Purplebricks has confirmed that Ben Carter has quit as its chief marketing officer.
Carter, who joined the online estate agency just over a year ago, took to Twitter a short while ago to announce that he has quit his position at the company.
Carter tweeted a short while ago: “Some personal news. It may have been short but it has been very sweet. I’m moving on from @PurplebricksUK at Xmas for a very exciting new role. Am very proud of what we & the team have delivered; it has been phenomenal & I can’t wait to see where the business goes!”
Carter, previously UK marketing director at Just Eats, joined the online estate agency in November last year. His remit covers all aspects of marketing strategy, with particular focus on driving growth and diversifying the channel mix, to emphasise Purplebricks’ digital-first approach.
A Purplebricks spokesperson issued the following statement: “Ben Carter will be leaving his role as Purplebricks CMO at the end of year, having accepted a new position in another sector. A new CMO will be joining Purplebricks in the new year and this will be announced shortly.”
The news of Carter’s departure comes less than a week after Helen Ogden suddenly left her position as head of lettings at Purplebricks.
EYE NEWSFLASH: Purplebricks deny sacking head of lettings as Helen Ogden departs
Comments (15)
Interesting… announcement today that Mr Carter is joining furnishings retailer Dunelm.
Look out – he may well be turning up on a Playground near you…
It’s strange. Surely it’s a question of providing the ‘lead’ for the local rep? The conversion of that lead relies on the quality of the local rep. Whether we like them or not, PB has a national brand, possibly stronger than any other agent – one wonders, then, why they have such a relatively small market share.
Seems to me that marketing is the easy part of the equation; the problem is the message and, ultimately, how it is converted (or not) on the ground. It’s very easy in a corporate environment for ‘sales’ to blame ‘marketing’ for low lead numbers – this strikes me as marketing giving up on poor conversions.
Fair Shares
(an acrostic)
Promised all delivered nought –
Under achieved….you know the sort,
Raced off early – £1 shares
Pulled a hamstring on the stairs
Limped back down the share price slope
Each lost penny killing hope
But all is fair in love and war
Read the runes and know the score.
If you bet or red or black
Chances are you’ll get some back.
Keep your cash in purple though,
Seems your pot of cash won’t grow.
Purplebricks appoints marketing heavyweight Ben Carter as CMO
On 5th March he said:- “We want to switch buyers and sellers from the high street to digital by continuing to invest in brand growth. I’ll be working with the team to start to tell a broader brand story and establish real resonance for the brand – to increase consideration of our service and build stronger advocacy.”
And it took him 9 months to figure out he was wasting his time.
Leaving at the end of the year – lets see, senior person, 6 month probation and 3 months notice period?
Probably took him less than that but he lined up a new role first.
I’d say within 3 months he knew it was a loosing battle.
There’s lots of others ‘can’t wait to see where the business goes’ as well Ben!
The brutal reality is that there is no longer any purpose to PB. Their two biggest USPs, upfront listing fee and a motivated self employed team have both been dumped leaving nothing but the bluff and bluster of some sickly marketing and a much depleted, de motivated workforce. Hallelujah!
From day one, the message has been about disruption. That’s not how you win because its largely unproductive. It has been about fighting over scarce resources and only idiots fight over scarce resources. Disruption for the sake of disruption, thinking they can out compete others, is terrorism and has pretty much contributed to the mess in which the industry finds itself.
Creating something worthwhile, other than on price and market share, has never been a goal of this company. The reliance on digital and TV is backward thinking when so many people deliberately make themselves unavailable with ad-blockers, spam filters and on-demand content.
Zig Ziglar outlined the 5 basic obstacles for every sale: No need, No money, No Hurry, No desire and No trust. If an agency can’t address the last one, they’re stuck in a purgatory of endless comparison and rejection.
Stop trying to disrupt what’s not working and build something worth talking about. An estate agency that is trusted.
Well said, Sir – but there is one big problem there.
In order to ‘build’ what is required, the existing structure needs demolition.
The roof is ****ed, the walls are crumbling, and the jerry-builders that put it together in the first place omitted to form anything close to firm foundations.
This tee yew arr dee has been causing a noxious odour in our profession for seven long years… and despite some of us screaming about it since day #1, it seems it is only now finally becoming clear to all that no amount of polishing will ever transform it into anything other than exactly that.
St. Chris, Patron Saint of Lost Causes.
It’s not personal, but by which measure does one become a ‘heavyweight’ in marketing? Presumably they have in house metrics that allow PB to make such statements as his about how they have ‘delivered’ or how it’s been ‘phenomenal’, but to us bystanders, and probably the public as well, it’s a flop. A big expensive floppy flop.
Share price 1/3/21 – 94p.
Share price 6/12/21 – 31p.
CRACKING “marketing” job done there, Mr C!
There’s only so much polishing one can do to a trrd.
It’s game over…the cheap fee, poor service “disruptor” is slowly unravelling……
To lose one executive, Purplebricks, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.
Apologies to Dame Edith Evans.