Dean and Donaldson

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We combine our skillsets to help clients, whatever their size or sector, develop a marketing strategy that will accelerate growth.

Clare changed the dial in terms of what we do and what we’ve achieved in marketing, communications and the brand.  

Roger Weatherbys, Chairman, Weatherbys Private Bank

“If you don’t design your future you have to accept the one that turns up”

Rita Clifton, Former London CEO and former UK Chairman of Interbrand

If your staff know where they are heading they will be more engaged, motivated and productive.

But creating a vision can be challenging and often fails, for one of three reasons.

Firstly the people involved find it hard to agree and get preoccupied with wordsmithing a concise statement.

Secondly the process hasn’t been designed to engage effectively with everyone inside the organisation.

And lastly, the detailed work to identify how that vision is going to be delivered and used to inform business planning doesn’t get done.

At Dean & Donaldson we know how to make this a simple, straightforward and successful exercise.

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

Winston Churchill

Markets are changing faster than ever before influenced by technology, regulation, new competitors and consumer behaviour. So companies need to keep adapting and refining their proposition.

Newer companies may not have their proposition quite right – it’s not yet meeting customer needs or comparing unfavourably with competitors.

If your growth strategy involves diversification, merging or acquisition, you will need to develop a new proposition or amalgamate several propositions.

All of us at Dean & Donaldson have first hand experience of adapting and refining existing propositions and creating new ones.

“If more executives understood the economics of customer behaviour and the power of brand preference they would be better armed to generate better financial performance.”

Forbes

A strong brand doesn’t just create brand preference amongst consumers, it will help you attract and retain the best talent.

Whatever your strategy for growth, your brand and how you harness the power of your brand will be key to your success.

We have extensive experience of working with leadership teams to define, redefine and permanently embed brand values.

Embedding brand values so that they foster a good company culture and ensure people deliver a consistent, brand focused customer experience is difficult. We know, from our experience of working inside businesses, how to to do this successfully.

“There are only two things in a business that make money - innovation and marketing. Everything else is cost.”

Peter F Drucker

It doesn’t make sense commercially for small to mid size companies to employ the most senior marketing personnel.

However, what those companies often need is someone with that level of firepower to help devise the strategy, decide how to track results, and provide support in the initial stages of planning and executing campaigns.

We can also help you define the resource you need, hire, mentor or specify training for members of your existing team.

"Blackstone is now using its brand strategy to inform decision-making at the C-suite level and as a mandate for everyone within the organization."

Steve Schwarzman, CEO, Blackstone Group

Our people expertise provides two key benefits for our clients. The first is related to building a strong brand. The second is related to ensuring your marketing capability is supported by the right resource.

To build a strong brand companies need to translate their brands successfully into employee behaviour.

Companies will only embed their values successfully if they use them to recruit, train, assess and reward their people.

Our people experts also work alongside our marketing experts to define the resource clients need to develop their marketing capability and support the process of hiring or training members of your existing team.

"If you are using the same data, the same insights and the same analyses as the other companies in your sector, you are basically relying on being luckier than everyone else.”

Helen Viera, Editor, LSE Business Review

Research, insight and analytics stand at the heart of any successful marketing strategy.

An up to date and in depth understanding of your key stakeholders and your marketplace as a whole is what gives a business the insights and facts to create, articulate and communicate a customer proposition that gives you competitive advantage.

Without market research you will be making decisions based largely on instinct and anecdotal information.

Whether you need a better understanding of your clients and potential clients, or to segment your customer base, assess the effectiveness of campaigns, understand your position in the marketplace, or test out a new product we can specify the correct methodology and either commission or conduct the research ourselves.