1. Establish a network and listen to feedback
In almost every case, retailers have a huge colleague base spanning a range of areas and your media centre will touch all of it in some way.
You’ll need to work in partnership with the marketing and brand teams, you’ll need to understand the objectives of the trading teams (i.e. buying departments), you’ll need to follow the direction set by the legal / policy teams, you’ll need to understand the operational side of the business, especially if you have a store estate in place. Honestly, the list goes on and on… and that’s before you even open the lid on really understanding your customer.
At Threefold, we genuinely work best when we’re an extension of your team and business.
When we begin a new partnership, we’ll spend as much time as possible meeting and listening to colleagues and your customers as possible.
Not only does this help us understand your business better but it also gives us an opportunity to build a very clear picture of what’s working and what isn’t.
It informs our plan and helps create a clear view of what needs to be achieved to build a successful media centre, it’s never one size fits all although I think personally I’d have a few less grey hairs if it was.
2. Be clear on your objectives and create a vision
We’ve enjoyed the good fortune of working with a range of world class retailers and brilliant brands during our time.
When I consider the results we’ve achieved, at the heart of our joint success has always been a clear plan.
Naturally, revenue generation has and always will be a core objective, however we also encourage our partners to go a level deeper than just measuring commercial performance.
We’ll ask you lots of questions and purposefully so.
Do you want to improve your relationship with your supplier brands? Do you want to become famous for great campaigns? Do you want to transform your media offer? The probable answer to all of these questions is, yes (we hope!).
When we start a new partnership we’ll build a joint business plan - this will cover the significant strategic objectives as well as the smaller gains we believe can be achieved together during the term of our partnership.
We’ll create a vision, something which acts as a lighthouse for us to consistently aim for but most importantly we’ll measure ourselves and our partners against it.
One of our core values is ‘Stay Honest’ and we live it in how we operate every day.
If the plan is working, fantastic, use that as a platform to go quicker but if it isn’t, that’s not the end of the world.
Review, pivot and adapt. The more things you try, the more you’ll learn and the better you’ll become for your business as well as your supplier brands and ultimately, customers.
3. Build a culture of success and be brave
Whether you're running a media centre today or considering starting one, creating a culture that encourages success as well as disruption within your team is vital.
Disruption, if managed in the right way, can be one of the most powerful tools for growing your media centre at pace.
You shouldn’t be afraid to try things and challenge the norm, some choices you make will work and others won’t and that is absolutely ok.
At Threefold, we will always support and encourage our people to take calculated risks, and if they pay off we make sure we celebrate together, and if one of us fails we all pick each other back up and get going again, and often come back stronger because of it.
We know that without taking risks we won’t advance or adapt to necessary change and speaking openly with you, that’s exactly what’s required to run a successful media centre.
To discuss any of the above, get in touch - we're always keen for a cuppa, even if it's virtual.
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