The importance of staff in delivery of brand promise has been touted so often in the pages of this magazine that it almost seems like a cliché. But despite this, internal engagement with brand is something which too few organisations appear able to pay any more than lip service to. All too often, it’s an objective that gets forgotten about in preoccupation with external communications and the race for ROI.
Annabel Pritchard, brand manager at Deloitte, comments, “Branding in professional services is very different from FMCG. Our people are our brand. Their behaviour delivers and reinforces it. You can set expectations through sponsorship and advertising, but it’s the people who make the difference.”How refreshing then, to find in professional services firm Deloitte an organisation that is succeeding in getting its 11,000 employees to deliver the brand promise. Its steady rise up the industry league table from number six to two is proof of the success of this strategy, which was the critical factor in its recognition as the Best B2B Brand of 2007 by a panel of judges.
Brand transformation
Brand hasn’t always been high on Deloitte’s agenda, and being recognised as the Best B2B Brand of 2007 is the culmination of four year’s work to change the way the organisation thinks about itself and the role brand should play in its success. “The whole company has been on a journey,” agrees Pritchard. “In brand terms, it is unrecognisable from what it was four years ago.”
This journey began in 2003 when the company undertook a rebranding exercise to rationalise its various identities, responding to changes in the marketplace and providing a platform for growth. “We needed to bring the organisation together,” says Pritchard. “There were lots of different brands in the group with different cultures.” She adds that the company also took a strategic decision to retain its consulting arm, unlike its competitors which were spinning these off as separate companies. Deloitte needed an identity that could accommodate consulting alongside the audit, tax and corporate finance units.
Brand rationalisation
The new name for the firm did not represent a particularly radical change. The shortening of Deloitte & Touche to simply Deloitte may not have shaken the branding world to its foundations, but bearing in mind that the company operates in the professional services sector, where (particularly in the post-Enron world) stability and reliability are essential attributes, its caution is understandable. In any case, as Pritchard points out, the main objective was rationalisation and creating something more coherent.
However, more interesting was how the brand was expressed graphically: the logo uses a simple block type utilising a blue-based colour palate which is complemented by a green full stop. Pritchard says the subtle contrast between the two elements is more than just a clever piece of graphic design. “Our CEO describes our brand as ‘classic with a contemporary twist’. Blue is a trusted corporate colour, but we want to be seen as forward-looking and contemporary. The green dot is designed to communicate trust and the insight we bring to our clients. We want to be seen as quietly confident, not arrogant.”
The green dot is complemented on certain forms of literature by a bespoke ‘handwritten’ font. “This is designed to show our personality,” says Pritchard. “Most of our customers just see us as the project team that they work with.” The objective was to demonstrate the value that the larger organisation can bring.
Employee engagement
Reaction from the rank and file staff to what were (to the uninitiated) relatively subtle changes in 2003 was mixed, which perhaps was to be expected from an organisation made up largely of accountants, who are not the easiest to convince of the merits of branding.
But the development and launch of the new brand identity was the easy bit – what followed over the next four years was the communication of brand messaging to staff and customers and nurturing of employee engagement to ensure the brand promise is delivered. Doubtless a further key objective was to break down cynicism.
“The rebrand was very visual for the first couple of years, but it has moved on,” says Pritchard. “We’re still responsible for its visual aspects , but more significantly, we’re focused on getting people involved and understanding what makes Deloitte different.”
The challenge of communicating the brand starts at the very beginning of a Deloitte employee’s time at the organisation, featuring prominently within the two-day induction programme, which Pritchard says is part of a ‘cradle to grave’ approach to communications. This includes maintaining contact with Deloitte staff who’ve moved on, both to allow the company to benefit from future business opportunities which may emerge from these individuals in their new roles, and to keep the door open for staff to potentially return.
But of all the communication techniques, arguably the most significant one that Deloitte has used has been so-called brand champions. “We have 50 across the organisation, generally in management,” says Pritchard. “Their role is to help understand what is right and to consult with the business on this.” Information is cascaded down to these individuals through a variety of mediums, including a microsite, webinars and site visits by the brand team. “We rely on them,” says Pritchard.
The Holy Grail
So how successful has Deloitte been in engaging its employees and convincing them of the importance of brand? The company’s results speak for themselves. It achieved the largest growth in turnover of the big four in the financial year to March 2007, beating competitors by between five and ten per cent.
However, she also points out that sometimes it is the more senior personnel who are less accepting of the need for consistency in messaging. “I’ve been asked why we can’t use a red image [on our marketing], but I explained to them it would be like Chelsea going out one day wearing a red kit. We need to make them think about the bigger picture.” Generally she claims the picture is positive though. “People love the brand – everyone refers to the green dot, and they like the fact we have our own script.” This kind of engagement and passion, she says, is the “Holy Grail of professional services marketing.”Pritchard claims attitudes internally have changed significantly, in particular with regard to the five-strong brand team, and the role it plays in the organisation. “We’re no longer seen as the ‘logo cops’,” she says. “Before, people didn’t want to come to us [with questions about marketing] in case we said ‘no’, but this has switched through 180 degrees. Now most people see us as a function which they can call on to make their communications better.”
Dare to be different
Whilst this focus on the internal audience is fundamental, external has not been ignored. One of the things that most interested the judges in the Best B2B Brand competition was the extent to which the organisation has attempted to innovate in this objective, which is unusual in the professional services. There were two dimensions to this: outdoor and digital.
The company has attempted to take a similar approach to digital channels, using podcasts and text alerts to generate excitement and encourage interaction around key products such as its Football Money League report. Pritchard says this willingness to innovate will continue to be a feature of its marketing.Pritchard says, “We’re not the only professional services company that did outdoor advertising in 2007, but we thought about it carefully, and we probably spent more. The aim was to be different and bold. Advertising on the Imax is something usually associated with consumer brands, but Waterloo is also a prime location for commuters. At another location we took four billboards and put nothing on them (see p24). That was brave – it’s not what people expect from us – we want to be part of the Big Four, but also different.”
Olympian opportunities
Deloitte has come a long way in terms of its use of, and understanding of its brand and it is already reaping the benefits of this approach. Pritchard and her team have played a critical role in helping transform the company into one that is brand-centric, and will play a pivotal role in its development.
However, while great things have been achieved over the last three years, as of 2009 a new set of opportunities will open up for Deloitte, and with it a new set of challenges for its brand function. The company’s tier two sponsorship of the 2012 Olympics officially goes live at the beginning of next year, creating huge potential for Deloitte during the four-year run up to the London games. Whilst Pritchard is relishing the prospect of leveraging the power, reach and excitement of the Olympics – what marketer wouldn’t? – the rules surrounding the sponsorship deal preclude her from discussing any plans or proposals specifically.
What is clear is that far from the unveiling of the new corporate identity in 2003 being the end of the story of Deloitte’s rebrand, it was actually only the beginning, and much of the hard work is still to come.
