Clients Archives - PASSIONBRAND

Innovation
Naming
Brand architecture

Innovating from purpose

Kenvue is the $37bn spinoff of the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Healthcare Division. The business is responsible for the continued growth of famous global brands such as Tylenol, Calpol, Nicorette, Imodium and Neutrogena.

Passionbrand was commissioned early in the new group’s genesis to partner the senior marketing team on a cross-cultural, purpose-driven, innovation initiative.

Brand positioning
Brand architecture
Global

Social-selling brands, team-building process

Passionbrand’s work for this Swedish-based, global beauty and wellness brand incorporated an inspiring and competitive positioning for a new wellness concept and a portfolio and brand architecture initiative across the entire range. For both, the brand’s distinctive social-selling business model was a key influence and guiding light. A workshop-based process for both projects, with team building as a vital by-product of the work.

Brand positioning
Consumer and professional
Global

Reinvigorating an icon haircare brand

Wella had been bounced around a bit – acquired by P&G in 2007, then sold on as part of a package of beauty brands to Coty in 2016. Now, in 2021, it was carved out of Coty by private equity visionaries KKR, who saw the potential of a great brand name, with unmatched heritage, in a sector redolent with emotion: haircare.

Passionbrand worked with the brand’s US/Switzerland based teams to develop inspiring, competitive but unified positionings for some of the company’s most famous sub-brands: Sebastian, Nioxin and Wella Professional. The work involved consumer and stylist research and insight generation on three continents, as well as a deep dive into Wella’s long history of expertise and passion for haircare, for clues on how to create a coherent brand story relevant globally today.

Brand refresh
Internal engagement

FINDING THE BALANCE FOR BOTH NEW AND EXISTING CUSTOMERS

A project to understand the needs of the new generation of casual diners and refresh the Nando’s brand positioning to ensure continued relevance and appeal. A semiotic study was commissioned and alternative brand refresh routes developed and researched. Digging back into the heritage of the brand the team were able to find a way to appeal to the authentic food values of today’s diners without alienating the die-hard fans.

New brand development
Naming

A new twist on a classic casual dining format

As part of a strategic move into the rapidly-growing casual dining market, Tesco saw an opportunity to bring the popular appeal of carvery into its largest stores. The big question was how to create a concept that would be relevant throughout the day – from 7am to 10pm.

Passionbrand’s answer was DECKS, a welcoming, informal space with a range of ‘food decks’ serving different things at different times: a fantastic breakfast deck for earlybirds, the irresistible pastry deck for afternoon tea, a healthy salad deck throughout the day and the hero carving deck for main-meal times.

Passionbrand's involvement was to create the name, the brand concept and the guidelines for look, feel and behaviour which led to the successful launch and roll-out of 13 DECKS across the country from August 2014.

Brand positioning
Brand idea
Global

NiQuitin smoking cessation – the start of something big

Social communication in the world of the smoker is riddled with negatives – it’s all very “don’t” and “un-” and “not” – as in “Thank you for not smoking”. Thank you for not doing something you really want to do!

That negativity gets worse when you try to, well, stop – another negative word right there.

Passionbrand looked at a more positive space for GSK’s global NiQuitin brand – all about what starts when you move on to a ‘life beyond smoking’. Start enjoying smoke-free kisses, start going for the by-line again, start feeling the vibe inside the pub instead of the cold, wet pavement outside.

This one-word brand idea, backed with a wealth of positive stimulus, produced stunning, unequivocal reaction from smokers looking to quit in a range of markets, and reinforced the power of positive, optimistic support when people are trying to do something really tough. It led to new advertising, new product formulations and new support packages. And new hope for smokers.

Passionbrand has also worked with GSK in the consumer OTC sector on cold sore and allergy treatments.

Rich stimulus: part of the research package that led to an exciting new space for the brand.

“Passionbrand are a gem of an agency. They are able to combine fantastic strategic marketing skills with remarkable creativity that creates real magic for our brands. This magic has the ability to truly connect with consumers, unlocking true growth potential. They are a joy to work with; their intellect enables them to get to grips with your brief quickly, they are very professional and always deliver work of a high standard.”Chantal Busson, Marketing ManagerNiQuitin & ZEN/GI Portfolio

Brand positioning
Business to business
Global

DEVISING A WINNING US BRAND PROMISE WITH GLOBAL FIT

A project to develop a brand positioning and promise for the US market that would fit with the new global brand ambition, but also resonate specifically with the needs of US customers. The insight-based brand promise needed to link together the needs of employers, employees and brokers. Three routes were developed and researched qualitatively and quantitatively. The winning route highlighted the new reality of work and life blending and merging at a faster pace than ever before.

Brand positioning
New brand development
Verbal assets
Naming

From simple and basic to smart and democratic

Freeview brings great telly free to 10 million homes across the UK. Yet millions more pay extra to other providers for services and content they don’t always need. Some simply saw Freeview as the basic, ‘low-status’ option.

How to get people to revaluate the Freeview brand, and see it as the smart choice in an increasingly complex media world? With the development of a new catch-up and on-demand Freeview service, the opportunity arose to combine substantive change with a bold new positioning and tone of voice.

Passionbrand worked with the Freeview team to explore a range of positioning relaunch options – with the idea of putting the viewer in control emerging as a clear, compelling winner.

We also explored a range of names for the new on-demand service, leading to the launch of Freeview Play in October 2015.

The final recommendations included a set of verbal assets to help Freeview carve out and maintain an image as a modern, democratic brand, and a design brief that led to a vibrant, new visual identity designed by creative agency DixonBaxi.

Freeview Play: launch in 2015.

Brand codification model and process
Brand positioning
Brand idea
Marketing training
Global

Creating a bespoke branding process for a famous global brand

A typical Avon brochure features at least six different product categories – from makeup to fashion & home – within which sit dozens of individual Avon brand equities. Never having been formally codified, these individual brands were inevitably drifting in different directions around the world. The business needed a way to clearly define its brands, and capture their iconic codes and cues, while allowing for sensitive market nuance.

Passionbrand worked closely with Avon central marketers in New York to develop the Avon Brand Way process, with its three stages of Define, Dramatize and Deliver. The core tool was the specially created Avon Brand Arrow, designed to capture both the heritage and the heart of each brand – along with insights gleaned from both consumer research and the day-to-day experience of over six million Avon reps around the world.

The next step was to work with global and local market teams to craft inspiring Brand Arrow definitions for the biggest Avon brands in makeup, skincare, bodycare and fragrance – as well as leading the process for the definition of the Avon masterbrand itself.

Finally, Passionbrand developed training modules and conducted training sessions for both central and local teams around the world, to help ensure that Avon teams in all markets could create and manipulate Brand Arrows according to best-practice lessons learned along the journey.

A start-to-finish global business and branding initiative: successful, enjoyable, creative and inspiring at every stage of the way.

Pages from the Avon Way Guide to Building Brands with Excellence: showing how the process works in detail, giving tips for best results and showcasing the most promising Arrows created to date for Avon and its brands.

Naming
Verbal assets

A new tech launch for a big-hearted brand

ITV’s new on-demand platform, developed in 2015, was much more sophisticated than the ITV Player it replaced. How to name it, and launch it, in a way that communicated that difference yet didn’t get too carried away with tech? – because the big-hearted, mainstream nature of the ITV brand still needed to shine through.

Passionbrand worked with a multi-disciplinary ITV team in structured workshop sessions to come at names, descriptors and taglines for the new service. The naming long-list was huge, as it so often is, but objective probing narrowed it down to half a dozen to research.

The result was ITV Hub, which was brought to life graphically by the ITV internal creative studio, while Passionbrand developed the verbal side, with launch scripts, slogan and a set of ‘verbal assets’ – ready-made phrases that captured the spirit of the innovation, dramatised the ITV values behind it and embodied the flexibility to be used across multiple touchpoints.

ITV Hub: the new name for on-demand ITV.
Name and lead verbal assets created by Passionbrand.

Consumer and staff research
Brand and product positioning
Marketing strategy

The right strategy for skincare – for a famous cosmetics brand

Dior was a founder client. In Autumn 2005 we were commissioned to develop specific marketing strategies to build the skincare business and provide a consumer-based rationale for its relationship to the cosmetic business. The work included consumer and staff input, and resulted in the implementation of a number of initiatives – some obvious, some counter-intuitive.

Brand creation
Brand architecture

REVIVING THE FACE OF A FAMOUS BRAND

The threat from online challenger banks meant that NatWest needed to work out the optimum brand portfolio for meeting the needs of business. Embracing the existing NatWest business brand and new brand concepts, we rigorously reviewed the options from a consumer and business perspective. Recommendations for brand to develop and portfolio roles were agreed for implementation.

Brand repositioning
Visual identity and guidelines
Brand activation

A NEW BRAND IDENTITY IN THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY

Passionbrand was brought in to work with KCI after two major mergers triggered the need for a complete overhaul of the brands in their Advanced Wound Dressing portfolio.

The burden of chronic wounds on healthcare systems around the word is substantial and steadily increasing. This means that clinicians are often expected to do more with limited resources, and choosing the right products becomes key to care plans. At the same time, the wound care market is saturated with players, and fragmented by niche claims, making it a complex field for health care professionals to navigate.

Passionbrand worked to return the focus of the brands to the central need in wound care: moisture control.

This became the nucleus that united the core abilities of the four brands, while also able to stretch and demonstrate distinction between them where needed. Furthermore, it is subject with scale in wound care and allowed KCI to open conversations with clinicians and managers at a higher level than each individual brand.

The next step was to build from the strategic foundations and create a visual identity that brought the new positioning to life. A vernacular that was able to stand out from the conventional images of smiling patients and doctors that saturates the medical B2B market. The result was a highly distinctive visual iconography for the category, constructed around the concept of ‘liquidity’.

The strategy and design united four dressing brands under one trenchant Masterbrand platform: ‘Moisture Matters’.

Brand relevance
All brand touchpoints

NAILING THE BRAND’S VALUES AND DEMONSTRATING IT IN ACTION

‘Building Society, nationwide’ is the Nationwide slogan and core purpose, but how could words become actions beyond the products? After successfully tackling online bullying the team wanted to find new ways to bring their brand purpose to life that could be executed across all internal and external touchpoints. Passionbrand led a cross-disciplinary team to generate ideas, test concepts and build internal commitment.

Marketing strategy
Brand positioning
Brand idea
Marketing training
Global

Long-term partnership across multiple global brands

Since the foundation of our business in 2005 we have worked in tandem with J&J’s global marketing teams, to develop more cohesive and inspiring ‘brand footprint’ (and more recently, Brand Spotlight) definitions.

Our work over that period has involved some of J&J’s most famous consumer brands in a wide range of sectors, from eye-care to digestive health. In professional healthcare, Passionbrand has worked alongside J&J teams to develop marketing strategy and creative expression for brands within medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

J&J client logos Passionbrand has partnered with J&J teams on some of their most famous global brands in consumer healthcare, and in the professional healthcare sector we have worked on brands in surgical vision, cardiac care and stroke solutions.

As part of our work for J&J’s surgical vision brand TECNIS, Passionbrand scripted and produced a suite of videos aimed at diverse audiences: surgeons, employees, prospective cataract patients. These inspiring 4-minute patient stories were directed by Bas Verwoerd of Fono, Amsterdam.

Internal brand engagement
Brand DVD

Europe-wide initiative to inspire cabin crew

This major internal brand engagement programme was resourced jointly by HR and Marketing and involved over 3,000 cabin and flight crew. The project was based on Passionbrand’s Internal Brand Engagement Framework, which involves six stages, all looked at from the employee’s point of view. In his 2007 annual review, easyJet CEO Andy Harrison cited the success of the programme as a factor in the airline’s strong financial performance.

Passionbrand’s Internal Brand Engagement Framework: developed in conjunction with HR professionals. Engagement activity is developed for each of the six stages, and carefully phased and choreographed to promote a company-wide understanding of the brand.

Brand positioning
Brand strategy
Brand idea
Internal brand engagement
Global

Making the BBC brand meaningful to a global audience

In the UK, everyone’s familiar with the BBC. In the rest of the world it’s a different matter, with plenty of scope for improvement in awareness, understanding and emotional bonding. This global initiative involved crystallising the meaning and appeal of the BBC for global audiences as a contemporary, multi-media, multi-platform brand.

The resulting positioning and identity – rooted in the concept of ‘Stimulating Company’ – serves to inspire a re-evaluation of the BBC brand for the majority outside the UK who think of it principally for news. ‘Rich stimulus’ helped to bring the brand positioning to life for research on four continents.

“Passionbrand bring a unique combination of strategic rigour, detailed approach and creative thinking. Throughout the process they were genuine partners who challenged our assumptions and delivered an imaginative but completely practicable solution.”Sarah Cooper, Chief Operating OfficerBBC Worldwide

Rich Stimulus: helps to bring brand positioning to life for research respondents in a way that they might actually experience it in the real world. For the BBC this included 'sizzle reels', idents, digital communications examples and simple posters, like the one shown here.

Marketing excellence
Role of brand

DEVELOPING A NEW ORGANISING STRUCTURE FOR MARKETING

The marketing leadership team wanted to ensure that the organization was taking full advantage of a strategic approach to marketing and leveraging the power of its iconic brand. Passionbrand worked with the marketing teams to develop a clear role for marketing and put in place the strategic foundations for marketing planning.

Internal brand engagement
Brand DVD

Fostering pride for people with one of the toughest jobs on earth

An initiative for a pioneering PCT Foundation Trust: Liverpool Provider Services. The objective was to bring a greater sense of cohesion and pride to teams who practise their care out in the community, at the sharp end of everyday life. Involved filming a brand DVD, mostly at night, in some of Liverpool’s most deprived districts.

“Passionbrand had an innovative approach to involving staff and were able to articulate staff views in a way that they recognised as their own. They did away with the ‘management speak’, and 6 months following implementation of the recommendations, staff are commenting on the difference. They believe that managers are really listening.”Bernie Cuthel, Chief ExecutiveLiverpool Provider Services

Value proposition
Brand positioning
Brand architecture
Brand idea
Global

Breaking through in an increasingly commoditised sector

In a world where health systems are under pressure to slash costs, the wound care materials sector is threatened by commodity pricing. Yet Smith & Nephew can demonstrate how its combination of advanced wound care solutions and deep understanding of best-practice care can lead to better patient outcomes and system efficiencies. It isn’t either/or.

Passionbrand worked with the business globally to crystallise this duality in a value proposition designed to help its people gain a better rapport with the new kind of customer it needed to reach: procurement professionals and system managers.

We help reduce the human and economic costs of wounds

This became the underpinning for all Smith & Nephew’s individual wound care brands – the first time the portfolio had been united by a common point of view. The biggest and longest-established of these is Allevyn, an advanced foam dressing. Passionbrand worked with the team to relaunch the brand globally, bringing scale and humanity in a striking approach that explored the reality – and even beauty – of the wound-patient’s body.

The brand idea was ‘People First’, in recognition of the original product’s sensitive, real-time response to the level at which each individual patient produces wound exudate. Its link to the value proposition was trenchant, inspiring and backed with hard data: ‘Put people first and economies will follow.’ The relaunch achieved a 23% year-on-year growth for Allevyn.

A new body of work for Allevyn: Wound care imagery tends to be either close-up pictures of gory wounds, or cheesy images of smiling patients. Allevyn found a new space: the naked human body, as the ‘canvas’ on which wound care clinicians do their wonderful work. The ads, sales aids, website and images, created by Passionbrand, working with photographer Josh Van Gelder, deliberately aimed for a global scale, celebrating what unites us all, and evoking a sense of wonder for our shared humanity, dignity – and occasional frailty.

Brand positioning
New brand development

From a format to a brand

Up and down the country, Marston’s ‘Two-for-One’ chain of pubs brought in customers attracted by its eponymous value offer: two main meals for the price of one. But this volume success came at a cost: the offer was inflexible, so applied even at peak times, and the customer base was dominated by value seekers on tight budgets, with a skew way up the age scale. Younger, more affluent customers were in a minority.

Passionbrand worked with the Marston’s team to explore coming at ‘value’ in a broader, more flexible way, and, at the same time, moving from what was just a format to a three-dimensional brand.

Research showed that ‘generosity’ was a ready emotional association for pubs, and that the concept applied not just to monetary value but across a spectrum of human and emotional qualities. Pubs are ‘big-hearted’.

A range of routes were developed and tested, with the idea of personalising generosity clearly appealing across all ages. ‘Generous George’ became the name for the pubs and value offers could now be flexible, on both food and beverage, so publicans could adjust and time them to reflect business needs. But ‘generosity’ was signalled in many other ways too, as part of the environment and personality of the pub: from the ‘talking point’ giant armchair, to the practice of ‘rounding up’ small change in the customers’ favour.

Generous George launched successfully in six former ‘Two-for-One’ pubs, bringing down the average customer age by around a decade and increasing both turnover and profit; it is being rolled out now more widely across the estate.

'Generosity' cues: bringing the Marston's 'Generous George' positioning to life for customers – a range of touchpoints, big and small, throughout the pub, to emphasise the big-hearted spirit of the brand. Like this 'oversize' armchair, which quickly became a brand talking point.

Brand strategy
Codes and cues

A good thing, not just a plaything

Cheestrings are one of the fun items in a kid’s lunchbox. Mums know they’ll be taken out, enjoyed, eaten. What mums didn’t know was that Cheestrings, contrary to all appearances, aren’t ‘plastic food’, empty of nutrition. They’re in fact mozzarella-style formulations, made of real cheese, and packed with nutrients.

kerrys-foods-cheesestrings

How to get that message across without spoiling the fun? Passionbrand worked with the Kerry Foods team to explore not only what mums knew, but what they wanted for their kids. The recommendation was to focus on a single nutrient – calcium – which is so vital for healthy growth. That struck a chord, both rationally and emotionally, for mothers across the UK and Ireland.

Passionbrand created ideas for codes and cues in packaging and communications designed to reinforce the calcium message while keeping everything appropriately light and easy to digest.

Passionbrand has also worked with Kerry Foods on Richmond Sausages – exploring ways to improve the substance, not just the sizzle – and on the potential power of the Kerry brand itself.

Rich stimulus: exploring the power of the Kerry brand in research groups.

Internal brand engagement

Reinforcing brand leadership in an ethical category

An internal brand engagement programme with the objective of reaching and inspiring all levels of the business – ‘what does this mean for the sausage buyer?’ was how it was always memorably put.

As always, no brand engagement is possible without first getting a sense of how people feel in their day-to-day roles – whether they’re buying sausages, packing deliveries or opening the doors for customers. The results of this phase dictate not just how, but how fast, you can move on to the next stages. The moral is: if there are gripes, fix them, first – and small concessions here can often make a huge difference.

Brand positioning
Brand idea

Reinterpreting original roots for today

There is a whole section in our book, Creating Passion Brands, about the technique of looking back before looking forward – reinterpreting foundational belief for new generations. It is the hallmark of brands that manage to combine authenticity and relevance – from which basis, wonderful things are possible.

We have since employed the technique successfully on a range of venerable brands – among them the BBC, Ford (in partnership with Team Detroit), Yorkshire Building Society – and Kallo, for whom we developed a new positioning and brand idea for its Whole Earth peanut butter brand.

What a rich cultural history to look back on: founded by hippy idealists in the ‘60s with a pioneering zeal for macrobiotic nourishment. Authenticity was the easier part; relevance for tomorrow’s generation less obvious, as too strict an interpretation would paint the brand as a curiosity, an anachronism. The ‘sweet-spot’ was a kind of ‘easygoing passion’ – a relaxed, open attitude to life combined with a deep belief in goodness and organic methods.

Passionbrand has also developed a new positioning and brand idea for Kallo’s Rice Dream brand.

The new brand positioning: led to briefs for new packaging and new advertising.

Brand strategy
Brand positioning
Brand idea
Internal brand engagement
Global

Celebrating ‘everyday heroes’ in an unglamorous sector

In a service business a strong brand can be a powerful rallying call for those all-important frontline staff – the ones who spend their lives with customers.

Passionbrand was commissioned to look afresh at the somewhat tired Rentokil brand equity, with the objective of inspiring internal and external audiences alike. Turns out those frontline staff were the key to both, with the new brand idea lionising Rentokil’s own ‘everyday heroes’. It was brought to life with confidence and flair across a range of global touchpoints, from web advertising to vans.

“Passionbrand reminded us of the underlying heroism of businesses like ours, and brought this to life in a way that was reassuring for the consumers and, every bit as crucially, inspiring for our own frontline people.”Stewart Power, Director of Marketing & StrategyRentokil

The branded van: a reassuring sight for consumers, a source of pride for the Rentokil professional.

Internal brand engagement
Staff incentive programme
Brand book
Microsite
Marketing training

Making an abstract concept live and breathe for employees

The brand essence for EDF Energy is captured in a single word: visionary. But how do employees ‘live’ that? Think call centre professionals, meter readers, people who dig the road. Passionbrand developed an inspiring, multi-faceted engagement programme that connected the brand essence to the real, everyday routines of different employee groups. A creative brand ‘hook’ served to unify all activity and to act as a constant reminder that tomorrow’s success is shaped by today’s behaviour.

“Passionbrand are an extremely refreshing, inspiring and delightful agency team to work with. They are able to make the most complex activities simple while delivering wonderfully creative solutions to brand engagement dilemmas.”Charlotte Kenny, Head of Brand VitalityEDF Energy

Bespoke training for EDF Energy’s marketing teams

“The brief to Passionbrand was to develop a training course, which would educate, inform and develop the EDF Energy Brand Group, a team with varying levels of experience, in the very latest thinking and practical application for successfully building brands in a highly competitive market place.

The Brand Boot Camp was born, consisting of 12 full-day sessions over an 18-month period. As with all good boot camps, ground rules were set, with relevant pre-reads issued, for debate and discussion, and for all those attending to bring an open and challenging mind. The training culminated in a final group presentation, encompassing all that had been learned on the course, to the EDF Energy senior exec team.

It was, without exception, the highest calibre training course that had been developed for marketers at any point within EDF Energy. Helen and Derek, supported by the Passionbrand team, were able to draw on the wealth of their own personal experience, as well as relevant case studies, and an extremely high calibre of external speakers. The course covered all elements of the brand and marketing mix, from consumer insight, brand positioning, creative development and judgment through to measuring effectiveness and proof.

The content was of a standard that has meant it was not only relevant at the time of the course, but is still being used within the team today. Importantly, for any enduring training course, it was enormous fun to be part of, and the full attendance of the course over the 18 months was testament to this.

I would highly recommend Passionbrand for the development of any such training course.”

Rob Merrington, Head Of Marketing Communications
EDF Energy/Customers/B2C

Brand strategy
Brand positioning
Brand idea

Creating a beautifully integrated product-service brand

When the world-famous women’s spa merged with the independent bath-and-beautycare business, the opportunity arose to create a seamless, leadership brand. Passionbrand worked closely with the brand’s new owners to identify NPD opportunities, examine marketing efficiencies and develop a more impassioned brand positioning and brand idea (see ‘mantra’ below).

The Sanctuary Brand Mantra

In a world of botox, plastic surgery and supplements, The Sanctuary is a reminder that pleasure and beauty are connected.

We believe in the power of touch to help us feel and look at our best.

We believe that natural fragrances and essential oils suit us better than synthetics and chemicals.

We believe that skincare products should pamper as they perform.

We believe in putting the ‘treat’ back in treatment.

We believe that laughter, gossip and a glass of wine have their place at a spa.

And we believe that pleasure isn’t transient; that it lasts beyond the moment; that it leaves its imprint on us, lightening our brows, brightening our eyes and softening our smiles.

And nothing is more beautiful than that.

Brand positioning
Internal engagement

Uniting two sides of the business

In big utility companies there is a tendency for two sides of the business to feel split. On the one hand, there are those in the ‘heroic’ roles, getting water where it’s needed, cleansing waste, fixing leaks, managing vast reserves. And on the other, you have those on the service side, dealing with customers of all kinds and often fielding complaints.

Passionbrand worked with Southern Water to develop an inspiring positioning that could appeal to its customer base – both consumer and business – and, just as importantly, unite its own workforce, and make everyone feel proud to be part of one team.

Brand strategy
Verbal assets
Internal brand engagement

CLARITY OF PURPOSE MEETS CLARITY OF LANGUAGE

Passionbrand worked with the leadership of this government-funded agency to reframe its purpose and develop clearer, pithier language to inspire the disparate groups it works with: academia, commercial energy giants, independents, inventors, civil servants, policy makers.

And, of course, its own employees; leadership will not get far without them all playing their part. So we took care to involve the Catapult’s own people in the process throughout, and developed a brand engagement initiative to help launch and embed the new strategy, language and communications approach.

Brand strategy
New brand development
Internal brand engagement
Naming and logo design

Creating brand ‘labels’ for a famous ‘super-indie’

Talkback Thames, owned by global behemoth Fremantle Media, was one of the largest and most famous UK independent production companies – bringing the nation blockbusters like X-Factor and The Apprentice.

But scale isn’t always advantage when getting in front of commissioners, who are constantly looking for fresh new ideas from ‘edgy’ new indies. And internally, too, size can sometimes be a dampener to the innovative spirit.

In 2012, the management took the bold step of exploring ways to divide the business into smaller units with the creation of ‘label’ brands – each focusing on a tight content genre.

Passionbrand worked closely with the creative and production teams within the organisation, to get beyond initial objections, and probe for ways in which greater autonomy, freedom and responsibility could be a spur to breakthrough content.

Ultimately, after months of careful consultation with key talent, five label brands were created – in scripted comedy, entertainment, factual entertainment, comedy entertainment and drama.

Passionbrand developed names and logos for the label brands, and continued to work with the heads of each one to help crystallise an inspiring label vision and foster team spirit.

Boundless (factual entertainment): one of the names and logos created by Passionbrand for the new indie labels.

Marketing training

Helping local teams communicate health messages cost-effectively

The most effective way to reduce the escalation of the cost of treating disease is to prevent it from happening in the first place. One of the methods used by the DOH to achieve better understanding of health issues, and to encourage active personal prevention, is through the work of their local NHS communications professionals – teams who reach out to their communities with messages such as the importance of the MMR vaccine, or exercise for the elderly.

The teams face two challenges: very low budgets, and the inability to pool resources to achieve economies of scale – because each region’s ethnic and demographic profile implies different message mixes. An area with a high density of people of Asian ethnicity, for example, would need to prioritise communications about diabetes – which is more prevalent in Asian cultures – and these messages
would need to take note of specific, local and cultural sensitivities.

Passionbrand worked with the Department of Health to conduct a series of ‘marketing masterclass’ sessions with communications teams up and down the country, focusing on innovative, cost effective (sometimes zero-cost) ways of reaching and influencing highly specific target groups.

The tool used was Passionbrand’s Zones of Perception framework, a structured process that encourages teams to think in new ways about engaging people without using paid-for media – focusing instead on highly original touchpoints and initiatives that score well on a scale of ‘vividness’.

“Passionbrand worked with us as part of an integrated team to review and develop ideas for local communication and engagement. They brought the benefits of an outside perspective but were also able to understand the unique needs of the healthcare system and develop original, but above all, practical solutions.”Deborah Hankins, Deputy DirectorNHS and Social Care Communications

Brand positioning
Brand idea
New brand development

Looking back to think ahead

In a post-crisis world, nobody likes financial brands. Banks especially. Building societies, where people understand the difference, come in for a little less flak – but even here, inertia and indifference exert their leaden drag.

The Yorkshire Building Society is the UK’s second largest, with a solid reputation for trust. It sought to explore what richer seams of meaning could lay behind that, to develop a more active positioning aimed at attracting younger customers.

Sometimes the answer is to look back before leaping ahead – to reinterpret foundational belief for new generations. And looking at the history of the Yorkshire revealed something thoroughly modern – a brand rooted in sharing and connection. Those original societies existed to bring together people with a little money to save with others needing funds to buy a home, in the days when only homeowners were allowed the vote.

Instead of thinking within its dowdy competitive set we encouraged the society to think of itself, and behave as, a ‘modern professional sharing organisation’, justifiably part of the ‘sharing economy’ alongside brands like Crowdcube, BlaBlaCar and Airbnb.

‘Share something good’ was the brand idea taken into research, eventually becoming the brief for new internal behaviour, new communications and new product development.

Passionbrand continues to work with Yorkshire Building Society on new brand creation aimed at younger customers.

Sometimes, the answer to the future lies in the past: by reinterpreting foundational beliefs for new generations.

Brand positioning
Internal brand engagement
Global

Inspiring the world’s consumers – and the people on the inside, too

Headquartered in Bonn, Germany, Fairtrade International is the governing body of the worldwide federation of Fairtrade organisations, with responsibilities for policy, priorities and overall messaging for this pioneer of labelling and certifying.

Passionbrand has worked with Fairtrade on a number of marketing initiatives, including workshops and follow-up development for a new global brand positioning – ‘Unleashing the power of the many’ – and internal brand engagement sessions for Fairtrade teams from around the world.

Helen Edwards has also spoken at the Fairtrade Foundation (UK) conference in 2014, with a talk about ways to turn sky-high consumer awareness into stronger consumer action.

The employer brand
Internal brand engagement

Making the brand meaningful on the inside

Care UK is a complex business with four divisions – each providing a different type of care: community, residential, mental health and healthcare. The business had a staff turnover of 40%, with most client-facing staff on the minimum wage, with minimum qualifications. The Care UK team wanted to find a way to make their customer promise of ‘Fulfilling Lives’ meaningful to their staff and capable of attracting committed talent.

The project was jointly managed by the CMO and the Group Head of HR; together we undertook a programme of work that followed the Passionbrand 6-stage internal brand engagement framework. At the heart of the solution was the need for frontline employees to be recognised for what they do, both formally and informally. That led to an overriding theme for the internal brand – ‘Care Inside’ – and a set of new initiatives that involved combining a strong culture of mutual support and appreciation with the development of the ‘Academy of Care’: a formal, structured, iterative training programme that openly celebrated and rewarded the achievements and professional development of the staff.

Passionbrand's Internal Brand Engagement Framework: a 6-stage process, each one seen from the employee’s point of view, developed in conjunction with HR professionals

Brand positioning
Brand idea
Internal brand engagement

Harnessing passion to fight ‘charity fatigue’

Global competition is as much a fact of life for charities as it is for commercial organisations. And in the quest to win hearts, minds and money, the techniques of branding are now routine. The art, though, is to encourage the charity’s underlying passion and commitment to infuse, rather than become dominated by, the branding process.

Passionbrand’s work with Christian Aid embraces all points of that process, from brand positioning, to internal brand engagement. It has led to the development of a more sharply-etched brand idea, crystallised in the notion of ‘cutting through’. It is a brave but timely stance. The problems of global poverty and injustice are well rehearsed. Here is one organisation that’s prepared to focus on the solutions.

Brand positioning
Brand idea
Advertising
Design, guidelines, toolkit

Bringing perception to reality

This was a year-long involvement that culminated in a complete marketing makeover for this upmarket home-care brand. By the end, the brand’s positioning, identity and communications finally did justice to its remarkable product and service standards.

Creative implementation for the new positioning was developed directly by Passionbrand, and involved a range of communications disciplines, from logo design to TV advertising.

“When we started on the project together, we set you a challenge to transform our brand into one that was market leading and that got our distinct message across. I feel that you succeeded brilliantly and that we have now changed our image from a rather tired, uninspired brand to a much more modern one which really fits with what we do, and, more importantly, conveys this message to our customers.”Richard McMullan, Managing DirectorSliderobes Group

Brand idea
Brand activation
Global

A new brand idea and fresh ways to bring it to life

A global initiative with overlapping objectives: to develop a new, global brand idea for Airwick and to create fresh ways to get the brand in front of consumers. The project culminated in a one-day session with Airwick’s senior global marketers, and global ad agency Euro, mapping new touchpoints using Passionbrand’s Zones of Brand Perception framework.

The ‘Zones of Brand Perception’ is a tool we use to help clients develop a consistent and cohesive brand experience. Stimuli closer to the centre are felt more intensely by consumers than those further out. So the process is structured to work from the inner zone outwards, ensuring that your brand identity is made vivid at every consumer touch point, starting with the product itself.

Brand positioning
Internal brand engagement

Uniting an impassioned voluntary population

Victim Support’s network of over 8,000 volunteers offers emotional and practical support to every victim of every crime, and its specialist Witness Service helps to guide witnesses through the complexity of the court system.

In 2009, Victim Support changed from being a federation of over 100 local groups to a single, national organisation, and brand. Passionbrand was briefed to develop a new brand positioning and brand idea that would inspire, motivate and unite the organisation and provide a platform for fundraising and campaigning.

“Passionbrand have been instrumental in helping to redefine the Victim Support brand and create a new positioning that will sit at the heart of all of our communications. This is the springboard that we needed to build the profile, awareness and understanding of Victim Support with our different audiences. Their energy and enthusiasm meant that they really got under the skin of the organisation which was reflected in the insightful and compelling brand positioning.”Guy North, Executive Director of MarketingVictim Support

Consumer proposition
Segmentation strategy
New brand development

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW – A MODERN TAKE ON SKINCARE

This Works is a premium aromatherapy brand founded by former Vogue beauty editor, Kathy Philips, and recently acquired by a VC group with ambitions for strong growth. Passionbrand were briefed to explore the potential of existing and new customer segments and to develop an overarching customer proposition. The breakthrough came with the realisation that you never see ‘aromatherapy’ and ‘contemporary’ in the same box. Well, now you do.

‘Modern, natural beauty’ now defines the brand – and the space for innovation.

Marketing training
Brand touchpoint development

OPTIMISING CONSUMER TOUCHPOINTS WITH BESPOKE TRAINING SESSIONS

A training initiative for the bank’s 200 marketing professionals. The sessions were built around Passionbrand’s Zones of Brand Perception framework – which helps identify, originate and prioritise brand touchpoints by viewing them strictly from the customer’s point of view.