Successful brands have all found a common thread to their communications: simplicity. To been seen and heard above the daily clutter and clamour and gain instant recognition is the unifying goal of all brands.

It’s not a new thought given it’s summed up in a quote attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, namely ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’. In a world of marketing clutter, bold brands apply this approach consistently across all their communication to convey a clear differentiated message which connects with their customers.

When we first spoke to Peppers, a company who set the international standard in the cable glands industry, it was clear continued growth had led to a complicated brand and message. Taking a ‘simplicity’ approach was what was required to re-define who they were, what they did and the relevance of that to their customers.

simplicity of message and identity

“More than just a visual refresh, this has been very much a strategic branding exercise. Peppers has gone through significant change since its inception and this rebrand was commissioned to bring the firms brand identity into line with its industry leading product and service proposition.

The process identified and defined core areas of service advantage which can sometimes be overlooked in favour of straight price comparison. However, it is the totality of our offering which truly sets Peppers apart within the marketplace and supports the Company’s hard earned ‘best value’ rather than ‘lowest price’ reputation.”

Managing Director – Peppers Cable Glands

The resulting new ‘Peppers Globe Logo’ brand identity is striking in its simplicity, but all the more impactful because of it. Designed at the client’s request to retain echoes of the old identity, it also needed to reassure customers that whilst the business was developing and evolving, it wasn’t losing or moving away from the quality, service and delivery it has become renowned for.

Indeed, the distinctive new ‘End-to-End Performance’ brand positioning underpins the focus on product delivery, industry expertise and the customer journey, literally from start to finish.

To find out more about how WDA’s unique brand marketing approach can help your business grow please get in touch with our Business Development Manager Anna on 01332 372 728 or e-mail directly on anna@marketing.dev-wda.com

WDA client randd uk recently exhibited at a key trade show, Food Matters Live in London. WDA’s key challenge was to create a bold and engaging stand design that really stood out, and having grabbed visitors attention, to get across quickly what R&D Tax Credits are.

The eye catching stand design did indeed feature the face of a 6ft chicken sitting inside a trophy alongside the headline ‘A chicken farmer receiving £173,000 from the tax man? – As likely as Leicester City winning the Premier League!

Randd Brand Design

That was enough to stop scores of people passing the stop in their stride just long enough to be able to approach them and say, ‘hard to believe isn’t it but the majority of companies who could potentially claim £000’s back from the Tax Man don’t know they can, do you?’

Those interested, and there was a steady stream across all 3 days, were then given a copy of the Daily Reality Cheque, a mock Financial Times inspired newspaper which explained simply and graphically how randd uk have already helped hundreds of SME businesses claim back over £60 million.

With the traffic and interest WDA’s approach help generate at the show, that figure will grow, thanks in no small measure to that 6ft tall chicken, new business for randd uk will be coming home to roost.

To find out more about how WDA’s unique brand marketing approach can help your business grow please get in touch with our Business Development Manager Anna on 01332 372 728 or e-mail directly on anna@marketing.dev-wda.com

Working closely with the team at local dentist group Remarkable Smiles (formally Central Dental) WDA’s strategic creativity process identified that people aren’t really scared of going to the dentist, but of what the dentist may have to do to them. Not surprisingly those who visit the dentist regularly need far less dental work than those who only go when they’ve got toothache.

WDAs drive behind the rebranding to Remarkable Smiles (which goes much deeper and wider than just the name or visual identity) is that recent changes in dental care (Direct Access) allows trained dental nurses to see patients rather than have to wait to see the dentist, putting the focus on ’prevention rather than cure’, and increasing the availability of appointments.

Remarkable Smiles Brand Identity - WDA

Over the coming weeks the central Derby and Alvaston  practice will undergo their visible transformation from Central Dental to Remarkable Smiles with several new and innovative health and wellbeing services also being offered under the new brand and a customer service approach aimed at getting smiling on the inside as well as the outside.

The goal being to encourage more people to visit the dentist regularly, therefore less dental work needing to be done with each visit. This is just the start of the local entrepreneur (and dentist) Dr. Amit Koshal’s long term ambition to fundamentally change attitudes towards visiting the dentist for the better, forever… and who wouldn’t smile at that?

Remarkable Smiles Brand Identity - WDA

Remarkable Smiles Brand Identity - WDA

To find out more about how WDA’s unique brand marketing approach can help your business grow please get in touch with our Business Development Manager Anna on 01332 372 728 or e-mail directly on anna@marketing.dev-wda.com

WDA are again delivering a number of FREE Marketing and branding audits during January 2017.

This is your opportunity to discover how a brand driven marketing apporach could help drive YOUR business forward in 2017. The sessions are designed to be fairly informal and flexible.

Maybe you want a FREE honest professional opinion of your existing or planned marketing programme, or perhaps you would like advice on a specific area. This is your opportunity to pick the brains of our experts over a cuppa and (hopefully) leave with a fresh perspective and boosted enthusiasm about your branding and marketing plans – a great way to kick off the new year!

Places are limited to book please contact Anna Buonaguro at: anna@marketing.dev-wda.com

WDA were appointed after a competitive pitch by leading R&D Tax Credit specialist RANDD UK to devise and implement a strategic rebranding and innovative new marketing strategy to drive their new business development.

RANDD UK are R&D Tax Credit specialists delivering HMRC-backed R&D Tax Credit cash injections primarily to SME’s which reward their investment in R&D and innovation. The scheme is an HMRC incentive designed to encourage innovation and investment on R&D activities by UK companies. Somewhat incredibly government figures suggest that less than 10% of eligible companies are claiming through the scheme, which is even more surprising given the average annual claim for a RANDD client is just under £60,000.

WDA are developing a campaign to raise awareness of this scheme generally whilst firmly establishing RANDD as the pre-eminent company in this sector. The key challenges are that many SME’s who have heard about it either think it’s too good to be true (it isn’t) or that it won’t be worth the perceived time/hassle involved (RANDD minimise and manage both for clients). Many others miss out on significant potential claims by thinking that they ‘ don’t do R&D or innovation’, which in many cases RANDD can clarify through a short initial chat over a coffee.

RANDD will officially ‘re-launch’ in late November when they’ll be exhibiting at the Food Matters Live exhibition (22nd-24th), with a distinctive new brand look and feel, differentiated brand positioning and a creative and thought provoking marketing campaign to challenge and change SME’s perspective.

It’s quite likely that several WDA clients may be eligible to claim a cash injection from R&D Tax Credits and we’d be happy to effect a direct introduction to RANDD UK with no obligation whatsoever for anyone who would be interested in finding out about their potential eligibility.

Like all RANDD’s clients there’s nothing to lose and potentially everything to gain. Don’t miss out by assuming your business isn’t eligible and look out for more news on RANDD as the new branding and campaign goes live later this month.

We’ve seen many top brands mining their past, with ‘The Co-op’, ‘Guinness’ and more recently ‘MasterCard’ having returned to form with logos each echoing their 1960’s predecessors, but all for very different reasons.

Heritage and history are valuable commodities for any brand; a history is distinct and ownable. They can be used to re-dress a business to change the public’s perception. Although there is now a climate in which any company with a decade under its belt is proudly declaring its provenance, in good branding, heritage is more than a battle of ‘who has been around the longest’. Authenticity is what roots itself in the consumer’s mind. No wonder many businesses are chasing a ‘heritage brand’, trying to unearth their own engaging story. Storytelling gives a brand a platform to speak to us on emotional level, a recent article in Wired even argues that a well spun tale side-steps our reasoning and normal defences.

For a brand like The Co-op this sort of re-brand seems  like an obvious move.  In many ways – seeking to resuscitate a tarnished reputation – their hand was forced. ‘North’ the design studio behind the re-brand surmises as “evoking nostalgic memories of local shops and dividend stamps”, in this way it’s is harkening back to a fondly remembered time. It is not as much about telling ‘it’s own story’, but rather trying to buy into another. The Co-op is using its heritage to once more try to position itself and it’s values to an idealised past – where no one locked their door and the postman wore shorts. As it happens The Co-op has a longer and richer heritage it can mine, dating back to the early 19th Century, but that doesn’t align with the message and values that they want to project now, but in reality no one cares about a brand’s uncurated history. What matters is story telling. In essence, branding is about sowing seeds in the imagination.

A good example of this is the recent Guinness rebrand, working with an illustrator who had drawn their iconic Guinness harp of 1968. The logo evokes notions of craftsmanship. It is textured and complex and is a breath of fresh air going against the current trend of minimalist design. Compare it, for example, to Mastercard’s recently unveiled logo  – minimal to the utmost. Guinness’ logo is distinct and physical, the hand process is trying to reconnect with a 250 year old brand. The beer market finds itself in a time where every label is emboldened with the word “craft”, Guiness’ re-brand is about differentiation they are attempting By contrast, Guinesss are trying to tap into  the idea of traditional craftsmanship. The same idea is behind the medieval heritage of Stella Artois’ Chalice design.

In a saturated market many brands are staking their claim as ‘the originals’, using their heritage as a tool to reposition themselves with storytelling. Heritage is an important factor to establish a consumer trust, but it is no longer about who planted their flag first. A trustworthy brand is not simply the one that has been around longest but rather the one crafting an engaging tale, a story that reflects that brand’s values. Today’s motto appears to be, If you don’t have a story these days, make one. In design terms we can safely predict a few more brands drawing upon the hand-crafted imagery, moving away from the clean lines of digital, yet as The Co-op and MasterCard show its not just about rejecting the contemporary ‘flat design’ that surrounds us. Branding appears to have fixed its gaze on ‘heritage’, is this a trend that’s set to continue?

If you need help creating an effective brand for your event or organisation contact Anna Buonaguro onanna@marketing.dev-wda.com

Following a successful pitch, WDA were appointed to help one of the UK’s fastest-growing independent property groups to rebrand and reposition themselves to accommodate major expansion plans over the next five years.

Founded in 1989 as Direct Valuations and known as Shepherd Direct Ltd, the group comprises a comprehensive range of property related services including Estate Agency, Surveying, Risk Management, Lettings, Mortgages and Finance; each with its own brand identity all operating as independent trading divisions from Shepherd Direct’s Nottingham HQ.

The rebrand was part of a group strategy to create awareness for and to cross-sell these complementary divisions to customers by creating a common brand platform and a level of brand recognition to reflect the scale of the organisation which employs over 400 staff and has an annual turnover of £60m.

Referred to internally for many years as SDL, the choice to adopt the SDL prefix to unify the businesses was made strategically to simplify the complex group structure that existed within Shepherd Direct.  This simple prefix has also allowed acquisitions to quickly adopt the new group identity whilst retaining historic recognition and brand equity.

Whilst moving away from Shepherd Direct Ltd to the SDL acronym supported the desired new brand architecture, we wanted to retain a link to the decades of history, heritage, and core brand values of the original businesses.

SDL Website Design | Branding Derby | WDA

“During initial discussions it became clear that creating lasting partnerships was at the heart of what Shepherd was all about. Words like trust, honesty, loyalty and commitment kept cropping up time and again when talking to senior members of the team and the board.”

Said WDA’s Lee Waterhouse

“These words are not ones you might automatically associate with this sector, but are certainly highly desired by our audience, and were qualities which we felt should definitely be a part of our new brand story.”

That brand story came to life with the birth of ‘Shep!’, our trusty Border Collie which now sits at the heart of the new brand and has been adopted as the SDL mascot, creating a visual link to the previous name.

The traditional companion of the Shepherd; Border Collies are considered highly intelligent, hard working, and very loyal animals, famous for  herding and protecting their flocks. In just the same way, SDL businesses direct (advise) their valued customers whilst helping them protect their financial interests and investments. In addition the breed has a very characterful personality and is incredibly expressive, enabling us to convey lots of emotion within the brand and its marketing communications.

Apart from giving marketing a broad canvas and lots to work with, Shep and the new branding gives SDL a strong platform for growth and a unique brand differentiator within its market. Since the rebrand expansion is happening at a rapid pace. SDL has already gone on to acquire CP Bigwood, Graham Penny and most recently Humphreys of Chester, the new brand structure allowing these businesses to ‘hit the ground running’ under the new SDL name.

You can hear group Commercial Director, Rob Clifford discussing the brand here.

To find out more about how WDA’s unique brand marketing approach can help your business grow please get in touch with our Business Development Manager Anna on 01332 372 728 or e-mail directly on anna@marketing.dev-wda.com

SDL - Shepherd Direct ReBrand - WDA

SDL - Shepherd Direct ReBrand - WDA

Derby Telegraph Awards finalists WDA Branding Derby and Hannells Estate Agents have announced an exciting new partnership which started when the two businesses shared a table at the event hosted by Paul Ross back in June.

“It was over a glass or two of champagne and an excellent dinner that myself and Hannells MD Ben Brain struck up a conversation, first about our shared passion for the gym, before inevitably starting to chat about business” said WDA’s Lee Waterhouse.

“Ben explained how Hannells’ unique customer service approach had helped put the business into the enviable position of Derby’s most successful estate agency (Hannells currently help more people move in Derby than any other agent).

He was keen to know more about how our own unique brand marketing approach might help with his ambitious plans to push the company to the next level.”

Since that evening WDA and Hannells have struck up a partnership and WDA is now busy working on creating a brand positioning geared towards driving sales by making a hero of the great customer experience they have become renowned for.

WDA’s strategic and creative input supports an ambitious growth plan aimed at taking Hannells into exciting new areas, and generating new jobs across the county.

The Annual Telegraph Awards have proven not just a great platform for recognising Derby business achievements but also facilitating closer relationships between quality Derbyshire businesses” Said Ben Brain.

This story first appeared on the Derby Telegraph website

WDA are excited to announce the launch of a major rebrand for a-one commercial cleaners, designed to reflect the company’s ethos of delivering industry leading customer service and give the business real stand-out to elevate their marketing and communications above their competitors.

A-one are a company who pride themselves in delivering a first–rate service that comes second to none. As Joe Hunnam, MD and founder tells us;

“We’re called a-one because we do an a-one job! Having built up this reputation over the years by going above and beyond the call of duty to deliver very tangible service advantages over those offered by other firms. However, we didn’t feel this difference was being communicated effectively through our marketing which is why we approached WDA.

We first became aware of WDA through their re-brand of Derby County’s new gym Funktion Fitness, as a-one have their cleaning contract, and myself and my son Danny (who runs the business with Joe) are also members there. When compared to other gym’s in the region we felt the brand identity WDA had created gave Funktion real stand-out and a very strong, clear appeal to its target audience – two things we really wanted to achieve for a-one.”

With this in mind, WDA designed a fresh and bold new visual identity with the new brand positioning of ‘No One Compares’ to underline a-one’s stated service advantages; and also to compliment and reinforce the ‘a-one’ name.

The re-branding was then applied to their new website (also built by WDA), which you can see by clicking this link. Additionally, the new look has been applied to signage and vehicle livery (shown above – you’re certainly not going to miss that driving round the streets of Derby!) and a range of fully branded uniforms, which we hope you’ll agree makes these two gentleman look pretty smart!

“The a-one re-brand is a great example of how effective brand marketing can strongly differentiate a business operating in what many would consider a commodity market” said WDA’s Lee Waterhouse “This project was all about change customer perceptions about cleaning by highlighting that ‘not all cleaning companies are the same’ – and in fact, with a-one – no-one compares!”

 www.a-oneclean.com 

WDA are  just back in the office after a very successful morning at the Annual Love Business East Midlands event at Donington Park, and despite having missed out on a fast lap in the Fiat we can report a great vibe of optimism amongst the East Midlands Businesses we spoke to.

WDA attended 2 workshops – the first an early morning ‘Social Media’ workshop, followed by a ‘Marketing Tricks Of The Trade’ workshop hosted by Marketing Derby’s John Forkin. Both sessions were delivered by some great speakers and both ignited some lively debate and contributions from the floor, with WDA voicing our own feelings on the shifting demographics of those engaging with the most popular social networks.

The speakers too were very upbeat about economic prospects for the region when asked about their outlook for 2014:

“I think that generally there is much more confidence around”
Chris Rose, Head Of Brand, Leicester Tigers

“We are seeing much more movement in the economy right now, and I am more confident in raising funds to open my new Shoreditch restaurant!
Adam Simmonds, Michelin Star Chef

“The city is still buzzing from the recent news of Bondholder Bombardier’s £1 Billion Crossrail Contract”
John Forkin, Marketing Derby