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The Briefing Room Ltd. - Brand and Marketing Consultancy

“It's always refreshing to work with good people and Chris fits the bill of the 'good guy' very well. Chris helped us make sense of our product messaging so that our sales people didn't have to continually explain what we do! He managed to take our rather complex proposition, cut through it quickly and sum it up perfectly in a few short sentences.” Sean Newell, CEO Virtual Business Networks.

the business

Welcome to The Briefing Room Ltd, the virtual home of Cambridge-based freelance marketing consultant Chris Ellis. If you are looking for a safe pair of hands and a no-nonsense approach, I’m your man. Projects undertaken over the last four years are referenced in the business news section below.

My USP is that not only do I have the strategic skills to develop relevant brand and marketing strategies; I also have the tactical ability to project manage the deliverables too – adding value with concepts and copywriting. This includes websites (with SEO insight driving content and code), advertising, direct mail (email campaigns included), events, packaging, PR campaigns and internal communications campaigns.

The Briefing Room harnesses 20 years blue-chip integrated brand experience across FMCG, luxury goods, leisure & travel, financial, technology and retail sectors.

For FREE, EXPERT ADVICE call Chris on 0780 815 9077
or email chris@thebriefingroom.co.uk

people do business with people

first person

Chris Ellis, whose career includes senior management roles within some of Cambridgeshire’s top brand and marketing agencies, runs The Briefing Room. Most recently Marketing Manager of The Black Pig Design Company, Chris was formerly a Board Director of Bryt Ltd (brand consultants) and held the position of Director of Communications at Precept Integrated Design & Marketing for seven years up to 1999.

Chris was also a member of the original launch team responsible for the creation of Design Week magazine, working on the title from 1986-89 at Centaur publishing, London.

He has spoken at regional conferences and networking events in Cambridge, as well as providing expert contributions on branding to ITV News and the BBC Inside Out program. Chris is a Windsor Leadership Trust alumni and former member of the Institute of Direct Marketing.

As the Managing Director of The Briefing Room, Chris fuses creativity with strategic thinking and draws on two decades of blue-chip brand experience delivering sales and marketing effectiveness for some of the UK’s most successful consumer and business-to-business brands.

Whilst this track record in continuous achievement is important, we recognise that past performance is not necessarily a guide to future returns.

Watch Chris talking about branding on BBC Inside Out

Of more significance and what you probably want to know right now is, “What can you do for my business?”

“Where are we, where are we going...” and how do we get there?

...there could be a deeper, more serious concern that your marketing strategy is failing to leverage brand value

your challenges

There could be one key, critical task in hand that you don’t have the time and resource to approach thoroughly, or there could be a deeper, more serious concern that your marketing strategy is failing to leverage brand value or help build the sales pipeline.

Technical knowledge, sector experience and gut instinct count for a lot in marketing. However, if your competitors are out manoeuvring you, or the marketplace has changed around you, then doing the same things and expecting a different set of results will be as rewarding as throwing
a handful of £10 notes out the window. It’s also a sure sign of madness!

The Briefing Room has been created to help businesses (re)discover their unique selling points, their sustainable competitive advantages and the internal brand-belief required to stay ahead of the pack.

We’re here to help provide the direction and planning support necessary to identify the most profitable pathway to commercial success.

And, with a proven track record in design communications, we’re here to help facilitate the delivery of compelling propositions, outstanding creative campaigns and on-brand messaging to your target audiences.

ideas without substance are worthless

our expertise

From commercially sound marketing strategies to brilliant brand-building strap lines: the skills and abilities on offer at The Briefing Room represent a valuable, single source partnership with the proven capabilities to add value to your marketing function. Working across the planning-to-implementation spectrum we’re here to work as part of your team.

To help you see where our input could add most value we’ve grouped our areas of expertise under three process phases: >Discovery >Direction >Delivery

we’re part of the solution, not the problem

Ask The Briefing Room to contact you about research, Brand Audits and the BRANDCAPSULE™ tool email us

discovery

The Briefing Room can develop the situational analysis and market research necessary to provide the context for directional changes.

To achieve true competitive advantage, businesses need to understand what motivates and satisfies the needs of their customers. Working with carefully selected associates we can undertake qualitative and quantative research to gather and interpret objective findings, highlighting where current brand image/performance is falling short of your desired brand identity/performance.

As part of a Brand Audit process, we gain subjective insight from internal audiences using surveys and orientation workshops to help senior managers articulate their brand beliefs.

We use our BRANDCAPSULE™ benchmarking tool to document and capture your brand status at a given moment in time, gathering together research, communications collateral, packaging samples and multi-media references.

Findings from the overall Brand Audit provide key insights to assist in determining the way forward, providing an indication of the nature and extent of change required.

direction

Every business needs to define its marketing strategy and agree the tools and tactics required to help it achieve its targets. More significantly, businesses need to avoid the pitfall of looking and acting exactly like their competitors.

Without differentiation and unique propositions the words in a marketing plan will look like an off the shelf solution – and in a competitive environment, one size does not fit all.

The Briefing Room can work alongside you to agree strategy and produce straight-talking marketing plans designed to bring clarity and direction to your marketing efforts.

Equally, we know that branding is an ‘inside>out’ process. So where appropriate, we can help formulate Cascade Programmes to share brand vision across your organisation, using internal communications and training.

Ask The Briefing Room to contact you about Strategy, Planning and Cascade Programmes email us

Ask The Briefing Room to contact you about propositions, messaging and targeted marketing communications campaigns email us

delivery

The Briefing Room is an independent consulting business and adopts a completely unbiased approach to delivering the best possible creative solutions for clients.

Propositions are developed and distilled from our understanding of your customers, your positioning and your market strengths. Big ideas and umbrella themes are created to provide customers with the ‘reasons to believe’ and the sales team with an aide memoir for that vital ‘elevator pitch’.

At the creative end of the spectrum, there is no substitute for practical, hands-on experience. Having worked at the coalface of creative services for nearly 20 years we know a thing or two about promotional campaigns and brand-centric communications for segmented audiences.

We can help you brief and manage existing agencies or we can assist in the pitch process to appoint a new creative team to a specific project. With our in-depth knowledge of local companies and the vital army of specialist freelancers, take comfort in the fact that if you don’t have the immediate capabilities for the campaign, we know where to find it.

experience is everything

Brand communication takes many forms - just as the interaction with your customers resonates across a multitude of touch points. Maintaining brand personality and brand language is a challenge that can benefit from the external contributions or 'brand management' skills of an experienced brand communications expert. Over the years Chris Ellis has worked on many projects for some of the UK's biggest corporate and FMCG brand owners: Barclays Bank, Legal & General, Disneyland Paris, Siemens, Allinson Flour, Ken Hom Cooks, EDS, Whitbread, The Stationery Office, Norwich Union, Cambridge Display Technology...the list is as long as it is indicative of the invaluable experience on offer at The Briefing Room. To download a Brand Communications datasheet in pdf format click here.

collaboration, without frustration

working together

For an informal conversation about your business objectives and the brand & marketing challenges you’re facing please call us on 0780 815 9077 whenever it’s convenient for you – that includes evenings and weekends.

However, the most productive way to progress, without any obligation, is to invest an hour of your time in a meeting at your offices.

Initial meetings and top line assessments of the situation are free because they allow you to get a feel for the clarity of thought and invaluable experience we bring to the problem solving process.

If we work together we will set a mutually agreeable day rate. This can be applied to strategic consultancy, project management or implementation tasks assigned to The Briefing Room.

We value trust, integrity and openness and expect the skills, knowledge and experience we bring to our clients to be equitably rewarded.

Interested in forming a mutually rewarding relationship? Then what are you waiting for? Call us on 0780 815 9077 or email enquiries@thebriefingroom.co.uk

“we help you achieve your business objectives through brand and marketing effectiveness.”

The Briefing Room Ltd: the business about your challenges and our expertise, working together.

Thank you for visiting The Briefing Room and considering our consultancy services. We look forward to helping you when, and if, we’re appropriate to your business needs.

The Briefing Room Ltd. - Brand and Marketing Consultancy - Call us on 0780 815 9077 or skypechris.ellis