The security industry as Douglas Greenwell, director of marketing for UK security at Group 4 Securicor, readily admits has historically had something of an image problem. Firms providing security guards and associated personnel are seen as occupying the low-paid and low-skilled end of the economy, staffed predominantly by ex-police officers and with little customer service expertise. People think of nightclub bouncers when they think of security, says Greenwell. It has a tarnished image. In short, it is perceived as a world away from the nimble, sophisticated, value-adding 21st century business service.
However, these negative perceptions look set to be swept away, as a result of two key developments. Firstly, the implementation of the Private Security Industry Act, which will regulate the industry for the first time, and requires all operators to be licensed, thereby driving higher standards and professionalism. Secondly and arguably more importantly the merger of the two largest players Group 4 and Securicor was concluded last year, creating a market leader with a dominant market share and a clear remit to galvanise and expand the industry, developing and exploiting new opportunities.
Responsibility at Group 4 Securicor for this ambitious task falls to Douglas Greenwell, a marketer with an impressive B2B pedigree, and whose enthusiasm for the task is considerable. It’s a wonderful opportunity, he says. We are the clear market leader so we are not threatened, therefore the market is coming to us. We can change perceptions of the whole industry.
The merger of Group 4 Falck and Securicor has created the largest security company in the UK, with a turnover of £830 million and 22,000 staff. The new company is split into three divisions: Justice, which handles related activities such as PFI prisons, tagging and immigration services; Cash, which deals with logistics and counting of currency; and Security, which with 16,000 staff and £360 million turnover is the company’s largest business in the UK (although its US security operation is larger).
Greenwell explains that the range of the security business’s operations is extremely diverse. Of our 16,000 staff, 15,500 are front-line security officers, he says. Security encompasses everything from the man at your office reception, to patrol officers, CCTV monitoring, retail security both instore and behind-the-scenes for companies including Tesco and Boots and event security, the jewel in the crown of which is the Wimbledon championships.
The customer-facing nature of such high-profile contracts means that far from this work being low skilled and low profile, its importance is considerable and has a serious emphasis on customer service and management. The first person you see when you come in the gates at Wimbledon is security, so we have to protect the brand and service reputation. We are integral to the whole event. This is also reflected in its retail work. Conflict resolution skills are very important staff must avoid manhandling individuals wherever possible.
The marketing challenge for Greenwell is to communicate this existing but unrecognised expertise and the importance of the services provided to the wider market to break down negative preconceptions of security. This in turn will enable the business to expand into new areas. It is a far more complex and ultimately ambitious approach than simply rebranding the newly merged business and carrying on as before indeed, the launch of a new brand has been postponed until the merger has been structurally and ideologically realised.
Greenwell explains: Relaunching was not at the top of the agenda customer service is king. Historically, the industry had a poor customer service record, which resulted in churn of up to 40 per cent. This meant companies had to focus on sales to keep their heads above water. Our managers must understand that service is paramount without that we are nothing.
He says ramping up customer service will not only impact on retention, it will enable Group 4 Securicor to differentiate itself from competitors and charge a premium. We must correlate price with value this will enable customers to understand what they are paying for. Our challenge is to be the IBM of the security world. As a result, internal communication was the initial priority, although the first fruits of a rebranding project are expected in the spring.
Greenwell took up his role as director of marketing for UK security in June 2003, having joined the company in 2000 in a group product development role. He says that marketing in the security sector has historically been poor. The audience was not sophisticated and marketing was thought to be just about brochures. Previously the security business had a joint head of sales and marketing, but the emphasis was clearly on sales, he comments, explaining that his remit is explicitly marketing-focused.
As well as establishing a team, I identified four primary objectives: to raise our profile in the industry; to develop a public affairs programme; to increase our market intelligence; and to bring new products to market, Greenwell adds.
The first of these, the profile-raising exercise, focused on a PR campaign through national media on general security issues, has proved particularly successful. We wanted to dominate the trade press and the wider security agenda, explains Greenwell. PR activity has focused on driving security-related stories in national print and broadcast media, and succeeded in getting prominent coverage in tabloid and broadsheet newspapers through a survey on shoplifting during 2004. It was followed up with stories on rail and event security. We have created the PR agenda for security. The idea was to get us out there and make people associate us with security, and to get journalists to call us whenever they want comment on the subject.
The public affairs element of Greenwell’s objectives stems from some negative fallout that the company suffered as a result of 9/11, and the fact that Securicor’s US operation had been tasked with security at the airports involved in some of the hijackings. We wanted to get our story across [to the powers that be]. The agenda was twofold: to tell people who we are, what we do and get them to understand our importance to the economy; to tackle the impact of legislation such as the Working Time Directive, the Minimum Wage and the EU Services Directive.
Greenwell is adamant that public affairs are a core component of marketing’s role within an organisation. Public affairs is not a day-to-day issue; it is about thinking 6-12 months ahead. It is marketing as strategy, or anticipating what will happen in the industry. This is doubly important since the merger as we are clear market leader and now define the market. We must think longer term.
Market intelligence has been something that Greenwell has identified as being distinctly lacking at Group 4 Securicor in the past, and constitutes his third objective. At best, we knew who our key competitors were. But market intelligence should be about more than just rehashing the information on their website: it should be about informing the sales team. Greenwell has also insisted on a greater understanding of the market as a whole, its size and segmentation.
Greenwell’s fourth and final objective is focused on product management, and is arguably the most important component as it is the area which will most directly enable Group 4 Securicor to grow. He says previously the company had been good at developing new ideas but was not focused on rolling these out. Hence he is determined to address this. There are two challenges here. Firstly, to take a neat idea that we have sold to one customer, and develop it for the wider market. Secondly, entering new markets by finding new niches, develop and build products which address existing needs. He describes the community wardens programme the company runs with Brent Council as an example of this.
Achievement of all objectives is overseen by a security marketing team, which Greenwell describes as a triumvirate, feeding in to sales and product development, and headed by himself.
The clarity and structure of approach with which Greenwell outlines his objectives and tactics aimed at achieving them is impressive, and is partly a result of his academic background in science; unusual for a marketer.
But although he enjoyed studying Computer Science & Physics at the University of Surrey, he says the option to pursue either subject as a career was not appealing. I never really saw myself in a lab, and did a sandwich year at IBM in a technical marketing role, he explains. When I graduated, I took a marketing opportunity at Reuters, helping to market trading systems.
Greenwell then moved to Dow Jones markets and then to American Express, both furthering his product development expertise, and was head-hunted to take up the new post of head of product development at Securicor in 2000 by former boss Mike Rutter (then director of marketing and now at Flybe).
Whilst he rejected a career in science, Greenwell believes the analytical approach instilled in him at university has been a huge benefit in his progression in marketing, and could be employed to benefit the industry at a wider level. He suggests that too often marketers are irrational or become too easily distracted from the fundamentals, and says this was particularly evident in his time at American Express. They spend a lot of money on researching a product, but had little structure on how to execute it. There was lots of ‘bluesky’ thinking without much reality. In my view there are only really three things you need to know in marketing: How big is the market? How do we sell to it? How do we service it?
This very experience appears to have been critical in the change in Group 4 Securicor’s strategy to decentralise product development, and his acceptance of the marketing directorship of the security business in 2003. As he says: We deployed ourselves within the business to make things happen.
Greenwell contends that B2B is more scientific than B2C, and therefore has more to gain in terms of a scientific approach. Consumer marketing is behaviourally driven, focusing on trends and fashions. The B2B sector is more market driven. As a result, he says, a thorough understanding of the market, and its needs, is essential.
Too often B2B marketing fails because of a lack of proper understanding and modelling, Greenwell continues The lynchpin is a good understanding of numbers and the importance of KPIs. To be a good B2B marketer you have to be robust and analytical. The challenge for B2B companies is to find these individuals.
Greenwell’s scientific approach to marketing looks likely to pay dividends for Group 4 Securicor’s security operation, and as a consequence will be a key factor in turning perceptions of the security industry on their head.
For the future, Greenwell’s ambitions go beyond his current role. My near term aspiration is to be MD of a business. I believe marketers make good MD/CEOs, and heard a statistic that 21 per cent of FTSE100 companies have CEOs that were marketers. Doubtless there are a few companies who could benefit from this approach at an MD level.
Related articles
Or use our enhanced search functionality to find other related articles
Click here to search and apply for the latest B2B Marketing Jobs
