Montpellier worked on re-positioning Spacetailors as a market leader, building a national identity to liberate and support the client’s ambitious growth plans. We raised awareness of the company with its clients, developers and architects in target sectors.
Founded originally as a plumbing and heating contractor in 1963, Gwyn Powell & Son earned a name for quality and reliability working mainly in the private sector. Although based in Cheltenham it served clients all over the UK. Andy Powell joined the family firm as an apprentice in 1980 and as the years progressed the focus increasingly turned towards offering a complete fit-out service to the retail and leisure industry. Brands such as Odeon Cinemas, Mecca Bingo, and Grosvenor Casinos soon became regular clients, meaning Gwyn Powell needed to expand.
Andy Powell took over as MD in 1997, upon the retirement of his father, and decided to build on the business that his father had established. Although the company was not as profitable as it should have been, everything else was in place in terms of skilled craftsmen and a loyal client base. The next phase was to take the business on to the national stage including introduction of more sophisticated business systems, beefing up the management team, consolidation of profitable jobs and stripping out unprofitable contracts. In doing so, the company acquired further prestige brands such as Esporta, Mecca, Arcadia and Cult Clothing.
It was at this stage that Andy Powell came to Montpellier, thinking initially that he only needed public relations.
• To prepare the company for a national profile
• To create a persona for the business which would make it attractive to potential
partners/acquirers
• To express the new brand through a range of visual communication tools
• To build awareness of the organisation – initially through vertical media and then
through other media
• To install regional pride in the business
• To support business restructuring and strengthen the communication of product
offering to the clients
Montpellier’s senior consultants recognised that whilst the business enjoyed national clients, it had no national identity, nor, more importantly, did the trading name fit with the company’s aspirations or client base. They recommended that what was needed was a new trading name that retained the heritage of the Gwyn Powell business but the ambitions, flair and credentials of a modern, progressive and, perceptually, larger company altogether. Providing robust counsel to the client they sought to place the highest priority on the re-brand in order that, once complete, noise-generation and active marketing communications programmes could take place.
Prior to the recommended re-brand, Montpellier researched a number of Gwyn Powell’s competitors, to establish the levels of creative sophistication and branding, and discovered that the larger competitors in particular took design and their branding seriously, seeing their own corporate identities as an expression of their own creative input to fitting out prestige environments.
Following the research phase, Montpellier conceived a new trading name Spacetailors, to reflect more accurately the business offering, and how it went about it, but retaining a reference to the former name “a Gwyn Powell Company”, subordinated in the logo.
Work then started on developing a range of visual communication tools, from the website to sales-support materials and a corporate brochure with client case-study fact-sheet illustrate the market segments in which Spacetailors excelled:
• Leisure & fitness
• Hotels & hospitality
• Retail
• Education
• Broadcasting
Uniforms and T-shirts were designed for all the workers, and the full fleet of new strikingly branded vehicles. Montpellier also organised the introduction of the brand to the workforce with a special presentation at the Daffodil restaurant in Cheltenham, where all crews were invited from across the UK and treated to a celebration together with key clients and supply chain partners.
A media relations programme was commenced, to position the company as a leader in its market.
From the outset regional business titles such as Western Daily Press, Gloucestershire Echo and The Citizen in addition to interviews with BBC Radio Gloucestershire were targeted and major spreads were achieved, with follow on stories placed including contracts and new staff announcements; Montpellier also leveraged Andy Powell’s prowess at marathon running, with media coverage on his charity efforts including the New York marathon. The rationale for this strategy was the need for the business to break into the local corporate market to supplement its national presence in other sectors. The upshot was an immediate positioning of the new brand to the audiences that matter. In parallel a planned sector-focused campaign targeted media including Architects Datafile, Construction Today, FX Design Magazine, gs magazine (hotels and hospitality), Design Innovations from HotelBusiness, Keystone (Ireland and UK), Total Retail, Building for Leisure, Construction Today Europe, Hull Daily Mail (targeting local contracts in South Yorkshire). Tactics included bespoke feature articles, association with larger brands, such as major prestige hotels, editor briefings, case studies and site visits.
Montpellier has forged a strong relationship with the principal and our retainer incorporates sessions every two weeks where business strategy is discussed. The consultancy has a special role in advising on business development from recommending letter scripts through to bid presentations and acting as a sounding board for new areas such as expansion into new sectors. Tactical advertising has also been used where appropriate, especially in hospitality and hotel design directories.
The business has more than doubled in size since the re branding exercise with a turnover of £5million. The client recognises contract wins with new clients such as Cult Clothing, Planet Broadcasting, Reel Cinemas and Parkdean Holidays, have been helped by an integrated marketing approach, on the back of the new brand.
With an AEV in excess of £80,000 in targeted media (the quality of the media and positive coverage achieved was an overarching objective rather than quantity, therefore the bespoke editorial approach was undertaken rather than issuing releases) Montpellier has evolved into a strategic business partner with this client; enjoying an exceptional position of trust, we are asked to advise on a range of issues, often outside the remit of the normal consultancy relationship.
This business is now in the top five nationally in the leisure sector, has its sights on the lucrative corporate sector and has re-established itself in the hotel and hospitality market.