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Life after Brexit

On 05 September Parliament will debate the EU referendum rules following an e-petition post the Brexit vote, but Teresa May has already said we will leave the EU. By then it will have been ten weeks since the historic occasion where the UK public opted to come out of the EU. The result took many businesses by surprise – so how will they cope, and what are the challenges and opportunities?

Immediately after the vote CIM’s CEO, Chris Daly said: “In difficult times (like these), strengthening and retaining market share and keeping focused on new opportunities are essential. Understanding and retaining relationships with existing customers will be key to survival and growth, as will using market and customer insight to find those new opportunities and new markets. This is what marketing and professional marketers do so now, more than ever, is a time when marketing is a vital investment to make.”

CIM’s pre-referendum survey revealed that marketers and many of the companies they worked for were unsure about the implications of Brexit. So, two months on, has anything changed? We asked our members across the Northern Powerhouse to see if it has.

Charlie Nettle MCIM, Chair of CIM North East and Head of Marketing & Business Development at AV Dawson, which offers multi modal transport solutions, said: “Having spoken to our members in the region, it seems we are not unique in having at least three of our customers put a hold on projects due to the uncertainty.”

He continued: “There’s a big role for marketers to pick up around internal marketing here, particularly in the North East, which delivered a resounding Out vote. Not only did the referendum divide parties and families, but it also divided businesses; not from each other, but from their people. This leaves marketers with the challenge of uniting workforces and championing a positive future for their business in a world that will be unstable.”

David de Maestri FCIM, Chair of CIM North West and Head of Marketing, Brand and Insight at marketing agency Kenyons, said: “Brexit has signalled all change for one of our clients, model railway business Hatton’s. They havesteamed into a post-Brexit Britain with a spike in sales that has seen revenue increases of almost 70% in the EU (and higher worldwide) with a rise of more than 28% in the UK. The specialist Merseyside-based business, which was forecast to deliver revenue in excess of £15m this year, has been surprised by its buoyant Brexit performance.”

He continued, “The business has delivered year on year growth since 2005, with the bulk of its sales online and is still family owned. We discussed with their MD Richard Davies what this might do for business and concluded that no-one really knew what to expect. However, we didn’t anticipate this immediate uplift in sales. As a result Hatton’s have added eight new people to their team across July and August to cope with extra demand.”

Sally Steadman MCIM, Chair of CIM Yorkshire and Head of External Relations at Askham Bryan College, which specialises in land-based education, said, “It seems there has been a mixed response to the Brexit vote. Farming is clearly unsure as to what the future holds and already some education colleagues have been hit badly, with staff being excluded from meetings in Brussels and general concern regarding EU students and projects.”

It would therefore be reasonable to conclude that, as with most things, there will be winners and losers but new challenges and opportunities are what marketers thrive on so make sure you have good professional marketers in your team to help you through.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by The Chartered Institute of Marketing .