For great times to return, we realise that we have to do all we can to make them great right now.
This is why ‘Marching Forward’ is our new mantra at the loft.
Tag: branding
24
Feb
Feb
Good afternoon beautiful people!!
We’ve just started the process of getting our design and branding portfolio in order for 2020 which (and we’re not kidding) means going back a couple of years to start getting some of those lovely, lovely creative projects organised and ready to present – this is just a snapshot and rest assured, we’re just scratching the surface. #WatchThisSpace #DesignWithSoul #PowerOfIdeas #Inspiration #Collaboration #VisualDrama #MakingMagicHappenEverySingleDay #theloft
Benedetto
Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.
‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.
He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.
His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder and Creative Director of the loft, a branding consultancy in Glasgow.
He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business
27
Apr
Apr
It’s kind of unbelievable to think, but on the 27th of April 2012, I got the Companies House certificates e-mailed from our accountant and the loft was officially born.
7 years ago today.
It’s been an incredible journey and if somebody had told me what the future would hold, I would have thought they were absolutely mad! So I wanted to take a moment and celebrate the 7 best things about the journey so far. Here they are, in no particular order..
1. Friendships
Some say you shouldn’t mix business with friendship. I honestly don’t think you can have a business which doesn’t have true friendship at the heart of it – particularly in the services sector. I’m truly humbled and honoured with the friendships we have made in the last seven years – clients, partners, suppliers, some of our old staff and even people we’ve just happened to meet along the way. We’ve had friends lend us office space when we didn’t have a home, we’ve been paid early at times by people who wanted to help and we’ve been the beneficiaries of some great advice too.
To give an example of just how amazing our friends are… A few weeks ago, I was discussing a challenge we were having with a lawyer friend and old client. In addition to some good advice, he ended our coffee meeting by asking ‘what’s your mailing address?’ and one day later I received the absolutely amazing ‘Shoe Dog,’ the biography of Phil Knight, the founder of Nike in the post – an Amazon Prime gift. The most incredible gesture from a wonderful person and we’ve been blessed to have experienced so many of these in the last 7 years. People really are good, full stop.
2. Mentors
Mentors are great, they provide inspiration and a pathway to a better tomorrow and I’ve been so lucky over the years with the ones I’ve had. Lots of people have mentored me in some small way but I’ve also been fortunate to have three ‘kind of’ official mentors too. All three are business owners, all are incredibly successful and titans in their own ways. I can’t tell you how much wisdom, support and great ideas I’ve had from all three of them.
3. Values
There is nothing better than making a living from just being yourself and I’m so proud that the loft has an abundance of great values and lived them to the max too. Everything from pushing the limits of what is possible, to giving great ideas energy to grow, to doing more than you’re paid for, to treating clients like partners not customers, giving something back, finding the beautiful in the seemingly mundane and taking ‘Action’ at every opportunity. There are just so many and we’re at our very best when we live them in the truest way possible.
4. Great Work
We have done some staggeringly good work over the years, and again it goes way beyond what I’m personally capable off, something thats been truly satisfying. Branding projects packed with meaning to infographics that are almost works of art to brochures that are so inviting that you have to read what’s inside. Soooo many great projects and we invest so much time, effort and energy to painstakingly get it right time and time again and without this it just wouldn’t be worth doing. ‘Design With Soul’ IS more than a tag-line, IT IS a way of life.
5. Learning & Limits
You don’t really learn anything until you jump in and test your limits and boy have we jumped in at times. Some times we’ve got hurt, some times it’s been sore but each time we’ve gained something of incredible value. The kind of experience school can’t teach and money can’t buy.
6. Teamwork
We’ve been fortunate to work with some outstanding creatives – both in the team and also contractors and it is their contribution which really should be celebrated. Each of them have given and developed thousands of ideas, some of them absolutely mind-blowing and it is their energy that has helped our hundreds of clients over the past 7 years to achieve their outcomes using design and branding. They are the giants whose shoulders we stand on to make us taller as a company, a creative provider and as a brand.
7. Gratitude
This whole post is a little bit of an acceptance speech but it is worth mentioning again. I am just so grateful to the people that have helped, and you know who you are. But I am even more grateful to have had this experience, it has truly been a blessing. Every day I wake up – sometimes insanely early, sometimes with virtually no sleep, sometimes running on empty – but I just absolutely love what I do. I really love it in a way that words can’t describe. Helping people bring brilliant ideas to life is the most rewarding profession in the world and I’ll happily do it until the day I die.
Or at least for another 7 years.
Happy birthday the loft…
Benedetto
Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.
‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is also a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.
He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.
His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder and Creative Director of the loft, a branding consultancy in Glasgow.
He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business
08
Oct
Oct
Whatever line of business you’re in, people don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it.
I got a very useful reminder of that this week when helping some early-stage entrepreneurs. They had a great software solution and were looking for ways to generate more leads from their existing website.
Having initially bored them with some worthy but rather uninspiring solutions (contact forms with less fields,) it dawned on me that to really make a significant gain, to really make a dent with what they were doing, that the site itself had to sell the higher nature of what they were offering.
In this case – a tailored solution for a specific user-group, up-to-date programme with current legislations and exceptional value.
What a difference this simple shift in communication had. It never ceases to amaze me how effective a new home-page image, tag-line and corresponding graphics can be to a potential client.
What’s more the exercise of implementing these ideas is fun and energises everybody in the organisation itself.
In Napoleon Hill’s classic ‘Think and Grow Rich’ the author states that “All master salesmen know that ideas can be sold where merchandise cannot. Ordinary salesmen do not know this – that is why they are ordinary.”
Successful companies know this too – Coca Cola sells the hit of instant refreshment not carbonated soft-drinks, Sky TV sells the cutting-edge of in-house entertainment not just TV packages and great politicians sell the vision of a brighter tomorrow not specific plans and policies.
If you’re selling professional services – sell the friendliness of the service. Selling gym memberships – sell the intensity of the exercise. Even if you’re selling double-glazing, sell the strength and protection of the final product first not the properties of the glass.
Logical information only confirms decisions we’ve already got our hearts set on. But the heart’s got to be set on something in the first place.
If you want a brand that is going to generate a lot of new business – sell the idea first. If you want a hand then give us a shout.
Benedetto
Benedetto is an ideas-driven Creative Entrepreneur. He is on a mission to unleash the power of creativity to create a better world – for people, business and society. He is the founder of the loft, a design and branding house which operates worldwide helping companies bring their brands to life in the most imaginative and effective ways possible. A real man on a mission. Benedetto likes to make things happen fast and in a big way.
21
Aug
Aug
‘A company that pushes the limits of Creativity, Quality and Service.’
These are the latest words we have picked to differentiate the loft from all the others in the tightly packed, multi-faceted and incredibly competitive, creative sector which we operate.
Just to break it down a bit…
We want creative concepts that stir the soul to get us pumped about what we are doing.
We know that quality is a non-negotiable
Finally, excellent service is the foundation to any successful business.
At the loft – we are absolutely obsessed about all three.
How do we achieve the optimal mix?
The secret lies in the F-Word and no not the one you are thinking off.
While some may be terrified of it and others do their best to completely avoid it.
At the loft, we wholeheartedly embrace the F-word.
Failure.
We are comfortable in its presence, we use it as an opportunity to learn and we treat it as rocket fuel to break down those creative brick walls we face on a daily basis.
For us, it is the first step to success.
Fail Fast, Fail Often, Fail your way to Success.
Its something you will hear a lot of in our studio, alongside the example of a rocket which is almost permanently of course as it fails its way to the moon.
A love of failure might seem counterproductive but the biggest problem most creatives face is the enormity of the initial brief.
It can be so overwhelming that procrastination reigns supreme – ‘lighter/ darker, coloured/ monotone, in-line/ staggered…’
Endless analysis is followed by very little action. People build such large walls in their own minds that they are stunted into in-action. So much so, that the scale of even the first task overwhelms them.
At the loft, we just don’t have time for that.
We want to reign supreme in not one but three different areas – who has time for procrastination?
We believe action is key – work fast, smaller actions, quick decisions, minimise guess work, face uncomfortable truths, de-risk the concepts. Each of these behaviours help us to get through a massive workload – we get through more in a day than some would get through in a week.
Oh and it leaves plenty of time for barbecues, parties, drinks and the other fun stuff we regularly enjoy.
What’s more and this is the best bit, working faster and with greater intensity may seem like harder work but actually the opposite is true.
Its energising.
Guesswork is tiring, procrastination robs us of momentum and playing it safe is the surest way to completely lose interest.
Whether it is the ‘Lean Start-Up’ philosophy, the E-Spark philosophy or the Silicone Valley philosophy – it is one that we wholeheartedly believe in and use every single day.
Want to start succeeding, time to start failing.
Benedetto
Benedetto is an ideas-driven Creative Entrepreneur. He is on a mission to unleash the power of creativity to create a better world – for people, business and society.
He is the founder of the loft, a design and branding house which operates worldwide helping companies bring their brands to life in the most imaginative and effective ways possible.
The loft serves companies in every sector and is quite simply the best in the business at creating brands that capture the imagination.
In addition to his role with the loft, Benedetto is an avid supporter of young people into enterprise. Having been supported by organisations such as PSYBT and currently by E-Spark, he does all he can to support young entrepreneurs. He provides assistance to organisations such as Bridge2Business, Young Enterprise Scotland and acts as a mentor for young business owners with Entrepreneurial Scotland.
His support to the next generation doesn’t end there, Benedetto is a big supporter of MCR Pathways, an organisation which helps disadvantaged children secure better futures through mentoring. Alongside his team at the loft, he provides creative support to the organisation as well as specialist work experiences for the students in the studio.
A real man on a mission. Benedetto likes to make things happen and happen fast and in a big way. He always wants things done yesterday and is relentlessly driven in his quest to make tomorrow better than today for his company, the people he serves and the wider community.
21
Feb
Feb
Unsurprisingly for a branding and design house, we are often asked about the best ways to build a great a great brand?
And we always do our best to keep it relevant to the people we are talking too – ‘your brand should be shaped by your commercial objectives,’ ‘every brand is different,’ ‘branding is an extension of values’ etc, etc…
But more often than not and with the sincere desire to be helpful – we’ll say to people that they probably already have a great brand story and it’s just a case of bringing some more of it to life.
Yes, campaigns can help.
Yes, logos are important.
And yes, tag lines do make a difference.
But it’s the small intangible things that really make a difference and most of the time they’re already there.
Its the stories of great customer experiences, examples where staff went above and beyond, particular achievements, values that you live up to every day, ways that you do things that are unique to you, products that make a difference.
Everybody has these and they are the building blocks to that great brand that you want to build.
Creating great brands is less about set-piece activities and more about capturing the spirit of the organisation.
While compiling The Sustainability Report for Scottish Leather Group in 2016. (An easy task because Scottish Leather Group have outstanding sustainability achievements.) We completed a special feature on the sustainability of the workforce of Scottish Leather Group companies.
John from Scottish Leather Group was celebrating more than 41 years of Service and Social Media definitely appreciated it.
As we found – at the heart of Scottish Leather Group’s sustainability achievements was the retention of their staff where they have a tremendous record. One page of the report featured John – one of their operators, who began working with the company in 1975, we recorded a timeline of his service showing how he started as an apprentice and is now helping other apprentices.
What was incredible was that we shared this image as a piece to show what the loft could do on LinkedIn and we were inundated with comments and likes each celebrating and congratulating the well-deserved success of a Scottish Leather Group employee. It shows how the small things can truly make a difference.
A wonderful piece of brand storytelling for Scottish Leather Group and something we still get asked about today.
It is the small things that bring a tender to life, makes a presentation memorable and helps a company to build a reputation.
Bring your culture to life and you’ll bring your brand to life and the best bit is that for most of you – it’s already there.
Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.
‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is also a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.
He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.
His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder and Creative Director of the loft, a branding consultancy in Glasgow.
He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.
11
Oct
Oct
Values. They’ll help you hire the best staff, retain the best staff and win tight pitches. They’ll help you make quick decisions and give you the best chance to grow.
At the loft, we’ve worked with several companies – helping them to develop their values. Sometimes with company owners in isolation, sometime with management teams and sometimes with entire organisations. Questioning them, getting to know them and eventually trying to define who they are.
There are many ways to create a set off values, some ways require more time than others, some are more long-term than others.
But for this post, we’re sharing a simple method that will allow you to create your very own – right from the get-go.
Here we go…
1. You don’t have to call them values!
Not everybody likes the term values – or its sister term – ‘Mission Statement.’ If that’s the case – let’s go for ‘Beliefs’ or how about ‘Who We Are & What We Do.’ Different companies will have different ways of speaking to each other. Choose the language that feels right for you and your company.
2. What do you like about your company?
Yes, it is as simple as that. What do you like most about your business? What are the action/behaviours/results that please you the most?
Here’s a real tip – look out for are the simple things that people in your team does.
a) The staff in our accountancy firm always take the time to walk guests back to the exit in the other side of the building even though there are signs everywhere and they wouldn’t have any problem getting out.
b) Our creative team always delivers to tight deadlines – always! They actually seem to revel in the challenge of a tight deadline.
c) Our IT staff are so helpful to customers that when they’re out on-call, they even fix things that aren’t theirs to fix. They just can’t help themselves.
d) The analysts in our software company are usually more on-top of legislation changes than the legislators themselves.
You can have some real fun by writing them down – you may have hundreds of them. Get them down. (Post-it notes and a big board can be a great prop for these types of exercises.) It’s a great exercise to carry out and you’ll love your business even more after this.
3. From behaviour to value…
Once you have your list of favoured behaviours all down – its time to think of the value that person had that has caused the behaviour. This is how we get your values.
a) The staff in our accountancy firm always take the time to walk guests back to the exit in the other side of the building even though there are signs everywhere. (behaviours) = show me don’t tell me (value)
b) Our creative team always delivers to tight deadlines – always! They actually seem to revel in the challenge of a tight deadline. (behaviours) = love of a challenge (value)
c) Our IT staff are so helpful to customers that when they’re out on-call, they even fix things that aren’t theirs to fix. They just can’t help themselves. (behaviours) = going above and beyond. (value)
d) The analysts in our software company are usually more on-top of legislation changes than the legislators themselves. (behaviour) = A pro-dative approach. (values)
If you take the time, suddenly you will have a very impressive first draft.
4. Drafts 2-3-4
Now you have your list – you have to decide which ones are most important to you and how many you want? Most companies have between 5-7 values.
5. Use Them With Pride
The way you decide to use your values depends on what kind of company you are? You can use them on your website, the entrance to your office, the second page of your tender or on the introductory slide of a presentation. They do help you stand out from others and you are more likely to attract the kind of people and relationships you want into your business.
6. Live them and update them
Every company will use their values in different ways and some will take them more seriously than others. Real values-led companies hire/fire/assess staff performance all based on their values. Your values should be updated in-line with the people in the company, within the management team and your own business journey too.
We wish you well in creating your values, we hope you get something out of this post and you know where to find us if you would like some help?
Benedetto
Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.
‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is also a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.
He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.
His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft, a design and branding studio based in Glasgow.
He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.
28
Sep
Sep
Where to start when building that website for your firm can be a bit daunting. We thought, we’d take a moment out of our day and see if we can help?
These are 7 tips to help those who are considering how to build their next professional services website or those who simply want to refresh what they currently have.
1. START WITH CONTENT
Many traditional website designers used to create layouts, structures and then create content to fit. We suggest the opposite – create the content first- and create a responsive structure to suit. The reason being is that content list can be a bit daunting and sometimes it is difficult to know where to start? The list may include – staff bios, service benefits, specific methodologies, images, news items, etc. It may include information on culture, values, vision, etc. Get all the information down in one place – post-it notes, scrap sheets of paper, etc. Anywhere, you can look over it all in one go.
Then work out what’s important? Prioritise which bits of content you want to emphasise? These are the bits where you use professional photography, copywriting or even video. By starting with content, you build a more user-friendly site and are more in control of the areas of your company that draw the most attention. Another really great tip is to use leverage and use the images, videos or articles (content) to share on Social Media channels such as LinkedIn, YouTube or Twitter – obviously a critical part of your digital presence.
2. PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE
Professional services are all about people and relationships – your website should be big on this. Bring your people to life online, this usually means – great images of your staff, personal stories, anecdotes, anything that builds the human story. Some like technical but most don’t so keep specialist information in a separate place to more general information.
The simple act of creating a simple clean layout with just the right amount of information that a client needs to know is an effective way to build a good professional site.
3. TESTIMONIAL SHEET
Not just a website one, but definitely one that will enhance any Business Development activities – the client testimonial sheet. Many professional firms are wary about publishing testimonials, especially on their website, in fear of having their clients poached. We believe that showing others that you do a good job is more than worth the risk.
The most significant improvement to our sales process has been the introduction of a ‘client and testimonial sheet.’ More testimonials gives you greater credibility. You cannot have too many of these. Have them on your website but also a simple doc or PDF file to E-Mail to show new people that you are trying to do business with can be helpful.
We don’t believe you can really have enough testimonials.
4. BESPOKE REQUIREMENTS
Most organisations will have services that are similar if not completely identical to their competitors. Whether it is advising on selling a business, providing an insurance specification or creating a will – we nearly all do the same things on paper. However, ‘it’s not what you do but the way that you do it.’ Being able to talk authentically about the differences demonstrate greater value-add and will help you stand out compared to others.
5. TELL A STORY
As a follow-up to the last tip. Your website should have a basic message, theme or a range of ideas that differentiate you in the marketplace. 95% of professional service firms rightly say that client-service is at the heart of their offering – this is a good message – but when everybody says the same thing, you may want to consider going a little further.
How do you serve those clients better than everybody else? Are you faster? More dynamic? More friendly? More precise? Do you have more specialised knowledge? More useful partnerships? A joined-Up Approach? Obsessed about the detail? Pick a couple of ideas and tell a few stories either with your web-copy or images that will help to emphasise and bring these ideas to life.
6. MAKE CONTACT EASY
A very, very simple one but something which can be neglected at times. It is YOUR duty to ensure that the person looking at your content can reach you easily. This means contact details in all the right places – on the home-sliders, on the menu, an easily-accessible contact-page, a good quality enquiry form, social media links or numbers directly to partners. You decide what that line between ‘accessible’ and ‘desperate’ is but it should never be a chore to contact any organisation. Otherwise you don’t deserve the business.
7. CONTEXT
Professional services are all about reputation and relationships. The majority of your clients will have come through referrals.
Try wherever possible and with whatever means to tell a story – even a short one about the kind of service you provide? There are so many tools out there such as video which allow you to introduce a little more of the human side of yourself. Take a chance and get yourself out there. You’ll be one of the few that do and fortune favours the brave.
If you’d like some help – contact us >>>
Benedetto
Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.
‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is also a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.
He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.
His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft, a design and branding studio based in Glasgow.
He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.
28
Sep
Sep
3-Steps to launch!
You spot an opportunity, a gap in the market, an extension of what you do – a way to help more people or provide greater service to existing customers. You want to create, launch and market a new product or service but aren’t quite sure where or how to start?
This is our simple guide to help you get going.
It’s a 3-step process we’ve used many times with current clients.and it is short, fast and to the point.
1. WHERE’S THE VALUE?
You have to start with customers.
Your new service or product is likely to be related in someway to what you are doing and it’s essential to know from the outset – the practical advantages that your new product or service is going to offer. Nnderstand the value for them and this value should also go beyond theory.
A technology company that offers ‘more flexible working’ sounds good to a business owner – in theory. However, the ability to download, edit, re-upload documents to a shared workspace, anywhere in the world from the phone of one of your staff-members paints a much, much more vivid picture of value to the business owner – your potential customer.
Understanding the human value and beginning to paint this picture in your marketing is important and as you go forward, you will find even more practical benefits to solutions. It is important to know and list what they are as you begin creating your new product/service brand.
2. PRIORITISE ACTIVITIES
Most will think you need a brand first, then a website, then some marketing materials, then a product name etc… As advocates of ‘the lean start-up’ approach – we think the most important thing your new product or service needs is revenue and sales. A new product or service should be approached almost like a ‘start-up’— they burn development cash, there is no income and most of it is still not properly understood yet and will need time. We believe you should do the maximum with what you have to get your new product or service off the line as quickly as possible.
List all of the different things you can do – website, microsite, flyers, business cards, E-Newsletters, Printed mail shots, logos, Product names, advertorials, print advertisements, etc, etc… We would do the bare minimum to get you going. If you have 10-12 activities that you want to do, prioritise those that are most likely to get you going and start. The chances are later items will change in nature or content once you begin. You will establish quick wins that you’ll want to build on and this is likely to change the rest of the list. The scope of a first project may be the release of a simple flyer with some pictograms telling the story and a call-to-action to your first 500 prospects.
Also, consider the best ways to tell the stories that matter to customers – there is a wonderful example above of the beauty of a ‘clear-desk.’ Build on the positive human stories. Pictograms, visual systems, eye-catching images, short videos will all help you paint a better picture of what your new offering can do for the people you are looking to gain as customers.
As we have said, all start-ups have limited marketing budgets and (at this point,) no revenue. So we suggest that you really prioritise and maximise your budgets to give you the biggest bang for your buck – build momentum so you can move fast, launch quickly and start obtaining some happy customers.
3. ACTION
This wouldn’t be a loft list, if it didn’t contain the word ‘ACTION’ somewhere.
Launch!
Get it out there in all its raw and imperfect glory. Talk to customers, sell your first products or services and then build from there. As stated, it is only by doing that you will be adequately informed where to go next, that you will have something to build on. At the beginning – there isn’t a right or wrong way and a more optimal way will become apparent in time. This will be as true for the operational efficiency of your product or service as it will for your marketing efforts.
Don’t forget to be bold, focus on results over methods and have fun. By acting this way, it will unlock a whole new raft of unseen creative ideas which will set your new product or service apart and take it to another level. Good luck.
If you’d like some help – contact us >>>
Benedetto
Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.
‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is also a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.
He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.
His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft, a design and branding studio based in Glasgow.
He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.
25
Sep
Sep
Creating a brand is a never-ending job, there are many things to be done – getting the messaging right, building your digital presence, ensuring there is consistency through all the channels, getting buy-in from multiple stakeholders, etc, etc.
And with each of those questions.
Do we do a new website? Is it time for an E-Mail campaign? Shall we revise the photography of the team? What shall we do with social media?
Where do we start???
At the loft, we believe that the question is usually more important than the answer.
Once you have a clear idea of the question you are asking, you suddenly have a focus and a much wider range of options to play with. And that question is always, always, always better when it starts with people and the type of relationship you want them to have with your brand.
Great questions are the first part of great solutions. Here are some great examples.
“We want to increase our sales with existing customers in Canada because we have the operational capacity to serve more people out there.”
“We have a brilliant opportunity for clients who are looking to scale and we want them to know about it so they can take advantage of it immediately.”
“We want to build a brand so well-known that customers have heard off us before we’ve even finished telling them our company name.”
“We want our customers to benefit from the full suite of services available with our software.”
“We want to do something to unite our team and show the outside world our company is on a new and exciting path.”
Each of the outcomes above have come from projects we’ve worked on – questions that we’ve developed with our clients.
They’ve come from people and brands we’ve worked with -helping them to build better relationships with their customers, suppliers or staff – helping them to achieve their commercial goals.
Strong and worthy questions based around people can only lead to effective solutions. As a company, we wholeheartedly believe in ‘pleasing results over pleasing methods.’
One other person who believed in this was Steven Jobs, and after having read his book, there are similarities.
What made Apple great in the first place? FaceTime gave people easy face-to-face video calling, the original I-Phone gave people an ‘internet communicator, revolutionary mobile phone and I-Pod all in one device.’
And my personal favourite – ‘A thousand songs in your pocket.’
When Steve Jobs presented the original i-pod in 2001, he had a slide which showed the question he asked his team to answer? How can we make a device that gives our customers a 1000 songs in their jeans pocket. What a great question. One which was relevant, worthy and had people at its core. Unsurprisingly, a brilliant start to what became a completely game-changing product.
Like Apple, solutions also have to be flawlessly executed and there has to be a commitment to answering the question properly but nothing will help you achieve successful outcomes quicker.
Not sure about the answer? Think again about the question.
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Benedetto
Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.
‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is also a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.
He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.
His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft, a design and branding studio based in Glasgow.
He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.