Client Services Executive Vacancy

Client Services Executive Vacancy

The SPS Group is a leading supplier within the point of sale industry working with some of the world’s most prestigious brands. We offer excellent service standards and product quality from initial design to implementation.

Location

Wimborne, Dorset

Type

Permanent / Full Time

Role Overview:

- To develop and support specific Point of Sale client accounts ensuring that all customer needs are met.

 - To identify and drive potential profit opportunities for all aspects of the Group whilst developing strong business relationships across client portfolio. 

Key Responsibilities:

 - Ensure that all client SLAs are over delivered upon.

 - Actively pursue new sales opportunities and maintain forecasting for allocated accounts. - Commercially assess all client briefs with a view to margin uplifts

 - Produce all client estimating requirements

 - coordinating with subcontractors where applicable.

 - Liaise with artworkers and agencies to ensure that third party contributions are scheduled in a timely manner

 - Brief the print production team with all job details, ensuring all critical path timescales are met internally

.- Generation of store allocation lists and liaise with the despatch department to ensure that customer packing and storage needs are satisfied to a high standard.

 - Completion of all client invoicing requirements The successful candidate must have previous account management experience.

Please send CV to Julie.Pyatt@spsgroup.co.uk

#clientservices, #POS, #thespsgroup, #vacancy, #printing 

Let's Do Digital 2014 - A Review

Let's Do Digital 2014 was held in March at the Bournemouth University Executive Business Centre. The event promised to cover the latest trends in Analytics, Digital Conversation, Search, Video and PPC Ads. Guest speakers included Lewis Lenssen from DC Storm and Andrew Saunders from IPC Media, who were engaging and extremely knowledgeable in their fields. We particularly enjoyed the Brand and Retail focus of the Seminars and Keynote Lectures.


When considering analytics, Lewis presented from a completely new angle. We are all aware of the changes Google have made to their analytics, where soon multi-device conversions can be tracked for 'logged in' Google users, providing for the first time a complete and accurate profile of the consumer's journey to purchase. Although this does still pose the search term ambiguity issue, because a rapidly growing percentage of data is now recorded as 'unavailable', with 'logged in' Google user's search term data restricted to all but PPC ad users. Lewis built on this knowledge by presenting retailer case studies to apply the concept to real word scenarios. 

One of the key utilisations of retail and e-Commerce is Click and Collect. The number of website visits before conversion has increased from 4 in 2010 to 10 in January 2014. Consumers are expecting much more from their shopper experience and are comparing experience and added value alongside price and product. Consumer's are influenced by a vast number of media types and consumers can voice their opinion to a much wider audience almost instantly. With over 3 channels contributing to the average purchase and 40% of customers using more than one device in the purchase decision, the link between in-store marketing and e-Commerce marketing is ever vital to the purchase decision.

John Lewis reported a 70% growth in Click and Collect sales since utilising Waitrose stores. 1/3 of customers using the service also purchased additional items whilst in the store environment. This clearly shows that engaging and effective POS and retail marketing collateral has a growing part to play in strengthening the link between e-Commerce research and purchase and in-store purchase, which if used correctly can only maximise on sales opportunities. 

Argos reported that Mobile Commerce had risen to 75% and accounted for 20% of sales in 2013. Click and collect represented 1/3 of 2013 revenue. As Argos reach the end of their Ebay driven Click and Collect partnership trial this month, it will be interesting to quantify the causal increase in in-store sales from the additional footfall. Tesco had a multi-channel focus for their Christmas 2013 campaigns. 70% of online Tesco fashion orders were Click and Collect and 40% of grocery orders were made using more than one device. 

We have been supplying POS and Retail Marketing initiatives to the world's biggest and most influential brands since 1968 and strongly believe that offering end to end solutions that not only resolve the challenges of our clients, but also offer industry leading concepts ensure our clients retain their competitive and trend leading advantage.  Linking POS and retail marketing, that is developed from a relevant and constantly evolving knowledge of consumer behaviour and utilises forward-thinking technology such as Augmented Reality, Experiential Marketing, Apps, e-Commerce, Affiliate Marketing and Video is the key to maximise purchase potential from existing footfall and your Click and Collect visitors. 

Top tips from Let's Do Digital 2014:

1. Utilise engaging and eye-catching 3D POS to capture the attention of Click and Collect customers.
2. 1/3 of Click and Collect customers make additional purchases whilst in-store, consider this when planning your retail marketing store plan. 
3. Video, digital technology and experiential techniques such as scent built into POS displays can increase engagement from Click and Collect customers that have no set purchase intention. 
4. Linking apps to POS and retail marketing with  offers and loyalty rewards can promote repeat store visitation.
5. Affiliate Marketing can ensure that your products reach the right audience from a consumer trusted source, but this doesn't have to end online. Using bloggers in your in-store marketing can reinforce your message to increase purchase behaviour.

As experts in Retail Marketing and with the Clockworx Design Agency dedicated to app, digital marketing and design, send us your brief today to find out what unique solutions we can offer to solve your challenge.

Maria Parker-Harris

Group marketing Co-ordinator

The SPS Group 

www.spsgroup.co.uk

Trainee 3D Structural Designer Vacancy

*Position is now filled*

SPS is a leading supplier within the point of sale industry working with some of the world’s most prestigious brands. We offer excellent service standards and product quality from initial design to implementation.

Due to our continued growth, we are now looking to strengthen our existing design team with an additional trainee 3D Structural Designer/Cutter Setter. The candidate will need to demonstrate a strong leaning towards 3D design, have an eye for detail and be well organized. Ideally educated to degree level in an associated discipline or relevant subject.

Day-to-day responsibilities will include: 

- Creating technical dimensional drawings for production
- Sample making and production ready mock-ups

Purpose of Job

·   To produce prototypes, platen designs and CAD cutting to the highest standards, on time and in accordance with client requirements.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

·   Assisting senior designers with structural design work

·   Work cooperatively with all managers, team leaders and other staff members.

·   Work to quality standards and job scheduling as defined by Team Leader and Manager.

·   Maintain a flexible working attitude to training and multitasking, promoting the team ethos within the department.

·   Be responsible for and work within all cleanliness and health and safety requirements, keeping work areas clean and tidy.

·   Design and produce prototypes.

·   Produce guides for platen forms.

·   Maintain and use CAD plotter.

·   Produce assembly instruction sheets.

·   Produce job ‘Spec’ sheets.

·   Any other duties required.

Technical Knowledge

·   PC knowledge and experience in CAD, Illustrator and Photoshop or related 3D design software.

Education and Experience

·  Minimum secondary level education up to degree level

Additional experience in CAD, Illustrator and Photoshop or related 3D design software would also be an advantage.

Please send CV to robin.youngs@thespsgroup.co.uk

#3Ddesign, #POS, #thespsgroup, #vacancy, #3DEngineering, #StructuralDesigner

TFM&A 2014 - A Review

TFM&A 2014 (Technology for Marketing & Advertising), held in February 2014 at Earls Court Two and also encompassed OA&A (Online Advertising & Affiliate Expo), IDMX (International Direct Marketing Expo) and P&ME (Publishing & Media Expo). The event focused on providing a strong seminar and keynote programme, with over 180 seminars across 12 stages and 10 keynote talks. Providing networking opportunities was also a priority for TFM&A organisers, which could take place in any one of the five Networking Bars and Lounges. Exhibitors crossed the full marketing and publishing spectrum and provided a platform for new technology and marketing trends to shine.

We attended four seminars during the day and were really impressed with the diverse range of disciplines and topics covered. Tom Whitney - Pre-Sales and Marketing Manager Europe for Crimson Hexagon provided an unusual insight into social media data. For retail brands social media engagement is prevalent, but how many of you use this data in a qualitative capacity? Tom advised that in an age of the powerful customer, with opportunities for wide opinion broadcast, brands must listen to customer social media activity and take action based on the learning to readdress the power balance. 

Social media is the largest source of unsolicited customer opinion ever in existence and is growing rapidly every day. The potential to use this data for real time qualitative data is phenomenal. Our recommendations for retailers is certainly to go beyond monitoring brand social engagement and utilise this data for real-time brand sentiment measurement. By monitoring reviews, comments and mentions, brands can gain understanding of the brand sentiment regularly and in real-time. Using this data, marketing communication and activity can be adapted to best suit the campaign objective. This process is much faster than with more traditional primary research methodology and if used wisely can ensure you are always one-step ahead of the competition, with activity that matches the challenge posed by customer data. 

In the in the interest of providing you with the latest marketing trends first, we spent the day in the Future Trends Theatre, debating immersive experience and congratulating the 'Tech of the Future' winner which we cover in the next blog post. Julia Wolny - E-Marketing SIG Chair, Academy of Marketing chaired the Panel Debate, with Christian Nahas - CEO, Salesfusion, Gavin Talbot, Commercial Director, Oakley Mobile, Ben Staveley, Head of eCommerce, dotMailer and Charles Head, Account Director, Silverpop, which answered the question; 'How can brands use immersive technologies to create engaging, personalised and memorable experiences?' With the launch of Google Glasses rumoured to be as soon as April 2014, it is clear that immersive experiences will be a big Marketing trend in 2014. 

The panel defined immersive experience as; 'Any experience that stops your consumer from doing something else and gains their full attention'. A great example of this concept is Perrier's Golden Bottle competition, where customers had to act as one of the six game characters to search for the Golden Bottle - A ticket to their party. Human attention span has decreased to eight seconds in 2014, from twelve seconds in 2000, one second less than a goldfish. It has never been so difficult for brands and retailers to capture the fragmented attention span of customers. POS and retail marketing needs to grow and diversify if it is to stand above the cloud of noise shoppers face. POS needs to be interactive, with elements such as sound, lights, video and even more proactive personalisation through Augmented Reality to increase brand engagement and purchase behaviour. The use of apps or microsites with POS can promote repeat visitation and ultimately a purchase. 

The panel did offer a warning however; you must consider the full experience including sensory impairment. Exclusion can do your brand vast damage. Data loss is also an issue to be considered with POS placement. Follow the user's journey from POS to app, micro-site or your chosen call to action. Is it simple and clearly sign posted? Does it offer added value? Why would the make the effort to complete your suggested process? 

Augmented Reality is a subject we have spoken about extensively in the past. As one of the biggest Retail Marketing trends of 2013. Described as 'Adding to what you are already seeing', AR is a combination of branded digital content and the real world view. We have all seen AR 'selfie' cutouts and digital content built into print publications, but what are the new developments? 

Interpretive technology that understands context and personalisation is a key factor to the user experience. AR has the potential to edit our world, for example displaying your view of the environment as a medieval town, or remove real-world advertising posters and messages. This could be a real game changer for retail marketing. Harmony used AR to encourgage stand interaction, but building a fully AR integrated background, with games such as the Wheel of Death and the virtual Toy Car built in. 

TFM&A was a real conversation starter that prompted visitors to consider the future of marketing and the evolving technology in this field. Extremely well organised and well considered, the event encouraged visitors to learn, interact and network.

Top tips from Improve your TFM&A 2014:

1. Implement a qualitative strategy for the vast social media data available to your brand.
2. Consider the implications Google Glasses could have on your POS and retail marketing. 
3. Consider the immersive journey and purpose before implementation. 
4. AR is evolving and the potential for POS integration in innovative ways is vast.
5. With fragmented attention spans decreasing, consider the positioning and frequency of your message for maximum reach. 

Maria Parker-Harris

Group marketing Co-ordinator

The SPS Group 

www.thespsgroup.co.uk

#3Ddesign, #ar, #augmentedreality, #communication, #consumerbehaviour, #digitalmarketing, #experientialmarketing, #Google, #marketing, #personalisation, #POS, #print, #retail marketing, #social media, #thespsgroup

Stock Controller Vacancy

Purpose of Job

• To maintain a smooth flow of work throughout the factory by accurately allocating materials and recording stock figures within the department.

Key Duties and Responsibilities 

• Allocate stock to the correct job/promotion.
• Unload & Check materials for quality, Quantity & accuracy
• Forward plan which stock items are required and issue within the agreed timescale.
• Monitor stock levels; maintain stock control using location procedure, update records accordingly.
• Liaise with the Purchasing Manager and re order stock as required.
• Ensure all documentation is filled in correctly and relevant paperwork is taken to the office.
• Count unused stock back onto the system for future use.
• On receipt of new stock ensure it is recorded on system.
• Destroy old stock as and when required with the authority of the Purchasing Manager.
• Assist other stock controller(s) as and when required.
• Work to quality standards and job scheduling as defined by Manager.
• Maintain a flexible attitude to training and multitasking and promoting the team ethos within the department.
• Maintain cleanliness of department and ensure health and safety requirements are adhered to.
• Work cooperatively with all Managers.
• Any other reasonable duties as required.

Education and Experience

·         Experience of working in a stock control/issuing environment.

·         Minimum secondary level education.

Technical Requirement

• Must have a valid fork lift licence.
• Working Knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite
• Stock Control Experience.

Please send a CV and Covering Letter to Nathan.Hearn@spsgroup.co.uk and Darren.Clarke@spsgroup.co.uk

#vacancy, #thespsgroup, #stockcontroller, 

Improve your SEO in 2014 - A Review

Improve your SEO in 2014 was held at the Greenhouse Hotel in Bournemouth on the 25th February 2014. The location was perfect for the event and we were bowled over to receive such a friendly welcome from the team at Lexis Click. The seminar was pitched to explain key changes to SEO lead by the Google updates. As I am sure you remember, we have spoken avidly about the Penguin, Panda and Hummingbird updates and the implications for your business, but we were interested to understand the changes in semantic search for our content marketing strategy. 

Stephen Bavister - Managing Director at Lexis Click started by stating that an effective website should be easy to find, regularly recommended, easy to use and returnable. We absolutely agree, especially in the case of our client brands. Your website is often the first impression of your brand for your consumers and the key is to encourage engagement as you are with interactive and theatrical retail marketing campaigns. Do an honest user experience audit of your website. Start with consumer behavior motivation and track their journey. Are your products easy to find? Yes? How about on a mobile, or tablet? Are there clear social calls to action? Is your blog relevant to your consumers? Does it add value by giving them information first or offering incentives such as special offers or range previews? 

So let's start at the basics, Stephen spoke about bad SEO practices such as meta keywords, keyword spamming, manual submissions and poor link building. How many of you still use these lazy and outdated techniques in the hope of a prime Google Page 1 listing? Google's updates have changed the rules of SEO completely and for the better. Searching is now personalised based on context and vocal phrasing, which delivers accurate and useful results. What we present on our website contributes to the Google user experience and this is not something that Google takes lightly. In order to ensure successful SEO, your website should have high quality and share-able content, without duplicate content, and removal of all poor quality back links.

But there is more to the story than just content. Search has changed and Google glasses are set to further change the way we search. Key words have been replaced by phrases and questions which Google then translates into personalised semantic listings. A great way to utilise this change is to answer key search questions within your blog. We often use blog posts to tackle an industry or consumer challenge, so ensure that you write the copy in a more targeted way to improve your SEO. Did you know that websites with a blog receive 55% more traffic than those without?  Ensure that you own and regularly update the Google local listings for your business and include opening hours, event times or other relevant content that will enhance the consumer search experience. 

Page optimisation is really important to your SEO. Stephen advised that the perfect page optimisation should have a H1 headline, an image with the appropriate search term as the file name, no more than four scattered keywords and a relevant URL structure for the page. Throughout your website you should complete a technical audit and SWOT analysis and test page loading times as Google penalises poor user experience. Ensure that your page has clear calls to action and can answer Who, What and Why easily, with consistent next clicks and content that matches the user's intent. Engaging content is also vital to the user experience, providing downloadable content or media such as video that links to YouTube (the second largest search engine) are really effective methods. 

Finally social media interaction is one of the key ways that Google judges your content. Google+ is crawled and indexed in real time and author searches utilise your Google+ circles and profile image. Your website should be updated regularly and consistently, with clear social media page links to encourage sharing. Provide context on your landing page such as contact details, menus and offers. Segment your traffic by topics and track their journey through your website on all platforms. Consider your target market, how do they search, what are they looking for and build your content strategy from there. Following these tips should set you on the right path to great SEO, that enhances you innovative and engaging retail marketing campaigns.

Top tips from Improve your SEO in 2014:

1. Test your website across all platforms and with user experience in mind.
2. Is your content relevant? Does it answer key user search questions? Does it add value to the user?
3. Explore page optimisation for more effective SEO.
4. Be social! Ensure your content is updated consistently and is easy to share.
5. Make sure you have claimed and regularly update your Google local pages, as this is often the first thing users find in the search listings. 

Improve your SEO in 2014 was interesting and added new perspectives to the SEO debate. The team were friendly and the content was interactive. 

Maria Parker-Harris

Group marketing Co-ordinator

The SPS Group 

www.thespsgroup.co.uk

#contentmarketing #digital #digital marketing #Google #search #retailmarketing #social media #thespsgroup #SEO

Making the Most of Mobile - A Review

Making the Most of Mobile was held at the Bournemouth University Executive Business Centre by the CIM South West. With a healthy mix of students and professionals and Duncan Cook from 3 Sided Cube speaking, the event offered to demystify marketing in the mobile world. 

Duncan came armed with some amazing facts; for example did you know that at the end of 2012 1 Billion smart phones were being used, rising to 2.1 Billion by the end of 2013? Staggering numbers I am sure you will agree. With more people owning a smart phone than a toothbrush, mobile marketing should no longer be overlooked. Its power in distributing brand or product information is phenomenal. In 2013 more iPhones were purchased than babies born. John Lewis has stated that 75% of sales in 2013 took place on tablets and smart phones. In a retail market, brands really must start including mobile apps and mobile website provision that will not only allow customers ease of shopping, but also interactive brand activity. It is predicted that there will be 4.4 billion mobile app users by 2017. The average consumer owns 3.9 connected devices, a 67% increase from 2011. Mobile is growing that is a well know fact, what is unclear is how to best use this rapidly changing technology for brand and sales growth. Apps encourage long-term brand engagement, increase sales by giving real-time offers and promotes social media sharing of products which is ever more popular in the Gen Z purchase decision. 

Duncan suggested that apps have the potential to reach billions of people globally, quickly and easily like no other marketing medium. But before you all go running to design your apps, Duncan has some words of caution. When designing your app, it is vital that you consider the purpose from a user's perspective. As easy as it is to run away with the excitement of your idea, bring yourself back to earth with these three questions:

- Will your app be used multiple times? Why?
- Why would someone download it?
- Why would they keep the app?

If you are stumbling with these questions, than you should revisit the concept to ensure that what you are creating is the best in its category and ultimately great according to Duncan.

When talking about platforms, Android has an 81% UK market share, with open source that is cheaper and customisable, however as the platform with the most free apps it generates less revenue. iOS has 13.4% of UK market share, with the most paid downloads and most user internet activity. An insight into the future was the Samsung operating system, rumoured to be announced in February. Keep your eyes peeled folks as this could be a game changer! Microsoft has 4.1% of UK market share and so we are expecting big changes from the Microsoft camp very soon. 

When designing your app as you would a website, you must consider your audience and organise content to match their needs and user style. Every 100 millisecond in load time decreases app downloads by 1%. Due to the unique reach of app stores for distribution, thinking globally is more essential than ever before and must be considered beyond language and culture contexts. Apps are also ageless with 38% of 2 year olds using mobile devices. Mobile apps have opened up a wide ranging new market that reaches both the very young and older consumers, this is suggested to be due to the intuitive nature of apps. 

When launching your app it is key to understand this unusual distribution channel, where traditional marketing is often rendered ineffective. Marketing activity must be concentrated to a one day or one week slot to ensure your app is ranked highly on the app stores, which display in real time. Viral techniques, blogging and social media are often the most successful strategies, but must be supported by an app that is best in its category and will be supported by strong word of mouth and sharing interaction. SEO is largely irrelevant in this context, as long as the description is accurate, the screen shots are the key to pitching to downloaders.

Top tips from Making the Most of Mobile are:

1. Before you release your app, make sure you can answer the three key questions.
2. Keep and eye on Samsung, their new operating system could be a real game changer. 
3. Think globally when designing your app, as you have limited control on its distribution reach. 
4. Consider the best platform for speed in your design, remembering the 100 millisecond rule.
5. Social media and digital marketing is king when marketing your app. Utilise bloggers and opinion leaders to spread the word. 

Making the Most of Mobile was an interactive event, with Duncan bravely inviting questions at all stages of his talk. It was clear that Duncan lives and breathes mobile and deliver his talk confidently as the guru of mobile apps. 

Maria Parker-Harris

Group marketing Co-ordinator

The SPS Group 

www.thespsgroup.co.uk