Dean and Donaldson

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Since founding Dean and Donaldson in 2023, our clients have ranged across a wide variety of sectors, from boutique start-ups through to a well-established plc.

Thank you for an absolutely fantastic job. My first proposition development task and you made me look amazing. Your de-brief was thorough, considered and detailed. Your delivery was flawless and I hope you picked up on how well it was received, THANK YOU!  

CMO, Asset Management Company

Our work

Since launching Dean & Donaldson in 2023, we have undertaken a diverse range of projects, from conducting a marketing and communications review for a news publication to developing a full marketing and communications strategy for an alternative investment management business.

Archer Evrard Sigurdsson

Using our unique Day In the Life methodology, we worked with the partners and all their colleagues to develop a vision statement and ten year manifesto to inspire and guide the business going forward.

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Hampden Capital

Working closely with the senior management team, we developed, tested out and resourced an entirely new strategy leaving them with a shared vision, brand values, brand positioning, a set of key messages, a revised sales process and a new head of marketing.

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The Knowledge

By digging in to all their existing data and reviewing their existing marketing activity, we were able to make recommendations around the strategic direction, efficiency of spend and anticipated levels of success with additional suggested routes for monetisation.

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Previous Projects

A selection of case studies from projects we have worked on in our roles prior to setting up Dean & Donaldson.

Context

The original vision statement no longer described the company’s long term goals or galvanised the workforce effectively.

Objective

The CEO wanted to articulate a vision that would reflect their ambitions, and at the same time inspire and unite the rapidly increasing number of people working for the organisation.

Approach

We ensured buy in across the organisation by inviting input from a wide range of people: all members of the board and senior management a selection of employees ensuring a range of seniority, roles, gender and length of time at the company.

Using a methodology which frees people up to think creatively and paint a detailed picture of the future as they would like to see it, we could then compress all the thinking into a concise statement that genuinely reflected everyone’s ambitions for the business.

Outcome

The resulting statement captured the essence of the company’s philosophy in a way that made it simple for people to apply the long term ambition to their day to day roles.

Context

The company had struggled to capture the core characteristics that described how their business was different from competitors.

Objective

They wanted to revisit their ten original values and refine these down to a much smaller, more memorable number that captured the most important and unique aspects of the company.

Approach

After consulting widely within the organisation, with customers and potential customers and analysing competitors, we were able to identify five brand values that everyone agreed captured what was different about the company.

We then ensured that these values were properly embedded by:

  • adjusting the HR strategy so that employees were inducted and assessed against the values.
  • highlighting operational areas of the business that needed adjusting to ensure a consistent on brand customer experience.
  • creating a network of brand ambassadors and an internal communications plan to keep the brand front of mind.
  • devising an annual awards ceremony to publicly acknowledge employees who went above and beyond to deliver on the values.

Outcome

A set of truly unique, authentic and embedded values that will continue to build brand preference amongst customers and employees.

Context

Having focused for many years on a niche segment of the marketplace, the business wanted to offer their services to a much wider audience.

Objective

They needed to change perceptions of the business and broaden its appeal by finding a core idea that would make them significantly more attractive to this wider audience.

Approach

Working closely with the CEO and a trusted design agency, we developed three potential brand positioning ideas.

These ideas were rigorously tested out amongst clients, potential clients, key intermediaries and internal stakeholders.

The feedback was used to produce further iterations until we found the core idea, expressed visually and verbally, that everyone from the Board down agreed was perfect for the company

Outcome

That core idea is still the one that’s expressed on the home page of the company’s website today.

Context

The division had become much less profitable due to increasing costs, products that were not priced to reflect these costs and a product range that was not tailored effectively to the needs of different customers within their target audience.

Objective

The division head wanted to develop a coherent, effectively priced product range that would allow them to retain existing profitable clients, win back clients lost to competitors and attract new clients.

Approach

Our first step was to form a working group made up of members from across the whole organisation to ensure that we made best use of all available expertise and ensure buy in to the project.

Working closely with the division head and working group members, we came up with a provisional range of three new products.

The new product range and pricing was then rigorously tested out amongst existing clients, previous clients and potential clients.

The division head then used the findings to present his case to the Board for creating the new product range.

Outcome

The three new products were launched a year later and according to the division head, they have “been a great success”.

Context

If potential customers haven’t heard of your brand, or have perceptions that you don’t offer a service that’s relevant to them personally, then they are much less likely to consider buying from you.

Objective

The CEO wanted every potential customer to be aware of the company and all the services they provided so that they would be considered as a potential provider.

Approach

In parallel with developing the organisation’s brand values, brand positioning and key messages, we assessed all existing marketing activity and which combination of existing and new channels would be the most effective ways to reach the potential customers.

This was all incorporated into a comprehensive document providing a 5 year strategy and implementation plan for the business with specific targets set against each strand of activity.

Outcome

A marketing plan that was assessed by an independent specialist consultancy as being “far in advance of any of the work we see from our other clients across the sector.”

Context

A well known global investment company was aware that they were losing market share to competitors.

Objective

The company needed to understand current perceptions of their brand in relation to other investment companies so they they could re-position themselves to gain competitive advantage.

Approach

A series of in-depth interviews across European markets with institutional investors to explore:

  • general perceptions of the global property marketplace in each territory
  • the key factors influencing choice or recommendation of fund managers for property investments
  • awareness and perception of fund managers for property investments operating in each territory
  • perceptions of the key players in terms of reputation, product offering, investment performance, financial strength, quality of funds, fund managers, position in the market, outlook and service.

Outcome

Based on a detailed understanding of how they compared with competitors, the client was able to develop a positioning that helped them close the gap between them and their competitors.

Context

Anecdotal evidence suggested that there were misconceptions about the service offered by the company and a generally low awareness of the brand amongst the wider target audience.

Objective

The client wanted statistically robust data to confirm how the company was perceived, awareness and consideration levels amongst the target audience and how that compared with competitors.

A second important objective was to use this data to set a future target so that the management team could assess their return on investment in marketing and communications.

Approach

After putting out a brief to a number of potential providers, a bespoke survey was conducted by the selected supplier amongst a sufficiently large number of the client’s target audience to provide robust data.

Outcome

The client knew exactly what percentage of their target market were aware of the brand, how their brand and competitor brands were perceived, which factors influence the target audience’s decision to consider a brand and which marketing and media channels were most likely to be effective.

Context

After sourcing specialist experience and expertise to transform the marketing capability of the organisation, the client was in a position to employ someone at the right level of seniority to head up the marketing department.

Objective

To employ someone who would build on all the work done so far and help maintain the company’s pace of growth, at a salary level commensurate with the skills required.

Approach

Working with the management team, COO and HR department, we agreed the recruitment criteria for a permanent head of marketing.

We then created a shortlist of three candidates to be interviewed by the CEO and Managing Director.

Outcome

The selected candidate took on the role and continues to evolve the company’s marketing and communication activity to support its growth ambitions.