Coconut Creatives directors Sarah Dyer and Christopher Cook were guest lecturers yesterday at Bournemouth University. The aimed to give students an insight into marketing for small businesses and being a small business.

The presentation included some background on the two Coconut directors, two client case studies and information on what it is like running your own business. The highlights of the event included a short clip from a James Bond film that client Livett’s Launches managed on the River Thames and a clip from the Coconut’s recent India press trip with client, Shared Earth.

The Coconuts made the session interactive by taking along a range of Fair Trade products bought in India during the press trip and also a range of magazines which included client editorial and features.

The event also highlighted to students the positives and negatives of owning and running a business and concluded with a question and answer session which gave the students a chance to get some advice for their future careers.

Customers to Jon Thorner’s Farm Shop were in for a surprise from Saturday 9th to 16th February as they discovered the ‘purple wall of weird’ located within the shop along with a range of tastings of delicious local produce.

Back by popular demand for its third year, Purple Love Week, Britain’s largest coordinated tasting event aimed at supporting hundreds of independent food retailers right across the country during a traditionally quieter time of year. An idea that was forumlated between Coconut Creatives director Sarah Dyer and Giles Henschel founder national food retailer Olives Et Al. This year the theme seemed to be ‘weird and wonderful’ with many other shops embarking on undressing with food or organising an independent stripper-gram to put some spice into local foods!

Jon Thorner’s ‘purple wall of weird’ included a range of items such as one of the famous purple love t-shirts, purple love postcards, a purple cowboy hat and even a purple bikini! The idea behind the wall was to display a range of purple items highlighting the purple theme. The ‘Purple’ was inspired by the Kalamata olive and the ‘love’ as it coincides with the week that Valentines celebrate!

“It’s been a great opportunity to show our support for local suppliers in order to promote West Country foods… our purple wall of weird has certainly attracted attention from customers and allowed us to think and celebrate the wealth of local foods available in this area,” said Jon Thorner.

For further information about Purple Love Week visit the website at http://www.purplelove.co.uk

Bournemouth University have invited Coconut Creatives marketing specialists Sarah Dyer and Christopher Cook to give a presentation on managing and running their own business.

The event is to take place on Monday 18th February on Bournemouth University’s Talbot Campus between 4 - 6pm. Students attending will gain information about Coconut Creatives recent press trip to India with client, Shared Earth, as well as having an opportunity to ask questions about running a business.

Sarah and Chris will also be talking about the Chartered Institute of Marketing and their role on the South West Regional Board. The event will end with an opportunity to network with nibbles!

For further information go to Bournemouth University’s Business Mania Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8621898239 or visit Bournemouth University’s website at http://www.subu.org.uk/businessmania/events/index.php?page=event&event_id=17881