In light of the recent and high profile death of haulage legend Edward Stobart, Alex Aspinall investigates the incredible success of the iconic B2B brand
Few B2B brands boast a fan club, let alone one with over 25,000 members. But this is the level of brand buy-in Edward Stobart managed to create after taking the reins of his father’s haulage company. He is credited with transforming the industry in which the company operates and with creating one of the country’s most recognisable and best-loved B2B brands. And he did it without social media, marketing agencies and mobile apps.
So, what is the secret to Eddie Stobart’s success? Nick Ellis, creative director of Halo Media, says, “The Eddie Stobart haulage brand is strong simply because it captures the imagination of families travelling across motorways throughout the UK. It became part of the fabric of
‘I Spy’ games, lending a new twist to an old favourite by scoring a point for every Eddie Stobart lorry spotted. It helps bring entertainment into long journeys.”
This is clearly a huge benefit for Stobart, as is the merchandise, the fan club and naming the trucks. But these things should be seen more as advantageous consequences, rather than the reason for Eddie Stobart’s initial success. Buttressing the unique proposition of ‘Stobart spotting’ is something much more fundamental: a business concentrating on reliability, professionalism and differentiation. Laura Haynes, chairman of Appetite, says, “This brand grew from a single-minded vision and a passion to deliver differently and consistently: the things that every brand consultant will tell you is important. In this case, things that came naturally from Edward Stobart, the clear-sighted leader who turned a haulage company into a brand.
“He defined his product, its place in the market, its points of difference and what we now call the ‘customer journey’ in order to ensure that every touch point consistently differentiated the brand.”
Social and emotional
Once the proposition was in place, Stobart managed to add the ‘social’ element to its offering. This was unique. Long before people started forwarding to friends and tweeting, enthused members of the public (most of whom would never approach Stobart for business) were sharing their experiences of the brand, recounting tales of the number and names of the lorries they saw while out on their travels. And as for the neatly turned-out driver returning your wave each time, surely that’s one of the first examples of the customer being able to directly interact with a brand in real-time?
These very human aspects of the brand fostered a great affiliation between the public and what is still a B2B brand, something St John White, account director at Prova PR, describes as a rarity. “It usually happens by accident, as most businesses are focused on their core markets,” he reasons.
Congeniality goes a long way. Even the rationally-led thought processes of the average B2B buyer can’t help but be influenced by the positive sentiments the nation shares towards a certain choice. This view garners much support from the B2B marketing community.
David Bailey, creative director at Clock Creative, says, “I think it’s misguided to believe that emotional values aren’t a powerful influencer over rational ones in B2B marketing. Eddie Stobart succeeded – not just by offering a functional logistics service – but in the way it does it and the pride in which it’s carried out. The professional face and mindset of its drivers and sense of ‘belonging’ is a tribute to its internal relations about what the external facing values of the company represent.”
David Thomas, creative director at Base One, goes one step further, suggesting the commonly held psychological model of B2B buying and brand association is inaccurate (see charts, left). “There’s a strange assumption that the reasoning for buying can be seen as a big pie chart; some percentage – rational, and the remaining percentage, if there is any, emotional. There’s no sense in thinking that large rational demands can squeeze out room for emotions. Instead it’s more like two gauges, both of which could be up to the max on rational and emotional on half. Your offering could become a commodity and there’s not room for differentiation of service, when likeability would play a greater importance.”
Stobart is clearly a great example of this. If haulage brand X and Stobart both guaranteed their delivery times, it’s a fair bet that the significantly stronger Stobart
brand might place it in a favourable position when it comes to selecting which company gets your business.
Professional pride
Whether the Stobart brand was born of strategic marketing planning or a good management and happy coincidence is open to debate. But the key fact is the pride and importance the company places on providing a professional service.
As Sam Jordan, MD of brand consultancy Dave, points out, “It’s easy to decide to employ similar methods to the ones Eddie Stobart has harnessed. To be successful requires amazing leadership and exceptional skill in executing this direction. You have to start with what’s important and build out.”
The Stobart model offers all marketers a valuable lesson. Julian French, strategic planner at IAS B2B Marketing, says, “Edward Stobart was successful because he embodied the two elements that make any business persuasive, compelling and marketable: great strategy and functionality combined with very strong emotional appeal.”
