Fox Kalomaski

Author: Branwell Johnson, Marketing Week

Chinese furniture maker and retailer Forbidden City has appointed specialist retail and travel marketing agency Fox Kalomaski to develop a brand strategy ahead of a UK launch this year.

Forbidden City produces lounge and dining room furniture designed with elements of romantic and classic Chinese heritage combined with Italian and Chinese contemporary design.

Fox Kalomaski will work on developing the upmarket position of the brand and targeting niche markets.

Author: Martin Cowen, Travolution

The Bahamas Tourist Office in the UK has linked up with London-based advertising agency Fox Kalomaski to assess the impact of online-marketing on arrivals through customs and immigration data.

Fox Kalomaski chief executive Gary Jacobs said the agency's customer relationship management (CRM) system would allow the tourist office to“evaluate all its marketing activity in terms of return on investment,” with data and communications managed by a desktop tool known as The Vault.

Jacobs said: “The Bahamas Tourist Office has around 20 data sets covering potential visitors.” These range from visitors to the website to those entering competitions. “All these people have registered an interest to have a conversation of sorts. We are able to segment the activity and carry on the conversation in an appropriate way.”

Data cleaning would ensure individuals only appear once on the database, said Jacobs, and data sourced at points of entry would allow the tracking of individuals’ activity. Jacobs said: “Sometimes there is a two-year gap between a visitor’s first contact with us and their arrival, so it’s useful to be able to track their contact over time.”

The product also has a business-to-business (B2B) function, with Fox Kalomaski able to approach specialist diving or wedding tour operators with specific data.

 
However, the Bahamas Tourist Office will continue to pursue a multi-channel approach. “Online still has its limitations when it comes to building brand awareness and the Bahamas has a lower awareness in the UK than other Caribbean destinations,” said Jacobs. “There will always be a place for offline.”

By Branwell Johnson, Brand Republic

Integrated agency Fox Kalomaski has been appointed to create advertising for the Manchester Airports Group (MAG).

MAG owns airports in Manchester, East Midlands, Humberside and Bournemouth and the agency will be the sole London agency working for the group. It won the business following a pitch and will be primarily working on promoting routes and services.

MAG head of customer experience Sarah Barrett says: “Looking forward, although prevailing market conditions continue to provide us with a challenging environment, there will be significant growth as markets recover and we are positioning ourselves to take full advantage of those opportunities. We have and will continue to invest in improving the passenger experience across our four airports.”

The group has spent £78m to improve its terminals and security areas during 2008.

MAG is owned by Manchester City Council and surrounding borough and city councils. The group’s airports currently handle a total of more than 27 million passengers every year with a revenue of £371.3m. 

Fox Kalomaski specialises in travel and retail marketing.

Article by Gary Jacobs featured in Travel Weekly

HOW TO....get customers to spend more through marketing

Gary Jacobs, chief executive of marketing company Fox Kalomaski, whose clients include Thomson and Thai Airways explains how to leverage customer value through marketing

In a world of commoditised travel and volume-driven strategies, the trend of grabbing a quick booking and moving on to the next customer seems to be seen as the fastest route to bottom-line profitability. 

In many cases, where the price is best in the market, and the booking route - mainly online - is fast and efficient, then the tour operator or travel agent may well have found the Holy Grail.  However, there are few in the travel industry that have managed to combine low prices and booking efficiency. Those who have done it have tended to dominate. EasyJet is one example.

So, for most in the marketplace, the long-term strategy for growth needs to be based on an increase in profitable business, rather than purely an increase in high-turnover business delivering low margins.  Deriving a greater return on investment from a prospective, new or current customer will ultimately deliver greater dividends.  

The following suggestions focus on a few simple ideas that follow the customer journey from initial contact through to travel and identify how you can increase income potential by applying a few simple guidelines.

1. COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

Communication is a basic human need, but often, companies will go out of their way to avoid direct consumer engagement. The internet, for example, allows us to hide from the world. But the savviest of the internet shopping sites have found ways to engage with customers, encouraging them to revisit and spend more money. Think Tesco.com and Amazon – these brands indentify customer behaviour, likes and dislikes, and actively promote new products to satisfy their wants and needs. It’s a simple case of finding out more about your customers and using that information to deliver relevant and appealing offers. 

2. DON’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER

Do everything you can to engage with a customer, to develop a relationship and get their contact details, so you can turn opportunity into financial gain. If a customer asks for a quotation, follow up the initial enquiry with a letter, an email or a phone call. You would be surprised how many companies let an opportunity slip away through a lack of commercial drive. Be hungry to win the business, as your competitors will be doing everything they can to attract your customers. 

3. KEEP IN TOUCH 

Keeping in touch with a customer once they have booked is fundamental to building a good relationship. But be careful that staying in touch doesn’t border on stalking, as customers will tire quickly if they are bombarded with communications that are poorly targeted. A customer who only books a flight is generally looking for the best deal, and they will often leave the ground arrangements until the last minute. So keep in touch on a regular basis to check if they’ve booked their hotel, car hire, insurance and currency. This will be seen as adding value, and if you can add real value to their trip, you will be seen as a good future source for travel arrangements.

4. NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Understand the marketplace. Carry out research to understand your customers better. Stay one step ahead, so that you can deliver great initiatives before the customer even asks for them. For example, offer to text your customer the terminal they’re departing from. Anything that singles you out as a holiday company worth booking with is going to help you achieve a stronger return on investment. It surprises me that no firm, that I’m aware of, has launched a holiday offer where you pay full price for two consecutive holidays of a determined value, and then you get the third one at, say, half price. It works in retail, so why not for travel?

5. OUTSMART RATHER THAN OUTSPEND THE COMPETITION

If you don’t have a unique selling point, then invent one, or alternatively develop an emotional selling proposition which makes you stand out from your competitors for the way you do business. Do anything that differentiates you from the competition. In a commoditised market, when it comes to two companies with the same product or service at the same price with no other differentiation, then the company with the stronger brand will generally win.

GARY JACOBS

Gary Jacobs is chief executive of Fox Kalomaski, a London-based marketing communications agency specialising in retail, travel and leisure.

By Marton Cowen, Travolution

The Tunisia National Tourism Office claims a travel industry first for its cometotunisia.co.uk site which is using a Google Maps API allowing visitors to create their own itineraries.

Google Maps is familiar to most internet users, with its satellite/hybrid view functions particularly useful in a travel context. The idea is that itineraries can be printed out and taken to a travel agent to handle the bookings. 

Danny Brooks, project director at agency brik digital, said the "my Tunisia" function was a key part of engaging visitors to the site. “Saved itineraries can be shared with friends via email or by posting to social media sites, so planning a trip becomes more communal and more enjoyable,” he said.

The site works in conjunction with Tunisia’s above-the-line campaign, handled by brik digital’s sister company Fox Kalomaski. Tunisia is looking to promote its culture and diversity and move way from being seen as a winter-sun destination. 

“We have used colours and textures and large images on the home page which we hope will change perceptions in an instant,” said Brooks. During the soft launch, the bounce rate from the home page more than halved compared with the previous site. The landing time has also been speeded up. “You can lose a visitor in two seconds if the page takes too long to load,” he said.

Brooks added that the next stage would be a focus on natural search. “Everyone uses Google. If they see an advert on TV or talk to someone, they will use Google search to find out more, so this has to be a top priority.”