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Executive Team Coaching

A solid brand foundation rarely ever comes from a single mind - no matter how smart. The very nature of organisations and the necessity of consistency make Brand development a team game.

That's why I'm augmenting 20 years of experience managing effective teams with the most prestigious relational team coaching course available - a Masters in Executive Coaching at Ashridge Hult.

As part of my Masters, I'm willing to offer my team coaching skills to organisations seeking to make a positive impact in the world, pro bono.

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Are you hungry to build on your success in pursuit of the exceptional?

 

Such aspirations require subtle yet pervading refinements around your single most valuable asset - Brand.

 

With over 20 years experience developing, nurturing and redefining multiple brands for one of the greatest success stories in the Music Technology industry, I’ve been there. Done that.

 

Let me conduct a swift analysis of your business through the Brand lens, interpreting data captured through a proven yet swift, internal 30 minute survey.

 

I’ll identify key areas for improvement, and develop a prioritised plan of action to develop a solid brand foundation; one capable of delivering the exceptional.

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Brand Consultancy
Specific Services and Solutions
It's gonna be the next big thing.

Launch Strategy

 

Who is the customer? Why should they care?

These two questions need succinct answers early, yet they're often defined in the closing stages, or worse, meander and change as the solution dictates the question.

A new launch is the single most powerful influencer on your Brand, and vice versa.

Get the brand foundation right, and the product launch flows effortlessly.


Get the launch strategy on point and it reinforces your Brand foundation.

Positioning and Promise

 

Is your solution truly distinct from the competition in the eyes of your target audience?
 

Is it memorable?
       Does it resonate? 

                    Do they care? 

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Through intelligent auditing of outbound comms, a psychologically-informed review of existing community conversations, specifying behavioural research that gets beyond what your customers think they think, to offer a glimpse at what they actually feel, and a well-facilitated creative process, together we can find the best positioning and promise for your brand.

Why can’t we cut through? 
“But what’s the point?” they ask.

Essence and Purpose

 

Beyond receiving a salary and driving profits for the business, can you honestly say ‘why’ your company exists in a way that inspires your team to passionately go above and beyond? If you search back in time, there was a point when you had answers to these questions, but that time is probably long gone, and now you’re not alone. Your people need a sense of purpose. But you can’t dictate purpose, then expect it to embed in your culture without involvement. The process needs to be inclusive and considered. That brings problems with it too, but handled correctly, a jointly developed expression of your ‘why’ will always stand the test of time.

We just can’t seem to connect.

Personality and Identity

 

At our very souls, we’re social beings. We buy-in to people we connect with, at a wholly subconscious level. We develop a level of trust that enables our brains to make swift decisions in life. That comfort comes from a sense of feeling we understand them. So it is with brands. Humanising a brand helps drive a subconscious connection between it and the community engaging with it. Creating the right personality for your brand will creates trust. With the right process, you can create a personality that resonates ,internally and externally, building trust and driving profits, year on year.

The same brand, a sub-brand,
or a new brand?

Architecture and naming

 

You’ve got a new product or service, or perhaps a new range or solution. You’ve identified your target audience. Now it’s come to naming it, but how do you go about that to ensure the best chance of success? What’s in a name? A whole heap of meaning, some of which you may not be aware. Asking the right questions, in the right way, can often make the difference between your innovations falling completely flat, or transforming the business. This isn’t a beauty contest, and please don’t slip into the battle of hilarious wits. The right name is not based on how clever you can be. Understanding your long term strategic goals will have a huge influence on how you name products, services and entities, with an architecture that reinforces those goals and helps you to realise your vision. The right architecture will make future naming conundrums a breeze.

We’re growing so fast - our brand identity is out of control?

Guardianship

 

It’s a wonderful feeling isn’t it, growing at this pace. The intensity often fuels excitement and draws attention outwards as you steadfastly pursue growth. Meanwhile, the cracks are starting to set in. It’s a rot that will ultimately be the demise of your business. Representatives are starting to behave in a way that you would never consider if you were in their position, but you haven’t got time to pause and take control. Left untouched, this hodgepodge of off-brand activities will quickly develop a distrust that can spread like wildfire; and like wildfire, it’s incredibly hard to control. With the right tools and the right guidance, you can get everybody acting as one again, with your brand’s identity intact. Create the wrong tools, and you quell the passion that has fuelled the growth you’ve come to rely on.

We need a plan.

Strategic facilitation

 

Saying a definitive ‘yes’ to one thing, and no to all the others, is clichéd because it works. It’s also really hard. Are you asking the right questions? Have you truly understood your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. Do you really understand where you are today, where you hope to go tomorrow and why you’re best placed to take that journey?  It’s easier to do this on your own, but when you’re working in a team, how can you be sure everyone is bought in? That everyone believes? Good strategic and inclusive facilitation draws out the answers from within, establishing a considered strategy with ownership and clear timelines, actions and tactics, all aligned with the business’s overarching vision. 

We’re losing great talent. Why?

Employee Engagement

 

You’ve defined your business purpose, beyond simply profit. Perhaps you’ve even done it in an inclusive and considered manner, finding ways to embed the words into your modus operandi. But what good are those words without meaning? What good is saying, without doing? You may be living your purpose outside of your four walls, but are you really enabling your people to live it too? It takes careful consideration and planning to enable a purpose to be truly lived, and a huge degree of commitment to keep living it when the pressure’s on. But if you don’t, pretty soon the engaged become disengaged, and before you know it, actively disengaged and committed to disrupting your success. Create a culture where you’re as committed to your purpose inside as you are out, and you’ll retain the rising stars of today whilst attracting the top performers of tomorrow.

We thought we understood what
our customers wanted.

Customer Insights

 

The honest truth is, your customers don’t know what they want. At least not consciously. They’ll offer you a rational expression of what they think they need, but in their behaviour lies another story. Truths and real insights that have the potential to truly propel your business forward. Market research is a much maligned space, and for good reason. It’s only through studying people’s actions that we can start to get anywhere close to predicting the future. Together, we'll review the behavioural data you’ve got, create one-off experiments with a clear goal, and develop future-proofed systems that have the potential of transforming your business, creating real insights you can trust. Position customer understanding at the center of your business, and you’ll never do another pointless survey again.

We’re delivering for everyone,
and no one, at the same time.

Segmentation & Persona Creation

 

Segmentation is data science. Persona creation is art. Neither are a true representation of this crazy world we live in, but both are extremely powerful tools for developing focus in a growing business environment. Avoid the pitfalls and unnecessary, misleading research, and focus instead on a segmentation that’s fit for purpose for your business today. Meanwhile, being goal and audience-oriented in persona creation can ensure your team truly engage as one, placing personas at the center of their creative and innovative, customer-focussed endeavours. Let’s work together to create the right segmentation and persona portfolio for you.

Creative teams just never
seem to deliver

Effective Creative briefing

 

The issue here isn’t the creative team. Sorry. It’s you. If your brand’s creative often seems to fall flat and fails to cut through, it’s almost always because you’re failing to deliver the ultimate brief; a brief that can inspire even the most inexperienced creative minds to unleash their full potential.

Delivering a creative brief that achieves this is an art form, but equally, a process that can be taught. Don’t sack your creative agency, but don’t allow mediocre creative out the doors either. Be brave enough to look inwards and refine your own leadership chops. I’ll work with you to help get the best out of your creative team - and reignite the excitement that comes from inspiring others to lose themselves in delivering inspirational creative with the power to transform your business.

We want more socially responsible, but everything we try falls flat.

Corporate Social Responsibility

 

The world is changing. We’re in the age of the rising B-Corp. Consumers expect more from brands than simply a product or service that delivers. They expect brands to have a higher social conscience and they’re increasingly voting with their wallets. Whether you’re looking to adhere to increased government legislation, or you want to appeal to the growing socially conscious populace, or perhaps you just want to do good, corporate social responsibility is a complex world, fraught with PR nightmares and marketing gone wrong. Get it right however, and you can have a new positive impact on the planet, the local community, your own employees, and equally as important, your profits.  Corporate Social Responsibility doesn’t have to be solely a cost center. Together, we can navigate these waters and turn social good into a win for everyone.

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