Goldsmiths ups Xmas ad kitty in bid for recognition

Jewellery retailer Goldsmiths has boosted its marketing budget for the run-up to the crucial Christmas period.

Chief executive Jurek Piasecki said the 165-store business has increased its marketing spend this year by 10 per cent, to more than£2 million.

Innovations will include the inclusion of a CD-ROM in the December issue of Hello!

magazine, which comes out at the end of November.

The aim of the retailer's investment is to educate customers about the Goldsmiths brand.

Piasecki said: 'I want to get to the situation where people arrive in a place like the Bullring and ask: 'Where is the nearest Goldsmiths?''

An insert has also been bought for the end of this month in the Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph.

Piasecki said that, in some areas, the brand was still not as well recognised as other chains and local jewellers, because the Goldsmiths name had not been adopted across the business until 1995.

The newly-opened Bullring store was the retailer's first in Birmingham, but Piasecki said the city potentially could support at least another two outlets once customer recognition increases.

The Bullring shop boasts five plasma screens and, as part of window displays, several mini-screens to show off product. Piasecki said he would introduce the screens into his top 40 stores.

Earlier this year, privately-owned Goldsmiths appointed former Littlewoods director Sue Scanlan as merchandise director and Tony Broderick as sales director. Marketing director Jim West has become deputy managing director.