Lawrence & Pierce | Marketing Visions - vision_vi

talking point

We're in the visioning business, pure and simple, helping companies articulate and communicate vision. It's at the heart of business success. The best businesses get it right at inception but the real test is do customers recognise it and does it stay fresh one, five, ten years down the line?

Lawrence & Pierce has helped many businesses articulate their vision and given them public profile. We created the visual identity for First's passenger transport operations. The international plc is one of the UK's biggest public transport operators and its dramatic magenta and blue liveries are a familiar sight on buses and trains. Now we have been appointed by First to oversee brand application and consistency throughout the passenger transport group's bus and train operations, in recognition of the need to maximise the impact of the original vision and avoid dilution of the brand.

We're helping companies of all sizes to discover and articulate their vision in diverse sectors.

Maintaining a focus on vision is important for all businesses, large and small, but is especially vital in sizeable infrastructure projects such as transport and construction. The engineering-focus has to be allied with a customer-focus. Project logistics mean that there can be dozens of suppliers and contractors involved. Add to this the magnitude and complexity that characterise many big organisations.

We're helping companies of all sizes to discover and articulate their vision in diverse sectors. Recently, for example, we've helped two restaurant entrepreneurs with branding that gives expression to their ambition to create a highly individual new eating and drinking experience. Cena (see artwork on inside flap) places no pre-conceptions on what customers are seeking, instead inviting them to create something that they can call their own.

Clarity and compelling communication of vision are all-important. In crowded marketplaces, it is the single factor that can deliver competitive advantage. Increasingly, today's consumers regard all the things that make up the content of a business - good products, service, value - as expected. These things are critical in the sense that if they go wrong the business will fail but, on their own, they are not the stuff of competitive differentiation. Put them together with a winning articulation of vision and the company is immediately one step ahead.

Martin Lord MANAGING DIRECTOR

beyond the brief

BACKGROUND

Trent Buses were seeking to introduce a new network-wide ticketing promotion giving passengers 13 journeys for the price of ten. Lawrence & Pierce’s (L&P) challenge was to devise a name for the ticket, develop and implement an internal and external marketing strategy and formulate a launch, including any associated promotional activities.

AIMS

L&P saw the opportunity to use the flexibility of the ticket to encourage people switching from cars to buses.

To increase passenger journeys. Increase the passenger base. Speed up boarding times and reward customer loyalty.

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

To increase customer loyalty and encourage customer recommendations. Looking beyond the brief, L&P saw the opportunity to use the flexibility of the ticket to encourage people switching from cars to buses.

SOLUTION

The creation of the FRIO name delivered a clear way of reflecting the 13 for ten offer and also gave an identity to the ticket. The campaign then used a fun, carnival theme to communicate a feel-good factor around both personal ownership of the ticket and bus travel itself. Martin Lord, L&P MD, points out that internal communication of the campaign within the bus company was also a key component. “We placed a large emphasis on staff training, being acutely aware that their support and understanding of the campaign would be crucial to its success.”

MEDIA

L&P identified the staff as playing an integral part in the campaign, and gave them tools to successfully implement the marketing proposition.

A fully inclusive campaign covering TV, radio and outdoor media.

RESULTS

From initial research the campaign has proven extremely successful. Results show that 30% of Trent Buses’ existing passengers utilise the service more frequently, with a 15% rise in family usage. Trent Buses believe a large part of the success is down to the staff, who fully embraced the campaign through their knowledge and understanding gained from the training provided by L&P. One of the main objectives was to achieve campaign awareness. Research shows that 87% of passengers were aware of the promotion.

CLIENT FEEDBACK

“The project was taken further than I could have ever imagined with fantastic results. We chose L&P for their reputation and they have proven themselves to be invaluable to the growth of Trent Buses,” says Sarah Taylor, Marketing Manager of Trent Buses.

in brief

Medicircle
Lawrence & Pierce has designed and implemented a recruitment campaign for one of the UK’s leading suppliers of first-aid equipment. “We appointed them because they understood our individual approach to sales and how to attract the right personalities needed to sell into UK industries,” says Denise Giliat, Medicircle’s National Recruitment Manager.

Cena
A distinctive name and brand has been developed by L&P for a new restaurant/bar in Nottingham’s Lace Market. “I didn’t want to compete on the usual market differentiators. L&P hit the nail on the head with a concept and feel that went to the heart of my service approach,” says Danny Keane, joint founder of Cena.

Reviva
Reviva, the UK’s foremost name in gyms for women, turned to L&P to launch the rebranding of their flagship gym. “By carefully tackling potentially delicate issues we successfully implemented a press, DM and on-street campaign sympathetic to a broad target market.” says Jan Broome, Marketing Manager, Reviva.