What’s pragmatic outsourced marketing? It’s providing stuff that works for less – working with you as:
Your in-house marketing team but without the fixed costs
An ‘on tap‘ supplement to your in-house team or
A project team working on specific requirements as they arise
What do we work on? Well – what you got?
We have the know-how to cover pretty much everything in the mix from strategy development, research, value proposition and positioning, to pricing, marketing communications, product management, and channel management.
Because we do this stuff for real – we can show you how to do it for yourself. Our Learning & Development offer includes:
Marketing strategy
Marketing tactics (including marketing comms and digtal marketing)
Strategic account development
Sales and marketing collaboration
And can be provided as e-learning, in-person workshops or through a fully blended approach. Find out more here.
Our clients range from major multinational companies and public sector organisations to small local businesses – all across a wide variety of industry sectors.
With over 40 years’ experience in sales and marketing, Ricky’s almost getting to the stage where he really has forgotten more than most of us know about how to sell more stuff.
He’s worked in sales and marketing at both the bottom and the top, for a range of companies including multinational Litton Industries, BT and Xerox. After a period as VP Marketing at BT Mobile – when mobile phones were car phones because you needed a car to carry the kit around in – he decided to take the plunge and go at it solo.
In 1989, Coussins was born (Coussins Associates that is, not Ricky – although he’ll try and tell you differently!) and now Ricky has gone from managing large sales and marketing teams to managing our small office of associates.
He’s the big boss, but not the scary kind. In fact, his ‘dad joke’ scope of knowledge is almost as large as his marketing one! You’ll even catch him chipping in with the tea and coffee rounds, even if it is just because the rest of us aren’t quick enough. You’ll find him in his window seat at Coussins HQ, supplying you guys with business and marketing services across the whole strategic and tactical mix, as well as key industry insights to help you grow.
And when he’s not in London, he’s off travelling the world and sharing his experience through learning and development programmes, coaching sessions and workshops, as well as speaking on a variety of conference platforms. Take one glance at his air miles and you could almost mistake him for Up in the Air’s George Clooney!
Rachel was snapped up by Coussins Associates in 2008, having graduated with a degree in Advertising and Marketing Communications from the University of Bedfordshire. And because she mentioned in her interview that she baked cakes. She works on lots of stuff.
She’s our grammar queen, pragmatic beyond belief and has a microscopic attention to detail. And with her excellent organisational skills, if you stand still long enough, she’ll probably try to stick a label on you!
Rachel works on a wide range of project – across the entire communications and strategic marketing mix. From developing and implementing strategic marketing plans and creating copy to video management, analysing market research and graphic design – and even the occasional off-screen interviewer for videos. Especially ones that involve the Loughborough Rugby Team!
Her love of a colour co-ordinated spreadsheet means that Rachel is often involved with project planning and management – making sure timescales are whipped into shape, deadlines are beaten and that our clients are delighted. Rachel is fanatical about Powerpoint presentations and has also worked extensively on managing e-marketing campaigns, as well as event organisation and management.
Jennifer first dipped her toe into the marketing pool whilst she was studying Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies at Cardiff University. Prepared to muck in for a few start-ups, Jennifer got her first glimpse of market research, generated some press coverage and managed their social media sites. It’s also a time in her life when she discovered the joys of yoga and balancing on one’s head – put’s a whole new perspective on things!
She’s not afraid to give something new a go.
Which is why, after graduating in 2014, she left the books, century-old debates and the carpel tunnel from writing countless essays, for honing in on her PowerPoint prowess and design skills at a service-training company.
In 2017, Jennifer wanted more direct marketing exposure and thought Coussins Associates would be the perfect team to join as a Marketing Executive. Luckily, they agreed! So, you can now find her tucked away at the CA office designing, editing, researching, copy-writing and managing e-marketing campaigns and getting involved in events. Oh, and don’t forget the rounds of tea – it’s fuel for the imagination!
Owain is our editing guru. What he doesn’t know about video would fit on a radio microphone’s button cell battery (which is really small!).
Owain graduated from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. After a short spell in journalism, he was lured over to the dark side – or video as it’s better known – and he produced film work for companies including the BBC, ITV, S4C and Endemol. In 2010, two historic moments happened – he formed a band and applied to work at Coussins Associates. Luckily for us, the latter proved more promising and he agreed to join us while awaiting the phone call about the stadium world tour! (Any day now though, he assures us).
Being a video master, Owain works across all types of video production – creating stunning opening videos or informative docu-narratives, featuring straightforward techniques or bold animation, there’s a mix of professionalism and creativity whipped together in every edit. He also draws a mean caricature, so try not to pull too many silly faces when he’s around!
When he’s not performing as a stand-up comedian (he tells us he’s pretty funny), Owain works across all of our video clients, creating a wide range of edits for corporate, event, training launch and educational videos. Pretty much all of the video you see on the site was edited by Owain.
Melissa first joined Coussins Associates as a placement student in 2019, fast forward a year she is now a full-time member of the Coussins team with the role of Marketing Executive. After completing her undergraduate degree in Sports and Exercise Science (which all sounds a little too healthy for us), she took her love for numbers and statistics and combined it with her creative flair deciding to apply it all to the world of marketing. Hungry to learn more about her chosen profession she went on to complete a masters’ in Digital Marketing at Oxford Brookes University.
Melissa has previous work experience as a Digital Marketer and Web Content Editor, so she can tailor your content for the right media and her attention to detail will also ensure nothing slips through the prifrod, provered proofread! Having taken two years out between degrees – travelling the world and working multiple ski seasons – she is not afraid to get stuck in and face new challenges such as improving the fitness of the Coussins team (though she’s much too nice to tell us this might be a challenge ‘too far’).
Always an enthusiast, Melissa is busy applying all the knowledge and digital prowess she gained from her master’s studies and her digital work experience with our clients.
If you have any creative needs, Larissa is your go-to person – which may come as a surprise when you find out she graduated from King’s College London with a Bachelor of Laws degree.
Much to the delight of our clients, however, she quickly realised she was a rubbish lawyer-to-be. So she went on to pursue graphic design at Parsons School of Design in New York City.
Larissa wanted a hands-on experience working across as many projects as possible, so Coussins Associates seemed like the perfect match. Although it may have had more to do with the-state-of-the-art coffee machine than she’s willing to admit.
Larissa has dabbled in pretty much everything you can think of when it comes to art and design. From user experience to iconography, photography, illustrations, digital and print marketing, motion graphics – whatever you need, she’s happy to help.
Larissa loves a good challenge, constantly scrutinising her work until it’s good enough (which, to her, it probably never is!). But as long as Larissa has something to work on, and an endless supply of snacks, she’s a happy bee.
Sharon is our office oracle – the go to person for all non-marketing matters. She’s also our financial wizard – having studied Economics at LSE (the London School of Economics) and gained a PGCE at the Institute of Education – she looks after our accounts, invoices and all things fiscal. And keeps us all in line administratively otherwise we risk a detention (the teachers training leaves a lasting scar).
In a previous life, she was a vice-president at Lehman Brothers from 1985 to 1996 (yes – that Lehman), where she mainly worked with Eurobond sales – dealing with lots of very big numbers and shouty men wearing braces among other things! After a short career break to raise a couple of tiny humans, now not so tiny, Sharon was enticed to join Coussins Associates in 1999 on the promise that she didn’t have to deal with any temper tantrums or nappies! We’re not sure we kept both of those promises.
Perhaps Sharon’s most crucial role at Coussins is that of Birthday Tsar – she never forgets a birthday and always ensures there’s candles, presents and cake. Always cake.
Our associate Brendan seamlessly combines the wisdom of an owl with the energy of a puppy! As a highly established entrepreneur, consultant and social innovator, Brendan works with us on range of projects. Renowned for his natural enthusiasm for his subjects, Brendan specialises in strategy, innovation and transformation with a particular interest in start-up collaboration. With over 35 years’ experience in these areas, it’s fair to say that he really knows his stuff.
He’s founder and principal consultant at Dunphy Associates, but Brendan’s extensive CV goes far beyond this achievement alone! Co-founder of online benchmarking provider Max. Net (UK) Ltd. as well as internet services company Extend Solutions and Africaiq. He’s also current trustee of youth charity, ‘the lowdown’ and ‘Ekhaya Skill Centres’ as well as further advisor to ‘Teach the Future Europe’ (feeling like you should up the ante on your coffee rounds yet?).
And if that’s not impressive enough, Brendan also co-developed the ‘How to Farm Lightning’ innovation and creativity programme (be sure to look it up if you don’t know it!) – a key part of his abundant offer – and regularly writes and contributes on innovation trends. Luckily for us – and luckily for you – he still finds the time in his packed-out schedule to work with Coussins – I guess he must really like us, right?!
Also known as Dave (no, we’re not sure where that nickname came from either!), Dave has a long history of working alongside famous people – we’d like to include ourselves in this, but we’re not sure if that would be taking it a bit too far. Who? How? Why? You may ask? We couldn’t possibly say. *cough* One Direction *cough*.
Well, first up, Dave is good with technology – seriously good. He designs, codes, manages the production of film and even does a bit of filming himself. This is how he has ended up working on projects like The Apprentice, X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and also with certain boy bands. Thankfully, Dave still likes to occasionally work with those of us who don’t have that celebrity status, and for that we’re truly grateful.
Nowadays Dave runs his own creative technology company – Percept Digital – and helps us with the technical management of events and film production. With expertise in directing films, production and advising clients on how to use technology to better tell their stories, Dave is quick to adapt to unusual set-ups and solve other production problems such as bulk edit automation, fast-turnaround workflows and user-generated content. Consequently, projects and campaigns that he’s been involved in have received over a billion YouTube views. There really isn’t much he doesn’t know about production and digital tech.
We really like Dave – he’s a lovely guy – so we know you will too.
David’s our learning and development guru. As Managing Consultant at Next Curve Learning, with over 35 years in professional team and leadership development, David knows more than a thing or two about improving team performance so organisations and their leaders can deliver better results.
Working with Coussins Associates since 2010, David has collaborated closely with us on digital learning projects and blended learning programmes. In fact we work together on some of the biggest learning and development programmes in Europe. He helps us, help you to craft the right kind of programme that will aid your learning, whatever your preferred style – whether it be through e-learning, virtual classrooms, in-person, coaching or a blend of any and all of these.
As joint CEO of leading London-based digital marketing agency, Energy House Digital (EHD), there really is very little that Mark doesn’t know about Digital Marketing. And if he doesn’t know it? Well, then it probably isn’t worth knowing.
Mark has been in Digital Marketing since 2008, when Facebook was just blowing up, Instagram was a distant dream and the internet was really taking the world by storm. So, it’s fair to say that his experience matches up to that encyclopaedic brain of his. Don’t believe us? Just take one look at his youthful face – he’s a digital guy for sure!
Together, Mark and the team at EHD assist us across the full range of Digital Marketing services including design and build, SEO, content marketing, PPC, CRO and analytics.
And because it would be selfish for him to keep all that juicy knowledge to himself, he also joins Ricky on various Learning and Development projects, providing courses which cover the full breadth of the Digital Marketing mix.
He helps us help you by offering a digital arm to our strategic and operational legs.
We’re rather envious of Michael’s time spent working on Mars Confectionery and Pedigree Petfoods brands – we imagine a lot of time was spent indulging in Mars Bars and hanging out with feline friends. Apparently not, but it did involve eating a can of Pedigree Chum once. And that wasn’t for a bet.
Chocolate fingers (oh wait, that’s Cadbury’s, no?) and waggy tails aside, Michael did go on to become Managing Director of the UKs leading brand and innovation consultancy, CLK, so he knows his stuff.
Fluent in French, with some Spanish up his sleeve, Michael has worked in over 30 countries across a wide-range of industries; from alcoholic beverages and pharmaceuticals (we wouldn’t advise mixing!) to charities and trade associations. He’s since settled on his own consultancy, RML Partners and is a close associate and life-long friend to Ricky. In fact, they’re sometimes mistaken for brothers. Poor Michael.
He knows a lot about brand and new product development – how to position your brand and innovate in your portfolio, and how to even come up with a new brand or product in the first place. Which is why his work complements ours so well. Combined, we’ll give you the tools to design, strategise, communicate and build your brand, product portfolio or product and sell more stuff.