A couple of months ago I was in Australia, helping a start-up business take its first tentative steps in public. This included revealing the brand name and identity, which was delivered through a series of tests that we (myself and the founder team) had developed around the core business proposition.
We wanted to test which elements and expressions resonated the most with 3 different groups of people. Obviously there’s a lot more involved behind the scenes. So let’s look behind the scenes… starting with how did this opportunity happen? The answer is simple…connections. Let me explain…
1st Connection
How did I end up working with an Australian team? The simple answer is through my network. One of my friends from my days in Manchester, UK had emigrated to Australia. We’ve kept in touch and I knew that he had ambitions to create a business around his passion – sharing knowledge to help other people.
He had seen the work that I had produced for my clients and my own business, DressCode. He also recognised the impact my work had for these businesses, how I was helping others connect with people and grow. He’s a switched-on guy, the leader of a large corporate team and he understood that if he and his fellow founders were serious about building this new business it needed external support and resource to sense-check and direct their thinking.
In 2024 he asked if I would look at what he and two other directors had created. I was very happy to listen to their pitch and to my great joy, I saw that they had created, and curated, the resources to make this ambition a reality. They had already put a significant amount of groundwork into this concept (around 18 months I believe at this point). This central deposit of information was vast. It quickly became apparent that it had really been thought about, the clarity with which they had organised the information was a clear indication to me that a) they were serious about the project and b) that we would be a good fit in terms of personality. Organising assets and providing clear communication is central to what I deliver. Finding a group of people that already operate in a similar way felt really good.
I was able to ask them about lots of areas of the business idea, delivery and operations, finding out what they had planned and seeing the supporting documents, plans and ops applications to organise these plans. This gave me the reassurance that clearing up and organising the internal systems wasn’t going to be something that I’d need to take onboard, which whilst that might sound unusual, it was refreshing.
You’d be amazed how often systems either don’t exist of have not had any TLC for way too long, leading to all sorts of overlap and confusion. You’d be amazed how many businesses I have worked with where me, the external supplier/contractor, is the person telling them what they need to organise, helping them shape processes and structures internally that support the businesses external activities. Something that I think you will find many designers do – whilst it’s not part of the job description, organisation is a key part of the role and certainly a trait that I’ve seen in many of the designers that I have worked with.
I also got the opportunity to delve into some of the areas where there was less clarity. Things such as audience segmentation, persona’s, go-to-market strategy, business model and more.
Whilst we all had ideas (myself and the client team), at this point nothing is set in stone. We had several in-depth discussions exploring the various ways in which we could move forward together as a partnership, defining where boundaries fell and who’s skills overlapped and complimented one another. And most important, how we’d communicate – where to day-to-day organisation would happen – Slack!
2nd Connection
During these conversations it became obvious to me that there was a gap within the skills of the founders. Something that they all recognised as well, and was part of the motivation to get in touch with me. After a couple of calls the question was posed, “Can you help us develop this into a business?”
This is something that I have done many times for customers, a combination of start-ups and much larger, sometimes global corporations, where my skillset – a mixture of organisation, marketing, audience listening, design and brand communication – has built successful businesses and brands.
I have helped teams plot the course from the earliest outset of a change in direction following market movements and competition right through to global new product launches and the high change environments of food, hospitality and retail.
There’s always been a common thread. Working together in partnership. Working with clients I have defined the business direction (from full plan, strategy and implementation to internal communication and audience engagement) at lots of levels. These plans punch way above their weight – the creative communication and branding that I direct and produce allows smaller businesses to stand toe-to-toe with the long established, and often, considerably larger competitors.
With an agreement reached about what our working relationship would look like. We signed the necessary documents and outlined what each of us would bring, the gaps I could fill, spaces with overlap, where we can support one another and of course, how I could be paid for my input.
3rd Connection
Brand design was the obvious starting point for these connections. Whilst the team had created a name and an identity for the business, I had questions about the validity of both these elements.
The challenges that I put forward, the team accepted – not straight away of course – this is a process where I have to validate my observations. Something that I’m happy to do and when I demonstrated the issues and the pitfalls to the current line of thinking the team listened, took stock, reflected and then through the problem back at me, “So what would you do then?”
Whilst I could have talked about what we ‘could do’ I’ve always found it’s better to share some examples of the thinking and development that I have put into the other brands that I work with (some I can talk about, others unfortunately not).
This wasn’t some kind of chest beating exercise, I believe it’s important that the people that I’m working with understand what I’m bringing – what I’m looking to achieve for them (in terms of answering the brief/solving the problem) and how my work plays out in the real world, through the day-to-day activities of the business, it’s actions/reactions, campaigns, PR and promotions.
4th Connection
Seeing the way I work, the skills that I bring and the thinking behind them, gave the team the confidence to agree to a first stage review, complete with suggestions for how to improve.
Here I’m acting as the ‘critical friend’. I want the best outcome for the business, so I have to be honest about where the strengths and weaknesses lie within what they have got. This is a very tricky conversation to have, in this case, the team were emotionally invested in the work that they had produced. But they also knew what they had wasn’t totally right. They had sensed that there were pitfalls and were looking for me to be honest and help them.
This is a moment of incredible trust, where my professionalism and integrity comes to the fore. I have to be honest but kind with my feedback, explaining all of the thinking with the appropriate research that backs up my opinions, so that the team can understand where I’m coming from.
As I’m sure you can imagine, this is never a straightforward conversation. Words really matter here, as does sound data and examples to back up the thoughts, it’s never a ‘Yes that’s good, No that’s bad’ type of conversation. It’s much more nuanced and intricate. First of all, I need to do a lot of research about the product area or sector, to understand what’s going on within that environment before I can examine what has been shared with me.
Then I need to know who the business is already connected with – the persona of their best customers, where they have seen repeat business and where they have struggled to connect with people. It’s a real ‘warts and all’ process, that requires a great deal of honesty and even more trust. It’s something that I have always taken seriously, with the upmost respect for anyone who is open to sharing this kind of information (there’s usually an NDA involved as well to be honest, giving everyone additional reassurance).
With this work complete we create a check list with three areas – the terminology varies – working well, could improve and needs support. There’s lots of other terms you could use, and we do, essentially it’s ‘works well, works OK and struggles to work’.
Maybe that terminology doesn’t resonate with everyone, and I’m not advocating one term over another, but we need to acknowledge where the strengths and weaknesses lie, what the customer journey looks like for these groups and from that, we can start to map out a plan of action.
5th Connection
This is the ‘put your money where your mouth is’ moment where I share the ways in which I can solve to the things that we have identified above. If you’ve read my posts, you will have noticed that I talk a lot about ‘less is more’. That notion is particularly important here.
I’m not going to run off and come back with a load of visuals that solve every aspect of the problems. That would be a lot of work, which is costly, it would also be quite wasteful, because what we are doing here is sense checking the plan and the language, the expressions of that plan – do they resonate?
This is all about the name of the business, what it means to people and what any associated tag line might mean that sits with it. This is words, language and tone of voice. My presentation deck’s are always about words and language, what we think words and phrases mean and how they translate – not always as you’d imagine, especially across geographical borders, where even though the language may remain the same, the meaning behind expressions can change dramatically.
This is an opportunity to for me to get creative, look at the existing language of the sector or service, see where the product fits, understand what makes it different and develop a way to express that. It’s important that what I develop, the phraseology and the choice of words, needs to feel like it’s always been there. I’m looking for a term or phrase that connects with people and gives them a clear understanding of what this about.
That’s a tall ask at the best of times. Attention is the one thing everyone is asking for. Today, peoples attention span is dwindling and right now you’ve probably got a couple of seconds to make that first impression. Some will argue that it can be done with visuals, and I’d agree with them to a point. But visual impact is only useful if it sends a clear and consistent message to people. The words and phrases, also known as the copywriting, really, really matter as well. The ‘magic’ is blending these two elements together, creating something that is clear and memorable, following the ‘less is more’ principle.
This is probably one of the most enjoyable parts of any project. Why? Well for me it’s a win-win. Let me explain. First I get to play the ‘name game’ as I call it. Play with language around a subject that I’m deeply immersed in. For me this is fun, I really enjoy the exploration and the ways in which we can define complex things with simple expressions. Second is the conversations that come from sharing my work with clients. There are always very interesting conversations on the back of this. Sometimes they are challenging, other times we find alignment quicker than I envisaged. It’s a real ‘wait and see’ moment.
You never can be totally sure about how it’s going to play out, I’m confident about the work and the research that supports it, but there may still be elements in play that I’m unaware of. This might be down to a number of things, which I’ll touch on in the next paragraph.
This is the place where my understanding of the problem/challenge or brief is demonstrated. If I get this wrong, I’m the one with egg on my face. To be honest this rarely happens and on the odd occasion that it has, the work that I’ve done answers the task asked/information provided. There can be times when only part of the problem was shared, or some aspects of the business were overlooked within the briefing. Not intentionally, but it can become apparent and it’s not an ideal outcome.
Nevertheless, it’s a useful step in the process. It informs the client about areas of the business that aren’t aligned, that are different or exceptional and shows how they influence the rest of the business as well. Learning, there’s always learning for me in these spaces too.
6th Connection
Once we have decided on a direction for the brand/business that feels right, something that answers the questions – quickly and clearly – we can then look at the strategic opportunities to share this with people, developing a plan and a timeline within which to implement and support it – including budgets!
Throughout all these connection points I’m listening intently, making copious notes, because it all helps me align my creative thoughts with the business need. I firmly believe that every piece of feedback is useful. Whilst we’d all like the feedback to perfectly fit with what we put forward, the differences, and how we embrace them, is where the real strength of brand development comes into it’s own.
This is the stage that we are currently working through together (at the time of posting this blog). We’ve got some really useful insights into the work that we have shared with people. It’s helped the team refine their thoughts and ambitions. It’s helping form the communication structure, allowing us to experiment with different things, to see what works and what doesn’t. It’s another exciting phase of the project.
Whilst it’s important to have a plan that has been built on solid insights and data. The plan HAS to be flexible, adapting to feedback from the people that you want to connect with.
What are we doing? Refining the go-to-market plan, exploring new revenue models/opportunities, developing the brand aspects that resonated the strongest with our MVP (minimum viable product) groups, exploring what we can provide that will support these, both digital and physical assets. We’re testing CRM’s (client relationship management), web platforms, app platforms, UX and UI…the list goes on and on.
I believe that great branding runs throughout every aspect of what a business does. It bonds people together internally and externally. When people are clear about what you have to offer, and how that might benefit them, you make strong connections.
The coming months are going to see lots more development, and many more tests before a public launch later this year – at which point I’ll be able to show you more of what I’ve been doing.
If this interests you, whether you have an existing brand that you’d like health-checked, a brand-new idea that you could do with help realising or you are an established business looking to refresh and reconnect with people, I’d love to talk with you.
Branding is my passion, you can arrange a call here.
To be clear there is absolutely no expectation from my side. I have lots of chats with people about branding, at lots of levels. I’m never going to put the squeeze on you, or try to force a connection. I love what I do, and I love helping other people. Thanks for reading.
Busy as AB 