Our background
Over 30 years of B2B marketing and PR
4CM has its roots in a fledgling business founded in the Spring of 1981, starting as a copywriting and design agency, offering graphic design, technical authoring and copy writing, photography and production services for all forms of printed material for clients throughout the B2B sectors.
We started back then with plenty of enthusiasm, some great ideas for promoting our new company and, more importantly, a firm belief that success depended on effective, results-driven marketing activities, not on the ability of an agency to win design awards for clever but, in a commercial sense, ineffective campaigns. These are the guiding principles that still inspire us today.
We now offer a complete range of marketing services, with a client base that includes some of the world’s major companies. Perhaps as importantly, we still have that same degree of youthful enthusiasm, drive and commitment that was there when we first unlocked our office door on that Spring day in 1981.
The only difference is that now, with a growing team, the degree of enthusiasm, drive and commitment has increased exponentially, enabling us continually to bring a fresh, exhilarating and focused approach to each and every client account.
4CM offices over the years
4CM was originally founded as Brooks Gould Associates in 1981, based in a converted stable block in what had once been part of the Rothschild manor in the village of Mentmore. Our offices were in the former grain store, which still retained beneath the floorboards many years of grain husks – excellent for insulation in the winter months but also conducive to the occasional invasion of field mice! The stables had been used to breed many famous and successful race horses and had also been used to store the royal coaches during the second world war.
We remained in these offices for almost ten years, steadily building up the business and taking on more office space and members of staff as the number of clients grew; clients included Sanyo, IGEC, SD-Scicon, Volvo and Lipton Teas, as well as many smaller but equally successful local enterprises.
By the early nineties, we had built a robust B2B PR and marketing agency, successfully weathered two major UK recessions and developed an integrated and proven range of services that worked effectively for client organisations of all sizes.
Continued growth meant a move to new offices in Tring, Hertfordshire in 1993. Although not as full of character as our old offices they nevertheless had a charm of their own, being based in what had once, in Victorian and Edwardian times, been a substantial coaching inn, the George Hotel.
Our offices were on the ground floor in the old bar area and included ornate carved timber fireplaces and an oak paneled meeting room, with Victorian moulded plaster cornices and a massive cut glass chandelier!
During our time in Tring we also established an office in France, with the objective of building business opportunities with French clients that wanted to penetrate the UK market and with UK clients that wanted to sell into France. Although this venture gave us valuable insight into the French market, we ultimately decided that our interests and those of our clients were best served by handling all marketing activities from the UK, partnering with local specialists as required. This partnership has more recently evolved into the EVOKE international PR network, with partners across the globe.
In 1996 we moved to and subsequently purchased a modern, self contained and detached office block on the Triangle Business Park in Aylesbury. This coincided with a change of company name to Brooks Randall Marketing Communications and provided an ideal base from which to support both our growing team of marketing professionals and expanding client base.
Early in 2003 we had again rebranded – to 4CM – and had refocussed on our core skills and services. This coincided with a move to a new home in purpose built offices in the village of Mentmore – just 400m from where we originally established the business in 1983 and conveniently located just two minutes walk from the famous Stag restaurant, so our clients can always be sure of an excellent lunch!
On Monday 17th December 2012 we said goodbye to Mentmore, moving to Challenge House, Sherwood Drive, Bletchley to take advantage of high speed fibre optics communications, now an essential tool for our business. The new office is steps away from the mainline station and the building has its own coffee shop and cutting edge meeting facilities.
