2 What was the problem/opportunity faced by the client
In 2004, FMG (Fleet Management Group) Ltd turned over £29m with 130 staff. It provided three bespoke outsourced services to car and commercial fleets:
• vehicle accident management
• commercial vehicle repair and recovery
• vehicle rental brokerage,
All of these were delivered by three differently named businesses.
Customers dealt with one business or another, with little crossover or awareness of other services available. Three separate sales forces had little incentive to cross-sell.
The sector was dominated by heavyweights (the AA and RAC Commercial). CEO Nick Brown's vision was to achieve major growth by taking on the 'big boys', and using their size and strength against them. These giants were perceived as inflexible, with a lack of focus on the fleet sector, understanding little of the day-to-day challenges it faced. Brown planned to place the customer at the heart of his proposition.
But why would the biggest targets and influencers in fleet (such as GE, Zurich, and Arval) listen to an SME in Huddersfield? FMG knew it needed to raise its game and build its reputation by investing in brand.
3 Brief project background
FMG approached Propaganda looking for more professional and engaging sales literature.
Asked to create a branded approach to ‘what we do at FMG’, Propaganda knew that the brief was impossible. We couldn't create an engaging and differentiated approach without first understanding how FMG tackled its customers' challenges and what difference it made.
We recommended a Discovery programme - to understand what customers wanted, and what they thought of FMG. We would use this to build a brand capable of delivering the challenging objective of increasing turnover from £29m to £45m.
4 Consulting activity
4.1 Knowledge before assumption
The Discovery programme included staff, customers, intermediaries, suppliers and prospects, plus wider stakeholders like competitors and the media. Internal interviews ranged from call centre operatives to board members; customer interviews from fleet managers to chairman; suppliers from recovery vehicle drivers to proprietors. The result was a balanced, 360° picture of FMG.
Our planning and PR teams undertook desk research to establish market size and trends, legislative changes, sector issues and opinion audits. This helped put our new insights into the context of the wider market, its challenges and its opportunities.
4.2 Offering solutions to the business issues
We then created a brand proposition, backed by brand promises, to differentiate and elevate FMG in the market. The output of our Discovery process identified several opportunities to help the company break through its glass ceiling. Our Brand Star model helped extract the essence of the three businesses, to ensure that promises made by FMG would be credible and deliverable. We identified and proposed solutions for six key business issues:
4.2.1 Selling more to existing customers AND finding new ones
The three businesses delivered very different services under separate names with separate sales forces. There was minimal cross-brand awareness or cross-selling.
Our solution:
We discovered that stakeholders' opinions of their experiences with FMG were astonishingly consistent. Rather than changing or improving what the group did, we needed to integrate the businesses to do more of it.
We proposed dissolving the three companies and integrating them into one business: FMG Support. We identified the brand values 'pride, intelligence, determination'. We wanted to make these overt, and for FMG Support to constantly check all activity and communications against these values.
4.2.2 Protecting vital supplier partnerships
FMG Support’s supplier network of independent bodyshops and roadside repair agents is crucial to its brand delivery: they are the roadside face of the business. Any fantastic new branding would immediately collapse if those brand promises were broken at the roadside.
There was no real sense of a ‘network’ within which these partners could share and develop best practice for the sector. In this fiercely competitive and consolidating market, they were being offered greater volumes of work by the big boys. We needed to establish ongoing loyalty and priority over competitors – securing our client the fastest, most professional assistance in response to incident calls.
FMG Support thought this loyalty might be bought with higher pay-rates and better terms. But Discovery showed that these partners just wanted someone on their side - help in being seen as real professionals, and in developing successful and growing businesses.
Our solution
We proposed a supplier programme unique to the sector - FMG Partner Support. Membership required meeting demanding service expectations, and the specialist equipment and skills needed to ensure continuous improvement and the highest sector standards. In return, partners got:
• sophisticated online management information
• best practice workshops
• regular get-togethers
• an awards programme
• purchasing deals for key consumables
• preferential payment terms for top performers
4.2.3 Doing more with less
FMG Support had nowhere near the marketing budget of the big boys. We had to out-think them, instead.
Our solution
We decided to capture the intellectual high ground, using a PR-driven thought-leadership programme with three key objectives:
• positioning FMG Support as a challenger brand
• communicating its understanding of the sector and broader business
• promoting fleet management as a board concern
We probed FMG Support for the burning issues in the sector. Our business writers developed a series of opinion papers, which we:
• published to the press
• posted on the new website
• mailed to board members in client/prospect organisations
To further elevate our client's profile, we set up a cross-party working group, the Fleet Progression Forum (sponsored by FMG Support) to host round-table debates with key industry figures. This forum is chaired by Steven Norris, former Minister for Transport.
4.2.4 Pushing to the top of the agenda
We discovered that fleet managers desperately wanted to raise their status at work. They felt undervalued, with little acknowledgement of their passion and dedication, and there was minimal board-level understanding that fleet management could positively and significantly affect profitability.
Our solution
Our new brand advertising campaign elevated our client's messaging beyond a simple service description to a confident proclamation of business benefits.
We identified the fleet sector 'bibles' and focussed vertical advertising spend in just two trade titles. In a sector advertising first, we also initiated a horizontal campaign in the general business press, to put the message in front of board executives. To guarantee our messages reached our audience, we subscribed targeted senior executives to the publication where the ads would appear.
4.2.5 Smarter through systems
Across all three businesses, clients and staff of FMG Support said their superior technology was a major differentiator. FMG Support had invested over £2m in a bespoke web-based MIS: the big boys had nothing like it.
Our solution
We believed this technology to be so strong that we recommended sub-branding it as ‘Ingenium’, giving salespeople a strongly branded differentiator to discuss in sales calls.
4.2.6. Telling everyone
We hadn’t forgotten that FMG had started out just asking for some brochures.
Our solution
We created a new logo and visual identity for FMG Support, from which flowed:
• a brand book, about business values, for staff, supply partners and board executives
• a brochure, about the three service areas and Ingenium, for fleet managers
• a new website and Fleet Progression Forum microsite
• a visual identity and collateral for FMG Partner Support
• case studies outlining the approach and results with clients such as Royal Mail, Xerox and Carlsberg.
4.3 Timescales
Implementation began in November 2004, concluding in November 2005. We have since continued to help FMG Support develop and implement its annual business and strategic marketing plans.
4.4 People involved
Discovery was led by a senior consultant, supported by planners. Two senior consultants headed up an internal panel for proposition ‘challenge and build’ sessions.
The core project team ran workshops explaining the rationale behind the new brand to staff at FMG Support, and attended board meetings to ensure communication and buy-in.
At tactical implementation, a wider project team became involved including Propaganda’s creative and PR teams, working closely with the client at all levels.
5 Success factors and challenges
• Challenges centred around managing change, rather than resisting it. Overall, clients and staff were supportive and motivated by the differentiated proposition.
• Since brand launch, FMG Support’s growth has been significant – now employing 330 people to deliver the £75m turnover projected for 2007.
• FMG Partner Support now has over 60 members. Its first annual forum attracted 100 delegates and the programme has improved delivery against all key performance indicators.
• The Fleet Progression Forum has hosted two successful round-table debates to date. Significant opinion-based coverage was secured in trade press and in The Times. We have moved from actively courting the sector media to a situation where they call FMG Support for its position on sector issues.
• Greater brand visibility has reaped dividends: Royal Mail went from saying they couldn’t appoint a relative unknown to awarding FMG Support a 3-year extended contract for 40,000 delivery vehicles. GE became a customer, saying they felt comfortable with FMG Support's brand values: not just because of ‘what they do’, but the ‘way they do it’.
• Recruiting and retaining enough high-calibre people had been a challenge; our work with the HR team ensured and maintained a good local reputation, attracted senior appointments from the big boys and other sectors.
• Staff at FMG Support have a much clearer idea of what the group has to offer, and how to contribute personally to its success.
As for Propaganda:
• this project underlined for us that change must have complete buy-in across the client’s business if it is to be sustained and successful. The ongoing focus on cross-party communication and project ownership paid great dividends for the programme. We contrast this with previous projects where we’ve been wheeled in at short notice as 'Mr Fix-It' in a knee-jerk response to significant internal change or challenge, rather than being enabled to create a long-term strategy for success as was the case here.
6 The client/consultant relationship
Brands are built from within. FMG Support supported the client/consultant relationship, and dramatically increased their chances of success, by leading the brand relaunch from the top. Chief executive Nick Brown led by example and stripped away much of the potential resistance to change.
Propaganda has been retained to deliver ongoing strategic support and direction, maintaining close relationships with all the key influencers and implementers of the brand.
Client testimonial
“For over two years, Propaganda has delivered tangible results and been instrumental in shaping both our business and marketing strategy. One clear differentiator has been the detailed research they invest in, making sure our decision-making stems from real understanding.
"We work closely together to roll out change across our business, and so we have relationships at all levels.
"Our investment with Propaganda has been significant, but the returns have been indisputable. We are delighted with the services that we receive and really do consider Propaganda an integral extension of our team.”
Nick Brown, Chief Executive
