|
The first recognisable field promotion company was founded in 1936, this company was subsequently purchased by Richard Morris-Adams in the 1950's and is now, what is unquestionably the largest field marketing company in the United Kingdom, CPM.
The first field marketing companies only employed men and much of their work was related to distribution drives with ex-car selling to the independent trade. In those days the independent trade was considerably stronger and accordingly there were an enormous number of outlets representing a significant percentage of retail sales.
In the 1960's salesmen were generally employed to carry out distribution drives and merchandising, whilst women were employed (sorry girls!) to conduct personality promotion and large scale costumed cigarette-sampling promotions.
Between 1970 and 1980 the industry grew relatively slowly with the total value growing from £1m to £13m in the UK.
The recession in the early 80's resulted in many companies with substantial sales forces examining the running costs and benefits of keeping the function in-house. Once the cost of sales management and support is amortised across the average sales force it was found that the average cost per man was very high. Once holidays, sickness and car breakdowns were taken into consideration the number of active selling weeks was estimated at only 45.
A further factor was the dramatic change in the structure of the retail trade with rapidly increasing buying power of the multiple groups resulting in a substantial reduction in the number of outlets on which salesmen could call.
As a result of these two factors many sales forces were streamlined and substantially reduced with the emphasis being selling direct to key buyers at head office level.
This led to a dramatic increase in the employment of promotion companies to undertake many of the functions that had previously been carried out by sales forces and merchandisers. Indeed the turning point for the field marketing industry was when an increasing number of manufacturers established an annual budget for the employment of auxiliary personnel.
It is very difficult to estimate the total value of the field marketing industry although it was approximately £55m in 1986 rising to a potential £90m in 1989. The latest turnover figures published by Haymarket put the total market at £227m approximately, and with an increasing number of companies downsizing and outsourcing this sort of work it appears to be a growing market.
Most of the current players have been around for long time in the UK - CPM, GSD, IMP, with an increasing number of companies being purchased and developed by overseas corporates, such as FMCG now owned by a publicly quoted Canadian group, Mosaic. Headcount is owned by Milton Marketing Group who merged with the US marketing services company GHBM floated on the NASDAQ stock exchange as The Healthworld Corporation. McCann-Erickson, the international ad group purchased Barnett Fletcher Promotions and it acts as a flagship into European activities.
See Ken Gofton of Haymarket Publishing's 'Marketing' for source material. Acknowledgement must be given to Michael Pope, former owner of FPS one of the first Field Marketing Agencies now part of CPM, for the historic information.
There are limited sources of information about field marketing and the companies providing these services, however here are a few pages we think are worth a visit,
Back to the top |
