector
MRM has acquired Capita Fulfilment Services (‘CFS’) from The Capita Group Plc (‘Capita’) for an undisclosed consideration. The acquired business was part of the Capita Communications division within Capita Business Services.
Based in Wetherby, West Yorkshire CFS provides a complete order fulfilment service including: multi-channel contact centre services for order taking, customer services and help-lines; Order processing, payment services, e-commerce; Warehousing, pick, pack and despatch.
The transaction follows a review about the future direction of CFS announced by Capita on March 19, 2009. MRM will undertake its own appraisal and continue staff consultation regarding the future of the Wetherby site and 120 transferring employees.
This transaction broadens and deepens our public sector relationships as well as bringing an important presence in the charity sector. We are particularly excited about the opportunity to leverage MRM’s technology and expertise in consumer communication to the benefit of CFS customers.
