Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | M | Marketing Week

It''s track and field: as clients demand more bang for their buck, agencies are under pressure to discover new markets, create ever more innovative promotions and to evolve to meet clients'' needs.

Article Excerpt
The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. So said Vidal Sassoon in a BBC radio interview some years ago. The inventor of modern hairdressing -- who gave us the "five-point cut' and the Nancy Kwan bob and revolutionised hair and fashion in the Sixties -- and his name and brand continue to thrive because his business has continued to evolve.

Field marketers can possibly afford to pamper themselves with expensive hairdos judging by the sector's dramatic growth. The Direct Marketing Association Census claims the industry was worth [pounds sterling]487m in 2001, having expanded by almost 40 per cent in a year, before it experienced a more sedate 2002.

What began as a discipline handling merchandising and simple sampling, has expanded into areas such as data collection, experiential marketing, outsourced salesforces and monitoring compliance levels of point-of-purchase (PoP) and promotional material.

Field marketing (FM) and hairdressing are two thriving industries: they offer clients something individual, creative and experimental. But, as the world's most famous barber points out, past success is no guarantee of future growth...