Business News
St Ives Launches Strategic Marketing Service for Customers
Friday 09. May 2008 - Natalie Somerville appointed as Strategic Marketing Consultant
St Ives plc, the UK’s largest provider of print and added value services, has launched a group-wide strategic marketing service to consult on customers’ marketing strategies and help align them with the broader business objectives of each organisation. Natalie Somerville, who has a background in Strategic Marketing Communications and spent 10 years working with Camelot, has been appointed to head-up the new service and will report to Simon Ward, St Ives’ Managing Director, UK Sales.
“While the vast majority of St Ives customers have large and experienced marketing departments, they are receptive to and have expressed an appetite for an independent marketer to consult on strategic marketing briefs,” says Natalie. “This could include a number of broad and varied strategic marketing briefs from customer insight, segmentation targeting, marketing strategies or through-the-line initiatives that meet the company’s wider business objectives. St Ives has a fantastic range of innovative services available to customers, and I am very excited to be part of a team that can really add value to some of the biggest brands, publishers and retailers in the market.”
The new marketing consultancy service will be integrated into St Ives’ solutions portfolio, which offers customers a wide range of added value services in addition to its print capabilities. These include a retail thinking team, which provides retail and point of sale intelligence to customers, DNA – its online management system, a creative thinking team that works with agencies, as well as logistics and fulfilment services, and a print management arm.
“It is important that St Ives continues to be a strategic partner to its customers. We are not simply a print supplier – print is one of a wide range of services that we offer,” says Simon Ward, Managing Director, UK Sales, St Ives plc. “We all benefit from a neutral professional’ looking at what we do, and Natalie’s background across all marketing disciplines ensures she is well placed to work with our clients’ in-house marketing teams and help to develop and implement successful strategic marketing plans.”
Natalie joined Camelot first in the role of Head of Retail Marketing and Creative Services, moving to Head of Marketing and Media for all lotto games and later headed up Camelot’s Strategic Marketing Communications bid team. During her time with the organisation, Natalie worked with National Lottery retailers to build POS and retailer marketing strategies, setting-up an in-house design studio that grew to a team of 13; created and implemented marketing and media plans for the National Lottery game portfolio; and developed its marketing communications strategy and plan for the third licensing period from 2009-2019.
More recently Natalie has worked as a Marketing Consultant for DIY specialist retailer B&Q. While working with B&Q, Natalie delivered a full review of brand guardianship across its business functions, and undertook a commercial and financial review to assess the implementation of an internal design studio.