Have you ever wondered what makes great brands great? In the first of a series of interviews with some of the UK’s leading brand owners, managing directors and entrepreneurs, we uncover the growth strategies that make brands successful.
Paul Crow, MD of Ripples kindly took the time to talk to us to share some of his challenges and successes in the last 12 months.
What’s your name and position?
Paul Crow, Managing Director
What brand do you work for Paul?
Ripples, a premier bathroom retailer operating from 15 showrooms across the country.
What’s your brand purpose?
To represent bathrooms that are innovative in their design, with quality products and provided with the highest levels of service afforded to the customer by our network of dedicated franchise partners.
What goal did you achieve in the last 12 months that created the most impact?
We celebrated 30 years of trading with a high-profile consumer Style Guide (magazine) that enabled us to significantly increase band awareness through increase PR, web traffic and direct leads. We also partnered with high profile interiors and style social media influencers such as Lilly Pebbles and The Frugality which provided a gateway to a wider audience and increased awareness of our product and service offer.
What would you say was your biggest challenge in the last year?
Keeping the accelerator flat to the floor across the business so that we could capitalise upon all the opportunities that we knew existed in the business and overall, providing a relatively multi-channel marketing solution from a very limited budget.
What approach did you take to solving your biggest challenge?
We invested more time focusing the internal discussions on top level objectives and capabilities of the business and worked closely with our supply partners to seek further support to create further marketing opportunities for the brand, such as with influencers.
What’s your biggest challenge right now?
Migrating the benefits of working with Ripples from the showroom to online without slowing down the progress required to improve our retail offer to showroom visitors.
What strategies are you considering for solving your current challenge?
Further education, funding for showroom improvements and being more creative with content for marketing.
What are your predictions for the future of your market?
That the number of retailers in it will decrease over the next five years and that only those who are truly consumer focused with an all-encompassing product, service and retail offer, on & offline, will prosper.
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