Tag: The Loft

Your website, a birds-eye view

Posted by benbordone / News

One of the things we love doing most at the loft is creating a new website for a client. It’s the type of project that gives us so many different ways to flex our creative muscles – whether it is creating an engaging user-experience, having the opportunity to work on photography, copywriting and graphic design all at the same time or just building a new digital home for clients.

One of the biggest challenges for any client is just working out where to start with their website project? You know you need to do it. You know what you have is a bit out-of-date. You know that there is so much to be done.

But where do you start? How do you know what to update? What to invest budget in? What is fine from the old site? What should stay? What should go?

Well at the loft, we always start with some tightly defined questions and a birds-eye view (quite literally) of everything.

This is our guide to help you get started.

1. Goals

We say this at the beginning of every loft project. What do we want to achieve? Do we want our customers to know more about out some of the things we do? Do we want to tell people about something our team has done that we’re proud off? Do we want to showcase a new product? A new service? Half of our team has changed and the website doesn’t reflect this – how can we sort that?
Consider all of the different options and look to become crystal clear with what you want to achieve. Great questions give great solutions. The clearer this bit, the easier the process will be.

2. You first

Many people will start by looking at the competition and want to copy a layout or structures or particular detail – we advise doing the opposite for two reasons. Firstly, the best website you can build is one that shows what is great about you and your organisation – not your competition. The other website you may be looking to mimic has been optimised for them not you. Secondly and from a more practical point of view – good practice for modern websites is that they are built content-first, structure second. Start with content.

3. User-Profiles

This part is optional but it can be good practice to create user-profiles for each of the different types of people who’ll use your site – they could include staff members, new clients that know about what you do, new clients that don’t know about what you do, existing customers looking for more information, etc.. For some, this might not be needed (we don’t do this for our own site), but it might be worth some brief thought. Just by thinking about it and writing some stuff down – you will give yourself more ideas about what you want to achieve.

4. Content, content, content

This is critical. We need to list it all down – case-studies, blog posts, staff bios, staff images, customer testimonials, accreditations, partners, service information, service images, event information, office in Glasgow, office in London, partner agencies, etc – list it all down in one place where you can look over it. This is where you can see why we love post-it notes so much. Post-it notes and a big board or wall space is great, but use whatever you’re comfortable with – this is where you want to look over the entire scene. Just being able to do this and stand back will give you a feeling of control over what you are doing.

Then… List everything you have, what you don’t have, what you have but might want to update – you can even have fun and colour co-ordinate different segments.

We love post-it notes as they allow you to be looser and get everything down in one-place! But if you want to be a real pro – you can use platforms such as Dynomapper (https://dynomapper.com) or Slickplan (https://slickplan.com/).

Both of them do the same things and have some very cool features such as the ability to share your map with your team and suppliers remotely, properly co-ordinate content and if you already have a large site – create a draft sitemap and use that as a starting point.

Again, these are cool platforms and cheap too but do whatever you feel comfortable with. Some designers in our studio will use these, I personally, still like the big-board and post-its – each to their own.

5. Categorise
Once you have your list – Now is the time to do some work. Group each of the individual bits of content together – start with the easy stuff.

Group the team members together, the services, the videos, copy and images for the case studies. Group, group, group!

Play with this…

You may find some groups are too busy and need to be divided further.

Some too sparse and need to be brought together.

Each of these actions will help you to categorise your content and voila, you are starting to create a proper layout for your new site.

It’s also helpful as…

i) You’ll be able to tell which pages are ready to be placed into your final layout. Those will be the groups where everything fits together, the content is uniform and it all just makes sense.

ii) You’ll be able to tell which pages are going to require more divisions – those will be the groups of content where there are just too many things going on and they don’t make any sense.

iii) You’ll be able to identify which content is missing or needs updated – whether it is staff bios, new product information or just some new product images.

6. Difficult Calls

Throughout all this – you’ll be able to isolate areas where difficult choices have to be made?

Do you organise your services as stand-alone modules or do you package them for different client groups?

Where do you put your case –studies – all in one index page or do you have them as extensions to certain services?

A big one – what goes on the home page? What should be the first thing a visitor sees?

Is that visitor one user-type or are there multiple user-types to cater too?

At this stage, it is a good idea to re-visit your site goals and these should provide you with context for each of those decisions. Once again, the beauty about using something dynamic to arrange the process is that you can experiment with different layouts – and we very much recommend experimenting with different layouts.

7. Be the User

We already mentioned user-profiles – put yourself in the shoes of the people that will be visiting your site. Think about their individual journeys and how they will interact with the site – then adjust accordingly.

8. Crucial budget

One of the best reasons for having a global view of your information layout is that you are able to assess which content is going to require further investment? Pragmatic decisions always have to be made.

By looking at your layout, understanding your content and assessing your goals – you can decide where energy and budget should go?

Is it on revised photography of the team?
Professional copy for the case studies?
New headline images of the product or service being used?
Graphics to showcase important benefits?

You may not be able to do everything you want but by having it all in front of you – you’re better able to make informed decisions and prioritise where to invest crucial time, energy and budget.

9. Other Vitals

Everybody is different but these are just good-practice.

Is there a ‘Call-To-Action’ on every single page?
Is there any content on your site which is more than 3 clicks away?
Is there any glaring omissions? (Now may be the time to have a quick glance at your competitor’s sites.)

10. A Great Start

By creating your own site map or information layout, you’ll be approaching your agency with a more informed viewpoint – you’ll have a stronger base for discussion and be able to give a more accurate brief. Something that will allow for a more seamless, higher value and mutually beneficial website-project. Any good agency will appreciate the effort.

The exercise we have just mentioned is one we do all the time at the loft – we carry it out for websites, info-graphics and videos. Whether it is a big board with post-it notes or a some more sophisticated digital solution – it should give you a clear reference point, a knowledge on where to invest your project budget and a great tool to brief your agency. Have fun and we wish you luck.

As always if you need any advice…

contact 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 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.

design process design with soul Digital Design Graphic Design Graphic Design Glasgow human-centred design information layout sitemap The Loft UI/UX design user-experience user-interface website layout website sitemap

17
Oct

Social Media, A Practical Guide

Posted by benbordone / News

Social media is quite possibly be the most important part of a company’s brand presence nowadays. Getting likes, being seen and having people engage with you can radically transform your company’s marketing success. A coherent, joined-up and ideas-led social presence will help you attract more clients, staff that share your values and new supporters from all over the world. This is the power of social media.

At the loft, we love social media. We love sharing details of our work, the way we help our clients and also some of the interesting things we get up-too in our studio. We use social media a lot and have therefore picked up some gems that we apply regularly and despite there being many more technical guides online we thought we’d put our feet right in the shoes of those that post on social media to share 10 quick ways to optimise your social posts.

1. Start with the Underlying Message

Before posting, always think… ‘What am I trying to say?’ This is important. Every post says something, consciously or sub-consciously, about your brand. What are we trying to say about ourselves or what we value with the post? We are helpful? We are qualified? We have more experience? Our service is faster?

Marketing is the communication and sharing of values and culture in an interesting way. Make sure what you are sharing displays the values you want it too.

2. A Positive Extension of those Values

As a rule of thumb, the majority of social posts should be sharing something positive! It should be something which people want to read. You have the opportunity to present the best side of your company, your products, your services, your team. Whether it is a client testimonial, something altruistic your team has done in the community or just sharing a very positive benefit of one of your services – more positive posts get more likes and therefore capture the attention of others.

However, more than being positive, consider whether what you are saying aligns with the culture your company is promoting. Doing this will help you be more authentic. Fun posts for fun companies, highly technical posts for highly technical companies, posts about ‘innovation in sustainability’ for companies that value ‘sustainability’ and are innovative around this area. Find the value or the idea and build your post around it. The really great companies do this very well on Social Media.

3. People Love People

Human stories tend to be particularly popular. Celebrating technical attributes or showing thought leadership are both good directions to pursue with social media but human stories such as celebrating ‘service landmarks,’ ‘new-starts,’ or just the good work your team does tend to be more appreciated on social media. Even the most technical companies will have service benefits that apply to human-beings. The more able you are to present the human side of even a highly technical subject – the more likely you are of engaging people with your social posts.

4. Image Tells a Story

Make sure the image you use really tells a story about the post itself. This is important. If you are posting about a particular product, is that product in the foreground of the photo? Does it stand out? If you are posting about an event you are hosting, does the image reflect the nature of the event? One further thing – a more professional, polished image has value, but a slightly rougher image which tells the right story has a greater chance of being understood and properly appreciated by your online audience.

5. Use your Polish Strategically

Despite this, a little polish is definitely going to help. Your posts will grab more attention. Whether it’s some info-graphics to bring a statistic to life, more professional photography of your team members or some video graphics to illustrate a story. Content that has been presented with more care and attention does stand a greater chance of helping you to engage with others. It is worth getting a designer, photographer or videographer to bring some of your content to life for important posts.

However, the real value is in thinking past one post! If you are going to engage a professional – think how you can extend the value of their service? For example, if you hire a photographer to capture the investment your company has made in a new assembly line – then while the photographer is on site – get multiple images which shows different facilities in a little more detail and instead of a single post – create a small campaign from these 6-8 images. This will help you get a better return on investment and a full campaign worth of content as opposed to one individual post.

6. Use the Loft Social Cheat Sheet

At the end of the day, a lot of this is trial and error – but there are some rules you can use to your advantage. To really help you maximise your posts – we have created a quick cheat sheet which shows the best times, to post, optimal image sizes and character counts. Download this sheet and the information will provide a further boost to your social posts.

7. Headlines should be to the point

If you read our cheat sheet, you will notice that the first few lines of any social post are far and away the most important in grabbing people’s attention. There are definitely some points to be gained by writing a title that everybody understands straight away. Different brands will communicate in different ways but in the absence of any doubt – simple language works best. Understanding over flair.

8. Use all the channels

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, etc… There are so many different channels now, and it is important to pick the one that works for you. Tools like LinkedIn work well for Business2Business audiences. Instagram or Facebook works better for Business2Consumer audiences. Some are more targeted than others.

However, in all honesty, we recommend using all of the channels all of the time. Once you have picked the right image and drafted the right message – you have very little to lose by taking the time to post in all the channels. Plus, it is interesting how often more light-hearted, authentic, less technical posts are liked on LinkedIn and how often the crowd on Instagram will appreciate something a little more content-rich. Just remember to use the correct-sized images as stretched images tend not to do favours for anybody. You will get this information from our cheat sheet 🙂

Aggregate softwares such as Hoot-Suite can occasionally be helpful here too.

9. Maximise your Content

On that note about maximising all of the channels – make sure you re-use your content too. We spoke earlier on about investing in images, graphics, videos, etc. Once you have these assets, stretch them as far and wide as possible! Get them on your website, use them for your newsletter campaigns. If necessary – use them for print documents such as your annual report or other brochures. This will give you a much greater return for any investment on your marketing outlay.

10. Repeat

Once again, you have invested the time and energy to create content, got a great image and written a strong post. Your postings may be as successful as you want, they may not be. However, you do have the opportunity to have a few more goes. So many people will have missed your post first time round – don’t be shy and give them another opportunity to engage. You may even wish to hone your posts a little – to see if you can make it stronger 2nd and 3rd times round. You have very little to lose and much to gain.

A bit of a whistle-stop tour in how to optimise your social posts – you will find many more technical posts online but we hope that the guide above gives you a practical guide on where to start.

As always if you need any advice…

contact the loft >>>

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.

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.

branding Glasgow campaign company vision design Glasgow Digital Design Glasgow Graphic Design Graphic Design Glasgow marketing social media The Loft

11
Oct

Creating Your Values

Posted by benbordone / News

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?

contact the loft >>>

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.

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.

bold branding brand action branding branding and psychology branding Glasgow branding process business growth company vision culture design Glasgow design with soul Glasgow Graphic Design Graphic Design Glasgow positioning Glasgow The Loft values

28
Sep

Professional Service Websites – 7 Tips

Posted by benbordone / News

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.

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.

accountancy services branding branding Glasgow Communications design Glasgow design with soul Digital Design digitalisation Glasgow Graphic Design Graphic Design Glasgow legal services professional services service design Glasgow Social Media Week Glasgow The Loft website design

25
Sep

‘1000 songs in your pocket’

Posted by benbordone / News

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.

Or we’ll happily help – contact us >>>

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.

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.

23
Sep

6 Things I’ve Learned

Posted by benbordone / News

A few days ago, it kind of felt like I was the only person in the world working. A combination of Glasgow Fair, staff being on holiday and the whole South Block Building having a bit of an empty eeriness to it. As I worked away – I couldn’t help but be distracted with a conversation I had with our team the day before. I asked them to take some time and study each other to look for just one thing that they thought they admired and could bring into their own games to be that little bit better as professional designers.

Of course – as I asked this of them – my mind raced to some of the brilliant lessons, ideas and habits I had picked up from colleagues, mentors and some inspirational people that I had listened too in previous years and how much certain ideas had helped me.

I’ve credited the people who shared these wonderful ideas with me at the end, and they are in no particular order. But for keen followers of Scottish Business – you can probably guess who said what?

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Quite possibly my favourite bit of advice and one that completely transformed my attitude to sales, customer service & business in general. I was the guy that would arrive at the client’s office or boardroom and send the prospect to sleep with 40-50 slides of what they were doing wrong and if they only, only listened to me – they could do it so much better. I am sure my arguments were intellectually sound but you can probably guess how much business I won. A big fat zero. I got used to hearing ‘don’t call us – we’ll call you.’ Once I learned to shut-up and learn what the client was wanting to do and spend my energies helping them to find a solution to their challenges that we started to get some movement.

As a neat follow-up – “Don’t sell to the company, serve the individual.” Maybe not the exact words but the message was similar to the previous one. You have to look after the individual and not the entire company – unless your proposing a company strategy – that is their business and not your problem. Have faith that the person you are looking to work with understands their company and their requirements better than you ever could – you must remember that it is a human that signs off the order at the end of the day and you had better build a rapport with them. The better you serve and understand them – the more quickly you’ll be trusted with more.

“Don’t take health advice from a doctor that is always ill.” Another brilliant one – it is amazing how much we open our minds to the opinion of the day or the person that shouts the loudest. Quite simply – if you want to be good at sales – learn from or ask somebody who is good at sales, if you want your company to be financially robust, ask somebody who has a financially robust company, if you want rapid growth – ask somebody who has done it. There are so many talkers, gurus and ‘thought-leaders’ out there. Analyse their results in a particular area and decide for yourself whether that is what you want for yourself in that area. Otherwise, question any advice they give you.

“Go out and speak to 100 customers now!” Absolutely brilliant – it is amazing how often we fall off-track by falling-in-love too much with our own products and services. Brutally honest feedback from customers is usually the much-needed bringing back down to earth that helps us all to improve our businesses and get better.

“Treat your clients budgets as if they are your own” I think this one is absolutely brilliant for anybody that wants to build long-term relationships with their clients, and long-term business is usually the holy grail. If you are prudent and offer value to your clients in the short-term, you will more likely to be trusted with more in the long term.

“See your business in three time-zones. Too many short-term decisions and you’ll make less mistakes but never grow, too many long-term decisions and you’ll never get any momentum and you need momentum. You have to work to succeed in the present day, a month ahead and in a quarter’s time.” This one was a real eye-opener about the importance of balancing long-term and short-term success.

And finally, a little analogy that I absolutely love…

“Building a rapid-growth business is a bit like building a racing car. You want everything to be poised on the absolute limit. If you put too much horsepower in one go, you’re going to blow everything at the same time – there won’t be adequate cooling, the tyres will blow, the suspension won’t cope – it will be an absolute mess and you won’t know what to fix first. Go the opposite direction and over-engineer each of those things for power you don’t yet have – and you’ve got a tank and not a race-car. I think there are a couple of messages here – firstly, do everything in logical increments – do them quickly – but have some kind of order. And fix today’s problems today and worry about tomorrow’s problems tomorrow – if you’re really going to go fast – there will be new problems for you to solve every single day.”

I absolutely love these and hope some of my fellow entrepreneurs find them handy too.

A huge thank you to (and these are in no particular order…)

Jim Duffy, E-Spark
Stuart Macdonald, Seric Systems
Jim McColl, Clyde Blowers Capital
Bob Keiller, Ex Wood-Group
Colin Robertson, Alexander Dennis
Iain MacRitchie, MCR Holdings

If you’d like to work with the loft – please don’t hesitate to contact us>>>

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.

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.

branding Glasgow business growth design Glasgow The Loft

08
Apr

People Make Glasgow

Posted by benbordone / News

Bravo Glasgow!

Anybody that’s ever been to see their favourite band play will know all about the crowd singalong – be it Oasis and ‘Don’t look back in anger,’ Snow Patrol and ‘Run’ or Paul McCartney with ‘Hey Jude;’ the big ballad unites people in a wonderful way and it doesn’t just happens at gigs – social media channels provide live and interactive commentary to people watching their favourite programmes or sporting events too. Everybody can be involved.

Brands must perform a similar role. They are there to empower and inspire, but more than that, they must be representative of the people that live them. People must be bought into a brand and want to shout about it. Even more true when so much of a brands noise is now made on social media.

With that in mind. We must say ‘Bravo’ to Glasgow.

Recent winner of ‘the Transform Awards.’

‘People Make Glasgow’ is more than a slogan; it is an accurate and compelling description of what the city is about. It is simple. People get it, people like it and people buy into it.

It can be easily shared on social media as a #tag to a tweet, it can be adapted for photography and can be expressed in an infinite number of different ways by the people of the city itself.

It is no surprise that it has been so successful and won so many awards recently.

We can’t wait to get the stickers for our windows so once again.

‘People Make Glasgow’

Bravo!

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.

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.

branding Glasgow branding process design Glasgow design with soul Glasgow The Loft

18
Jan

Bertha Benz & Connections

Posted by benbordone / News

This week we have been working hard on the new brand for ‘bridge2business’ and Young Enterprise Scotland. Like most brands- we always start with the words. Brands should make people feel and think in a certain way, the big idea at the heart of a brand is what draws people in and gives it life.

A crucial part of any brand are the stories that accompany it. I had a meeting last week with the CEO of a worldwide company who has over 50,000 employees. This company had just re-branded and I was told that the preferred brand identity, chosen from a set of 12, was the one that would give the best opportunity for telling stories. As the CEO of a global company, he wanted above all else, a logo and graphical system that had a story behind it to make it memorable for staff and customers to understand what the company is really about.

Stories are always at the heart of the branding process for us at the loft. With ‘bridge2business’ we were briefed that young people in colleges should be inspired by enterprise but just as importantly to understand the importance of human connections in building a business. ‘Inspiration’ and ‘Connections’ were two of the key words alongside ‘Support.’

Regarding connections, we discussed with the client that most of the time we overlook the treasures we have on our own doorsteps to grow our businesses. For a young entrepreneur in college – there are vast riches all within the building itself- graphic and digital design students who can create your first brand and website, IT students who can help you set up your computer and systems, drama students who can show you how to present and perform with aplomb. Every part of what’s necessary to run a business is actually on your doorstep and can be accessed with a little initiative.

During the week, I asked Alejandro and Ruth to start looking at stories that would support the key words, themes and bring the ‘bridge2business’ brand to life. As usual they out did themselves, picking three exceptional and timeless stories from the last two centuries that supported our themes. I wanted to briefly talk about one that I really enjoyed regarding the importance of using untapped connections to grow a business.

One of the greatest achievements of mankind in the last 150 years is the motorcar. Many people know that Karl Benz was responsible for the first motor car but what many people (including myself) didn’t know was that it only came to be, because of the indomitable spirit of his wife – Bertha Benz.

Karl Benz had created the first properly functioning motor car, it was a triumph in engineering as well as a shining example of human expression at its fullest. Despite his success, he was having a terrible time trying to commercialise it and demonstrating how it could be useful to others. It wasn’t until the height of their frustration that on the 5th of August 1888, without telling her husband or the relevant authorities, his wife Bertha drove her two sons Richard and Eugen from Manheim to Pforzheim to visit her mum.

She was the first person to drive an automobile over a long distance (66miles.) This was the very first proper ‘road-trip’ and she used it to show her husband and others how useful this machine could be to daily life. It was a wonderful piece of marketing, she received much publicity for her trip and she diligently noted every problem she incurred on the journey to make the automobile even more user-friendly. These innovations included additional gears for climbing hills and brake linings to improve brake-power.

During her journey, she had to stop at a pharmacy to buy ligroin for fuel, the brakes had to be repaired so she visited a blacksmith. These small enterprises became our first ever fuel stations and car garages. It was the initiative of Bertha Benz that helped turn the motorcar into a commercially acceptable business.

Thanks to this initiative, we have roads, petrol stations, mechanics, factories, supply chains, hundreds of millions of people being employed thanks to one invention – the motorcar. How many years longer would we have had to wait without this interruption into her husbands affairs? How much further behind would we be today if it hadn’t been for Bertha Benz?

The bit I like most about the story is that they may have been business partners but Karl had overlooked Bertha, until that point for advice and assistance. This was his wife and life partner, some may say the strongest connection you can have as an entrepreneur.

How different his life would have been if she hadn’t did what she did.

How different a world we would be living in if she hadn’t do what she did.

So for the 16-24 year olds engaging in ‘bridge2business’ there is a telling lesson about the brand.

It’s about the importance of using your connections, particularly the ones at the college, the ones you don’t even realise you have. Your journey will be much richer, more fun and more proseperous than you can ever imagine.

And for us, we now have to build that and some of the other wonderful stories we have, into a great identity for ‘bridge2business.’ Watch this space!

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.

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.

branding branding Glasgow branding process design Glasgow Glasgow The Loft

15
Jan

Anna Marion Oui! Designs

Posted by benbordone / News

Just a quick post to say a massive thank you to Anna Marion of Oui! Designs. An incredibly talented jewellery designer; Anna surprised me yesterday with this beautifully designed pin badge based on the new loft logo. Created in brass with a silver backing, Anna has also promised to make badges for Ruth and Alejandro too, we are overwhelmed with Anna’s talent and generosity.

Check Anna out at http://www.ouidesigns.com

Thanks again…

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.

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.

Anna Marion Oui! Designs branding Glasgow design Glasgow design with soul The Loft

08
Sep

Branding for the 21st Century

Posted by benbordone / News

On Thursday night, I discussed ‘Branding for the 21st Century.’ at an event for the ‘Entrepreneurial Exchange’ in Glasgow.

The main point of the discussion was that in this the digital age, people are more important than ever before in building the great brands of today.

You can read highlights from the talk below…

The rise of the digital space has completely transformed communications for business in the last 15 years. It has allowed us a tremendous opportunity; the ability to get our own message out. For the first time in history, we can reach people from any destination from any part of the world at any time of our choosing. We have bespoke media channels and can engage in two-way conversations with potential clients and customers like never before.

The rise of digital has given brands a new repertoire of tools to engage with.

Unfortunately, it has also given us more ways than ever before to disturb, confuse and alienate our audiences. Anybody with a smart phone will know, the internet is a very noisy place. The average person will receive 142 e-mails a day at their work alone. That’s 81 received with 41 replies. Up from 101 just three years ago.

We are supposedly the most interrupted people in the history of the human race.

Unsurprisingly the brands that make the most noise are the ones that tend to engage the least.

The digital landscape has also helped to accelerate the commoditisation of many of our products/services. The easier availability of untried alternatives and further globalisation has driven down the prices of products and services that were once revenue streams to us all. You have to look no further than the media sector to see that the race to the bottom has no end in sight. There has never been a more important time to build and show value.

No matter what you do, somebody will always be able to do it cheaper. Cutting through the noise and displaying value are just two of the greatest challenges we face today as business owners.

Both challenges point to a stronger brand.

However, to build a strong brand, your company must have communications that go far beyond saying what you the think the customer wants to hear. Culture and a sense of mission underpins the strongest of brands and those that have a goal larger than profit will be the ones that engage in the strongest way with staff, customers and clients alike.

The culture within your business underpins every part of your brands communication. A brand is more than a logo, it is an entire experience; the manifestation of thousands of interactions between your company and the people it interacts with; externally and internally, online and offline. This includes factors as diverse as customer service, corporate responsibility and of course, the delivery of the end products or services themselves.

Each interaction combines to create a brand experience.

However, to create a rich experience, there has to be, what we call a brand narrative, thread through the entire company. It has to permeate the organisation from top to bottom. It’s where the brand is borne.

The business owner who knows that over-capacity in the factory can damage brand experience is one that is fully in control of their brand; they understand that sales staff will have to be more aggressive or resort to discounting – both activities that damage brand experience and value. The most aware business owners will already be hiring people that are good cultural fits and can deliver the right brand experience without even trying. With brands, actions speak louder than words.

The entrepreneur that stamps their personality on every aspect of their company will regularly lead the strongest brands.

The world’s no-1 brand Apple, under Steve Jobs may be the most vivid of examples. Only Steve Jobs could have the ingenuity to roll out I-Pod, I-Phone, I-Pad, one after the other. Game-changing products! Only Steven Jobs could steal the music industry from under the noses of those in the sector. Genius products, genius man. Only Apple, under Jobs, could have the arrogance to tell us that their brand new I-phone 4 wasn’t working because we mere mortals weren’t holding it correctly. For better or worse, a lot of great brands resemble their leaders.

There are hundreds of other examples; we could speak about Michael O’Leary, Richard Branson or even Richard Reed are all obvious ones. All people whose personal influences have helped to create brands that are memorable and easy to define.

Of course, there is a balance to be struck. The more distinctive the culture, the more likely some may be alienated. It’s fundamental that the markets you seek to enter align with brand positioning. Volvo is a brand that sells cars but to the consumer, they sell safety of themselves and loved ones when they travel. Selling safety as an emotion is fine in the family car market, less so for sports models. The very essence of strategy is the narrowing of choices and closing of opportunities to focus on the end goal. It involves discipline and there are times to be pragmatic and times to be idealistic.

These are the decisions you will face when looking to build your brand. Unfortunately there is no one-size fits all solutions to building a strong brand. However, one of the principal reasons for branding is the means to define and differentiate with competitors.

If customers can understand what you do without even thinking and you’re the answer before they’ve even asked the question then you’re communicating well.

Who you are, what you do, how you do it and why you do it are the main ways to define a brand.

All companies should be differentiated in at least one of these ways from its competitors.

Who you are… Obvious people-brands include Jamie Oliver with his restaurants or cookbooks or James Dyson with his vacuum cleaners but more interestingly, many clients still pledge allegiances with the partners as opposed to the firms they use in accountancy and legal firms. Personal branding also has a large part to play for entrepreneurs who present their brands.

Definition by What you do… Companies like EE are completely defined by temporarily being the only 4G provider of mobile services. Edinburgh firm – ‘Law at Work’ are another example. They may be small but are one of the fastest growing professional service firms in a bad time for the profession. Why? Because they only deal with issues around employment, you perceive them to be specialists in a market full of generalists. Defined more by what they don’t do as opposed to what they do.
How you do something… How does your product or service differ in its marketplace?

The companies that tend to innovate a lot round product or service offerings tend to be those with a strong core purpose which we’ll talk about next. A good example includes the first Human resource companies that offered psychometric profiling to its clients or Hyundai several years ago being the first auto maker to offer a five year warranty. Defining your company in those ways are all options available, they’ll help your company become more recognisable, memorable and easy to define.

But why you exist is the most potent way to define yourself, particularly in competitive markets. The really memorable brands are all defined by a core purpose – Nike, Apple, Ryanair, The Ritz, Innocent, Audi, IKEA, McKinsey, IBM up and coming brands such as Tough Mudder, B2C brands and B2B brands, even great Scottish brands such as Irn Bru or Tennents. These are all companies where both staff and customers and clients alike know instinctively what their brand represents. Why you do what you do is the ultimate emotional pull to staff, clients & customers. It is the sense of mission that transcends the commercial part of the business. Emotion always trumps logic; people react based on their emotions then justify their decisions with logic and facts.

Engaging with people on an emotional level is the most powerful way for a brand to communicate. The more potent the emotional argument, the greater the potential value in the brand.

Volkswagen are a company with a very high reputation for quality but consumers will pay £6000 more for a 2-litre A4 over a Passat, they are virtually the same car, many consumers know they are virtually identical yet the prestige and quality of the Audi brand commands a very significant premium.

That is maximising the emotional and commercial value of your brand.

It is not only common in cars – the best restaurants charge significant premiums for the strength of the brand experience. The big 4 do likewise in accountancy terms. Indeed there are very real opportunities for companies in the B2B space to build more engaging brands. Only 14 out of the 100 brands in the world are ‘business to business’ but the likes of IBM with Smarter Planet & Social Business have demonstrated great ways it should be done. Whatever the brand, the communications have to align with the cultural values of the company.

Everybody from the sales staff to the person that sweeps the floor must know why you’re special.

And therein lies the rub, special brands are the result of great companies.

Building a strong brand is one of the most potent weapons for growth there is. A strong brand provides the answer to just about every challenge you will face.

Obtaining sales is easier if the company has a strong brand.

Entering new markets become easier if you have a strong brand.

Launching new products, attracting the best staff, motivating existing staff, increasing margins on your products, inspiring loyalty and in some just cases feeling good about yourself and what you’re doing are all a result of a strong brand.

If you want to build real value into your brand, turn it into a cause. The companies that have a clear sense of mission are the ones most able to create a great brand story with higher value to all those that it touches.

People don’t just want leadership now, they expect it.

And those that lead in terms of innovation and culture will be those that shall be rewarded.

Cultural goals gives people in organisations scope and autonomy to make decisions, innovate and improve service/product quality. Building blocks to building even stronger brands that don’t have to compete on price. Most of the great brands mentioned above share a common theme – they are restless innovators.

Great brands are not made by digital tools, marketing agencies or people like ourselves at the loft. Our role is critical to compiling and articulating a vision but the brand message is created by the business leaders at the top. What kind of company do you want to build?

And on the subject of leadership, if brands must have personality to win in the digital race, who should determine what kind of personality the brand has? If the entrepreneur or business leader is going to be bought into a brand and drive it forward. If it’s your baby that you wish to grow. It ultimately has to reflect your character. You are the main stakeholder, it is your values, principles, interests and vision that will determine the success of the brand long after the agencies have completed their work.

With the amount of noise in today’s market, only the brands with the strength of purpose and clarity of message will gain and retain loyal clients. This can be shaped only by company culture and the vision laid out at the top of the organisation.

And it is for this reason that in this the digital age, it is people that are at the heart of building brands for the 21st century.

For further information, you can check out our info graph that compliments this talk at…

https://theloft.co/loft-brand-experience-map.pdf

Benedetto

Benedetto Bordone

Creative Director of the loft.

Benedetto runs the branding consultancy, the loft. Based in the centre of Glasgow, the loft creates emotive brands.

Benedetto began his design career aged 9, sketching cars in the loft bedroom of his parents house. Even then he realised some eternal truths. Alfa Romeos are infinitely cooler than Ferraris and always have been. Time has only hardened this opinion. Since then, he has been on a journey taking him from his hometown in Kilmarnock to Coventry, studying car design aged 17, three separate spells in Italy followed where he interned, worked & freelanced for distinguished design companies – BeeStudio, Alfa Romeo, Honda Advanced design & Stile Bertone.

Setting up his own business was a natural step for somebody as independently minded as Benedetto. The loft was set up in 2008 and offers a comprehensive branding and communication service to its clients. The company combines a deeply analytical approach into the clients culture and commercial targets before engaging in creative design and strategy work to build emotive brands.

branding Glasgow business growth design Glasgow emotive branding Glasgow The Loft vision

Tag: The Loft

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Posted by benbordone / News

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People Make Glasgow

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Bertha Benz & Connections

Posted by benbordone / News

Anna Marion Oui! Designs

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Branding for the 21st Century

Posted by benbordone / News

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