Summary
Marshalls was 122 years old in 2002 when Chris Harrop joined as group marketing director, and he has built a foundation for another century of success.
Chris has transformed a sales-driven organisation into a flexible marketing machine, and the leading brand in its sector. His commitment to sustainability and ethics has been key, and Marshalls’ impressive list of accreditations have attracted customers such as hundreds of local authorities and the London 2012 Olympic Park.
Chris’s ownership of new product development, and know-how in reaching risk-averse audiences, saw new products comprise a record 17% of sales last year. 70% of installers say Marshalls is the best manufacturer for end-user satisfaction. The Marshalls YouTube channel is closing in on seven million views.
Chris has expanded the influence of marketing within Marshalls, and the influence of Marshalls on the industry and UK manufacturing. He served as UK chair of the UN Global Compact, and is the current chair of Made in Britain. He even went to the North Pole to raise awareness of climate change.
This determined example setting and his success in creating distinctive, differentiated, defensible customer value propositions, based on deep customer insight, makes Chris a worthy candidate for Marketer of the Year.
About Chris Harrop
Marshalls was 122 years old in 2002 when Chris Harrop joined as group marketing director, and had evolved into a concrete products manufacturer. Sustainability in construction was an emerging issue, and Chris’s job was to build a foundation for another century of success.
Value and influence
Now, Chris has set his values right through Marshalls, building the strongest brand in the hard landscaping products category, commanding premium prices in a standardised market. But Chris’s influence goes beyond Marshalls. He has raised his industry’s ethical standards, and advanced the cause of British manufacturing.
Background
Previously, Chris was an account man at the University of Advertising that is J Walter Thomson, and a global sector development manager, helping Shell International to understand customer needs. He learned that the key to marketing is developing distinctive, differentiated and defensible value propositions built on customer needs, offering superior products, and partnering with the right agencies.
“Chris leads by example, is very clear about what he wants, and trusts people to be experts in their area. His enthusiasm and belief, combined with his track record, unites the whole organisation behind our marketing.”
About Marshalls
Creating better spaces
Marshalls is the UK leader in hard landscaping products like paving, facades, water-management and landscape furniture. Customers include architects, engineers, contractors, builder’s merchants, local authorities and the particularly successful ‘Marshalls Register of Accredited Landscapers and Driveway Installers’.
Significant career achievements
Building a superbrand
Chris has transformed a sales-driven organisation with a marketing department of two old men and a shorthand typist, to a flexible omni-channel marketing machine that’s a number one or two brand in all its markets. It took him seven years to make the B2B superbrands annual, and 2018 is now Marshalls’ ninth successive year. Chris’s dedication to understanding future market needs and his belief in innovation and sustainability has been unwavering and infectious.
Working for the world
In construction, sustainability talk is cheap, and greenwashing ubiquitous. Chris believes in sustainability and ethics, not merely as ideals, but as essential foundations of market leadership. While most marketers maximise their organisation’s credentials, Chris improves performance, becoming sustainability director and enhancing his marketing role. Under his stewardship, Marshalls has an impressive list of accreditations including: thousands of Carbon Trust labelled products, BRE Global Standards for the responsible sourcing of construction products and ethical labour, the Fair Tax Mark and Living Wage Employer certification.
Chris served as UK chair of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s most important business ethics initiative. Marshalls makes the FTSE4Good Index, and is an active member of Business in the Community. But do exemplary ethics translate into marketing effectiveness? Ask the hundreds of local authorities that pay the extra each year, or LOCOG, who chose Marshalls to supply hard landscaping products for the London 2012 Olympic Park.
Category leadership
The best marketers go beyond their brands to promote their category, and Chris is the current chair of Made in Britain, steering this organisation on its mission to promote British manufactured goods. Chris has enhanced the value of the Made in Britain mark by raising standards for applicants in terms of transparency, safety, quality and sustainability. A thousand manufacturers have now joined the movement.
“Chris brings his passion for quality and sustainability to Made in Britain, and has made a positive impact on perceptions of the marque by raising the standards we require of our members.”
Achievements in the past 12 months
New product sales
In a standardised market full of lookalike manufacturers, innovation delivers margin. Chris’s ownership of new product development, and know-how in reaching risk averse audiences, saw new products comprise a record 17% of sales last year.
Brand performance
A contractor is 48 times more likely to name Marshalls as the best concrete paving supplier than any other brand. 70% of landscape installers say Marshalls is the best manufacturer for end-user satisfaction. In permeable paving, the Marshalls brand is 25-times stronger than the rest among architects.
Media expansion
Thanks to Chris’s early adoption, the Marshalls YouTube channel is easily the sector’s most successful. Last year, driven by quality instructional content, it clocked up 2.5 million views. The channel is closing in on seven million views and 20 million minutes watched.
Strategic vision
Challenges
Marshalls products need to last decades. They have to stop flooding and terrorists, and enhance people’s lives. Global supply chains are vulnerable to pollution, slavery, child labour and tax evasion. And customers clamour for cheaper products.
Vision
In 2002, Chris foresaw that product quality, innovation, ethics, sustainability and successful marketing are all part of a virtuous circle. Chris could have transformed the company in a product development or sustainability role, but he is a marketer. So marketing has reduced Marshalls carbon emissions by 16% since 2009, marketing got Marshalls shortlisted for the 2017 Thomson Reuters Stop Slavery Award, and marketing is the reason Marshalls commands premium prices and fierce brand loyalty in a standardised market.
Impact on other employees and departments
Example setting
Chris has created a marketing-led business through leadership, collaboration and being a unifier. Thanks to him, product designers know what will sell, salespeople know how to sell it and the marketing team know what to push where and how.
Chris has expanded the influence of marketing within Marshalls, and the influence of Marshalls on the industry and UK manufacturing, by walking the walk. Chris doesn’t wish for better products, he helps create them. He doesn’t merely follow British manufacturing standards, he sets them. Chris doesn’t just talk about climate change, he goes to the North Pole and makes a video to raise awareness.
This determined example setting and his marketing success driven by distinctive, differentiated, defensible customer value propositions, based on deep customer insight, makes Chris a worthy winner of Marketer of the Year.
“Chris is a client but we are definitely colleagues. He believes in partnership, whether it’s with agencies, or co-workers at Marshalls. He brings the best out of you by doing his bit really well”
