Whilst reading The Marketer magazine (March 2011 – produced by the Chartered Institute of Marketing) I was delighted to find an example of great marketing by an estate agent in an article about SME (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) and CRM (Client Relationship Management).
“Estate Agents Joseph Green based in Crawley employs 15 people. The marketing budget is tiny. And yet Joseph Green has signed one of the most productive sponsorship deals in football.
For around £20,000 Joseph Green bought shirt rights for Crawley Town last year. The timing of the deal was perfect. Crawley Town’s form this season has been sensational. The team is top of the Blue Square Premier league – four leagues below the Premiership – and has enjoyed a record FA Cup run culminating in the giant killing of Derby Town.
Joseph Green’s managing director Kevin Green is cock-a-hoop about the deal. “It’s been absolutely brilliant for us. We’ve improved our name recognition locally and we’ve been given national exposure because of the FA Cup run – which hasn’t finished yet by the way. We’ve had our logo in The Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph. We have also got a great chance to market ourselves internationally. We’ve recently decided to market English properties to the Chinese and Japanese. I am just about to go to Tokyo to give a seminar to Japanese buyers. I take Crawley Town shirts with me. They give us credibility”.
“The Chinese in particular are football mad, and when I pull out the shirt with our name on it you can see it gives us that bit extra” he says. Hospitality at the club is valuable, Green explains. “We get two tables at the corporate suite. It gives us a chance to spend four hours with our clients every Saturday. Perfect for building close relationships”.
It’s good to see great marketing at any company, but reassuring to know that you don’t have to be a massive organisation to undertake bold but modestly priced campaigns and produce fantastic results.
