Presentation script

SLIDE 1

Hello we are Craft, we are a brand design agency.

SLIDE 2

Our mission statement is that we are a branding and identity agency working with small independent businesses in Leeds and West Yorkshire.Our focus is local.

SLIDE 3

We offer branding and identity design, we will create a fully functional visual aesthetic for your company, that will work across a broad range of deliverables.We are a company that believes in supporting local business, we are based in rented studios in Leeds.In our local area our main competitors are, the consult, better and elmwood.In order to gauge how we will fair against them, and ultimately compete with them, we used a SWOT analysis, looking in depth at their strengths and weaknesses as a business, the opportunities they provide us and the threat they pose.

Elmwood have the benefit of being internationally renowned with studios in London, Leeds and New York to name a few. This has also helped to build their reputation as, ‘the World’s most effective brand design agency over the years they have been in business. In terms of weaknesses they have very few, however there is one fairly substantial one, their reputation can almost seem intimidating to smaller businesses. Meaning that they lose out on the small independent businesses in dyer need of a re-brand. This provides us with the opportunity of taking the clientele they drove away with their reputation (and price)

The obvious threat they pose is the ability to take our business and be able to produce with a much larger budget and more man hours. Better aren’t quite as established as Elmwood however they have a huge client base, and a lot of testi-monials, evidently their work is effective. They also have the benefit of having won a lot of awards which they can use to their advantage. In terms of weaknesses they are based in Stokesley which seems pretty far out from where the majority of the business will be coming from. They also have a very corporate style, that a lot of businesses don’t look for.

Again the ability to cater to these businesses is where we come in. Better would again threaten our business by being able to take our clients. The Consult are another Leeds based agency with a very good reputation. Their main strength is the vast experience they have within their team of creatives and the ability to provide a full service, branding, marketing strategy etc. no weaknesses, they’re wicked they are evidently a threat in that they will steal our business with their reputation.Being based in Leeds means that we are on the doorstep of a huge amount of local resources, as part of our ethos as a company we will buy local where ever we can, places such as Team, Target and Duffields offer a broad range of print based products ect.

SLIDE 4

PEST.To help determine our marketing strategy we conducted a PEST analysis.The outcome of this analysis informed our macro marketing environment, these are the factors which we have no control over, however we can use them to our advantage.

Political factors affecting our macro environment mean that budget cut backs and investments are at an all time low, the government has set targets for the banks to loan to small businesses that have not been met.

This has had a knock on affect to the economy.In economical terms this means that company growth is very low and spending has dramatically dropped.

It is now more important than ever for companies to come up with innovative and cost effective ways of generating income. That is where Craft can step in.

We see the current economical climate as a positive for small companies like us, as we can provide inno-vative and effective re-branding that can help to refresh a companies revenue stream.

Social interaction has changed a great deal, we use technology now more than ever to communicate with one an other. We feel that as a company it is very important for us to communicate with our clients face to face and deal with them on a one to one basis forming lasting relationships.

SLIDE 5

We have a very simple marketing mix, our product is our ability to design high quality branding com-bined with We are a small team which means that we can keep costs very low passing this on to our customers.We are well placed in the business capital of Yorkshire close to travel routes and easily accessible through online communication.

As we are a independent company targeting other independent companies we aim to mainly promote ourselves through our networking events, direct mail, face to face contact, printed adverts and online presence.

We aim to market ourselves through various approaches. As our main approach we intend to hold a monthly networking event that we will invite local businesses to, we will lead talks on the benefits of branding and invite guest speaks to talk on various subjects giving advice about businesses. The main aim of the events will be to introduce us to new clients, to meet contacts and to drum up business for our agency.

We intend to launch ourselves at the first of these events.We will also directly contact company owners in the local areas through direct mail in order to set up meetings and gain new business, we will have an online presence and keep profiles on business websites such as linkedin.

SLIDE 6 - Finance

We calculated our overheads based on standard expenditure costs including rent (at £399/month at Duke Studios); software - Adobe Creative Suite, MS Office and various studio equipment, travel and re-search costs and so on.

Based on an initial £25,000 salary for year 1 (£17,127 after national insurance and income tax), our annual income required is £100,000 alongside the total overhead costs of £17609.05. Using these values, and based on 244 available work days, our minimum daily charge rate as ‘Craft’ is £482.

As we intend to make a profit in the first year to account for various contingency costs (including small business loans and dividends), our actual daily charge rate is £600. This will provide an annual pre-tax profit of £28,792 and a total net profit of £23,033.60.

SLIDE 7 - Future Plans

In the first year, we intend to achieve a near £150,000 turnover to cover our financial expectations. After hot-desking at Duke Studios for 12 months, we aim to change premises to a more private studio space in the second year of trade.All 4 employees aim to be working full time.