Profile - Stuart Mitchell: Living, breathing and growing in the world of retail marketing

YOU may have seen it. A humorous advertisement for Sony's television trade-in scheme featuring former England managers Terry Venables and Graham Taylor preparing to sit away their twilight years in a nursing home, cared for by model Kelly Brook.

What you may not know is that the multi-million-pound advert was the brainchild of Leeds-based retail marketing firm Live and Breathe.

The firm created a joint venture with a London -based firm to handle the 2m contract – its highest-profile campaign to date.

Chief executive Stuart Mitchell said: "Joining forces with another company enabled us to successfully bid for the Sony account. We're not a big company so it's a big thing for

us to win."

The company, which has a 10m turnover and runs the account from its London office, works with a diverse range of retailers, with Sony at one end of the spectrum and budget fashion brand Peacocks at the other.

"But the same principles apply to both companies in terms of how they market their stores," said Mr Mitchell.

Retail marketing, also known as shopper marketing, has stepped up a gear in recent years, becoming more scientific with endless research into shopper habits in order to pinpoint where potential sales may lie.

Mr Mitchell, 46, said: "Historically, marketing has been gut-feel and not very scientific. But now a lot of research goes into the way retail promotions work in terms of customer journeys and hot spots within the stores.

"We realised a few years ago that this was an area we wanted to focus on and we got in there quite early with creative retail marketing."

Although retailers are having to fight back from the rise of the internet, Mr Mitchell believes online shopping will never overtake the high street.

"Retailers can strike an advantage in their environment. The environment on the internet is not emotional. One of our clients is Bluewater and they introduced the sounds of birds and waterfalls into their shopping centre. Research shows that if you calm customers down, it leads them to spend more money."

He added: "Shop windows are also a big thing. Lots of clothing retailers don't advertise on the television so their advertising medium is their windows."

Although Live and Breathe has won new high-profile contracts in recent months, it hasn't been immune from the economic downturn.

It lost a six-figure sum when its client, Zavvi, went into administration at the end of 2008, and had to make a handful of staff redundant from its 30-strong team.

Mr Mitchell said: "It was a shock (when Zavvi went into administration). As a business, we have had very few knocks in that direction. I think that's the first bad debt that we ever had.

"We had to make a small number of redundancies but we got through 2009 and our staff numbers are now up to 39 – higher than they were before

we lost Zavvi."

He added: "We have seen growth though 2009 and we're looking at continued growth in 2010. So, yes, some clients have reduced their expenditure and we had some problems with Zavvi, but that has been more than compensated for in other areas, including winning the Sony campaign in 2009."

According to Mr Mitchell, the key to a good retail marketing campaign is understanding the customer, but the recession has made the job more challenging.

"The customers themselves are becoming more demanding and return on investment is vital," he said. "Budgets in some sectors have shrunk,

and, therefore, you've had to make the money work harder.

"However, there are certain industries that have benefited from the recession, including the discount sector and fashion retailers like Peacocks and Primark. These are companies that have been very successful and their marketing budgets have been largely unaffected by the recession."

Live and Breathe was launched 17 years ago by Mr Mitchell and his colleague, Adrian Watts, who had worked together at another marketing agency

The company was originally called MSC but it was rebranded Live and Breathe in 2007 after the company opened its London office.

"Having a London office has worked for us. It's improved our credibility and proposition, said Mr Mitchell.

"But MSC was an awful name so we had a brain-storming session to think of a new one."

Retail marketing was not always destined to be Mr Mitchell's career path. After completing a business studies degree at Leeds Polytechnic, he entered the construction industry, selling ready-mixed concrete for a company in Manchester.

"After six months I realised there was no future in driving round the north-west of England in a Fiesta," he said.

"I found a job at a marketing company where I worked very hard and later Adrian, who was the managing director, asked me to help set up a new business. I was lucky really."

Since then, the marketing industry has changed beyond all recognition.

"It is taken far more seriously than it was 20 years ago," said Mr Mitchell. "Now marketing plans are at the heart of a business and that has made a massive difference.

"As a result of that, we are taken far more seriously and we have to constantly up our game because the pool of talented people out there has increased. The training that is available for marketing people is far better than it was 20 years ago."

Looking to the future, Mr Mitchell's ambition is for Live and Breathe to be considered one of the top five businesses in the marketing sector.

"We are quite a long way down the line to achieving that," he admitted.

"But we have a very aggressive new business programme which is centred in our London office. We have a large number of potential new clients who we are talking to at the moment.

"I look at 2010 with great anticipation. I think it's going to be a good year for us and as the country comes out of recession, I think the future is good for us and a lot of other people in our sector."

STUART MITCHELL

Title: Chief executive of Live & Breathe

Date of birth: May 6, 1964

Education: Ashville College in Harrogate and a business degree at Leeds Polytechnic

First job: trainee at Blue Circle Cement

Favourite song: Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen

Car driven: Audi Q7

Favourite film: The Godfather

Favourite holiday destination: Puerto Portals in Majorca

Last book read: Oswald and the CIA, by John Newman

What I am most proud of: My wife and four children