Nick Eades, chief marketing officer, Psion
Nick Eades is the chief marketing officer of Psion, a London-based company specialising in rugged mobile computers, software and service. Psion was found in 1980 and is a public company on the London Stock Exchange. While its headquarters are in London, the company has their corporate offices located in Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Africa.
Eades joined Psion in 2009. His career in technology marketing spans more than 20 years. He started at IMB in the early 1980’s where he spent a decade in a range of technical and brand marketing roles. As the brand manager for IBM’s ThinkPad, he oversaw IBM’s recovery in the mobile business in the United Kingdom.
After IBM, Eades moved to Dell where, as UK marketing director, the company grew to be the United Kingdom’s number one IT vendor. Dell’s leadership in all things online helped Eades transform Psion into the open innovation leader it is today.
Rebranding Psion
When Eades joined Psion, the company was facing an identity crisis. Ten years earlier, Psion had acquired a company called Teklogix. At the time, the decision was made to call the company by a combined name, Psion Teklogix. The company had shuffled through a variety of CEOs – none stayed for more than five years. It was apparent to Eades that no one had invested in the Psion Teklogix brand.
Eades headed up a research project examining how the company’s website was being accessed and how people were accessing the company through social media and online searches. The research confirmed Eades’ belief – Psion Teklogix had a brand problem.
In the United Kingdom and Germany, the company was referred to as Psion. The French referred to the company as Teklo, and those in North America called it Teklogix. This confusion translated to the internet where people were using a variety of search terms to find Psion Teklogix.
Armed with this research, Eades decided to reinvest in the brand and revitalise the company’s philosophy. The company shortened its name to Psion, but didn’t want to return to the old Psion logo.
Eades wanted the logo communicate Psion’s new company philosophy, open source mobility. Open Source Mobility (OSM) is the combination of three fundamental elements:
- Modularity
- Open Innovation
- Customisation
OSM is designed to deliver the best lifetime title cost of ownership, coupled with unparalleled choice and flexibility for customers, unique differentiation opportunities for Psion partners and a truly open and collective approach to innovation, quality and service.
Wanting to incorporate these elements, Eades made the Psion logo more of an icon than a traditional logo. The logo is made of modules to emphasise Psion’s new dedication to modularity and to reflect that all of Psion’s customers are different with different needs and priorities. The logo doesn’t have a color but has a shiny mirror surface. The mirror points to Psion’s OSM business philosophy and open innovation concept in which Psion encourages its customers, partners and employees to collaborate and create new solutions together.
Digital influence
In order to make the most impact with Psion’s new business philosophy and rebranding, Eades turned to the new digital world. When Psion announced its rebranding in January 2011, Psion’s social media networking website, IngenuityWorking.com, was outfitted with a video explaining the rebranding and an online pressroom where the media, customer or partners could download the new Psion logo.
The rebranding launch was a success. The announcement resulted in dozens of media placements across the globe, reaching tens of thousands of readers while Psion employees, customers and partners embraced the new name and look. The rebranding has cut down on confusion both internally and externally.
Today, Eades continues to embrace the evolving world of marketing. He launched several initiatives in 2010 aimed at making Psion a force in the digital world. Eades has a blog on Psion’s social networking website, IngenuityWorking.com, where he discusses current marketing initiatives and gathers feedback about campaigns already in place.
Eades also made sure to get all of Psion involved. Every Psion employee has a Twitter handle and all have become active on IngenuityWorking.com. To help support Psion’s social media initiatives, Eades created the position of Head of Social Media to help brainstorm new social media ideas and monitor this ever growing space.
“When I joined Psion it was a time of great change and excitement,” said Jonathan Brayshaw, global leader, digital communications and social business at Psion. “Nick found a way to fully integrate Psion’s message across all platforms including social media. He led by example, tweeting company news and engaging Psion’s customers on his blog.”
Eades has also put a new emphasis on webinars. He found that Psion’s email blasts were being neglected and resulted in few leads, but the webinars, in conjunction with Psion’s case studies, have helped the company interact and begin a conversation with potential customers and partners.
Psion has undergone a dramatic transformation in this past year from transforming its brand to reinventing its business philosophy.
“Nick has been instrumental in guiding Psion down this new, exciting path,” said John Conoley, CEO of Psion. “His creativity and forward thinking has transformed Psion into a digitally-integrated company that’s doing things never before done in the industry. Without Nick, Psion’s transition would not have been so smooth or so dramatic.”
Eades’ efforts have led to a happier customer and partner base and stronger sales. This winter Psion unveiled its new, rugged PDA, the EP10. By spring, the EP10 had received an unprecedented level of pre-orders amounting to more than 7,000 units.
