Veredus
How Purple Vision inspired a client to develop a fresh new identity
Situation
Veredus is a leading executive resourcing consultancy. Part of the Capita Group, it has over 130 staff in six UK offices and an annual turnover of around £30m.
Veredus recruits board members and senior managers for local authorities and government departments, particularly in health, education and criminal justice. In the commercial sector, the company serves the transport, utilities, professional services and construction sectors.
The resourcing market had grown significantly, driven initially by the expanding search and selection needs of local government, and then by new opportunities in interim management and central government. But Veredus faced increasing competition as new competitors could enter its market easily. Many of its traditional services were becoming commoditised, with negative impacts on reputation, margins, and staff morale.
Challenges
New Managing Director Mark Turner knew that sustainable market leadership would depend on developing new added-value services with levels of quality and impact demonstrably ahead of the competition.
“Veredus has a great track record and a reputation for excellent advice and service, but these are not enough and we had slipped from a position of pre-eminence. In short, Veredus had become “a leader, not the leader”. My objective was to reverse this and put the company back where it belongs – leading in all its chosen markets”.
His brief to Purple Vision required a brand that would re-establish a pre-eminent position in the public sector and niche leadership in its private sector practices. But crucially, the new brand had to bring together a wide range of services, stakeholders and locations, integrate with ongoing business activities and be delivered within 12 weeks!
Solution
Fundamental to Purple Vision’s approach was to understand and exploit the value of the existing brand, which was locked in the hearts and minds of its many clients and staff, and also in the network of senior managers that Veredus recruits to thousands of jobs.
Research with all these stakeholders identified a brand identity crisis:
- The Veredus brand had strong awareness among all its target audiences. However, for clients, individual consultants were the brand, with few explicit or shared brand values
- Within the business, most people were not sure of its future direction and strategy. Despite this, they expressed considerable passion for the organisation and support for a clear plan with active leadership
- Overall, Veredus was seen to be at the beginning of a new journey - unclear in its direction yet excited in its sentiment
Before any creative work could be started, Purple Vision knew that clarity must be secured around the company’s long-term vision and marketing strategy. A series of interviews with board members culminated in facilitated workshop, which achieved consensus around the key issues of positioning, tone, values and proposition.
Armed with this crucial direction from the board, Purple Vision briefed Veredus’s design agency to develop a series of alternative concepts, including typographic, visual and colour options, which were tested with small groups of staff from across the organisation.
The time available was very limited, but building on the enthusiasm within the company, a real sense of purpose and anticipation was created, based on active engagement with many of the people who would be representing the new brand in future.
Results
This process was very successful and led to a new brand position that is memorable, communicable and inspirational, particularly by comparison to the approaches of the competition.
The key deliverables were:
- Identity guidelines & toolkit
- Corporate brochure
- Website
- Advertising templates
- Reports & presentation templates
- Stationery & support materials
- Image library
- Tendering toolkit
Benefits
- Re-established the premium position of the Veredus brand
- Created sustainable differentiation from competitors
- Involved, inspired and integrated people across the business
- New brand identity developed, launched and in action within 12 weeks
“Purple Vision pulled out all the stops to deliver our re-brand. They made us focus on what our brand means to us, how important it is for us to own the process, and how important it is to get everyone involved.
‘Make things happen’ is a bold and inspirational new expression for what was a tired and outdated identity. Only we can live our brand, but Purple Vision created a powerful tool to help us do this.”
Mark Turner, Managing Director - Veredus
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