Yesterday evening Kate, Ben and Simon made their way to the Ship Hotel, Chichester, for an evening of networking with the industry’s finest. They gained a chance to pick up some great tips on how to promote Chichester Design, how to build the businesses’ reputation and how to protect that reputation, and there was most definitely some food for thought.
After a networking session where we met some new SCDF members and made some excellent new contacts we settled down to an evening of infotastic presentations. First up was Louise Fenwick of Coalition Communications. Louise talked about Promotion and highlighted the importance of knowing:
- What you are trying to achieve
- Who you are speaking to
- What you are saying
- How to devise a marketing plan
- How to keep communication alive
The messages that came across loud and clear were that you need to have clear objectives for your business, you need to know your products and services inside-out, you need to always stay true to your core values and you need to keep that channel of communication between you and your clients open.
Judy Larkin from Risk Principals was next to speak and she reinforced the fact that opinions and attitudes are formed over time and when it comes to business perception can very quickly become reality. So, when you’re putting a particular message out about yourselves you have take extra special care. More often than not, it’s best to focus on a core theme for your business.
For example, Chichester Design communicates the fact that they are a local, friendly design and marketing agency who are dedicated to customer service and thus we’re pretty confident that our reputation supports this.
Then David Pick raised some interesting questions about protection of intellectual property. David of Media Rights Protection considered licensing, contracts, non-disclosure agreements, contract negotiations and more from a legal viewpoint.
This lead to a lively debate about copyrights for photographs and whether watermarking is the way forward to guarantee protection online. Chichester Design certainly had their own ideas about the effectiveness of such methods and so did other members of the Forum. Meaty stuff!
Our host for the evening was Business First Magazine’s Nick Peters who kept things running smoothly with the charm and wit only a fellow editor could. Incidentally, be sure to check out November’s issue of South Coast Design Forum’s newsletter, it’s edited by Chichester Design’s Kate Lassetter, don’t you know?
After an hour of guest speakers it was time to head back to the wine and nibbles for a bit more networking. A busy but successful day, to be sure!
If there is anything that the Chichester Design can help you with, whether it’s web design, web development or marketing solutions, get in contact with us today and arrange an obligation-free consultation.
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