Branching out - evolving to grow

My design consultancy started as a 3D (structural) packaging design company. We surfed the wave of global FMCG/CPG corporations realising that physical packages could be used to build their brands, not just transport and protect the stuff inside.

We helped them use physical packaging, rather than just the labels, to support brand claims and promote benefits on the shelf, in-store. Then after purchase, to deliver a positive usage experience.

Sustainability was a factor, but back then it was usually more important to find efficiencies for cost savings. Especially at the scale we were working at.

So we designed bottles, boxes, bags, pouches, pumps, sachets, cartons, cases, tubs, tubes, trays and sprays.

Lots of them.

Business was good, but to grow further, we looked towards value in related services. The nearest and most obvious was 2D brand identity, and packaging graphics.

As we won more of this work, we hired new people and soon our 2D team (and revenue stream) became at least as big as our 3D one.

With these combined capabilities, it was relatively natural to expand our offer into further adjacent disciplines. We started designing collateral materials for activation, events, experiences, and retail – all the brand communication, fixtures and environments that surrounded the packaging we’d design. Plus the associated brand guidelines, of course.

Our work in product and packaging innovation blossomed too – developing novel formats that enabled new rituals and experiences.

So far, so good.

But along the way we hit a stumbling block.

As well as broadening our services, we wanted to move upstream; to capture more value from the insight and strategy end of the design process. We were doing lots of this work anyway, but often found ourselves including it ‘for free’ within a design execution project. Or worse, giving it away just to win the 'doing' work.

“We don’t need strategy. We’ve done it already.”

We tried to push the upstream work (and charge more for it) but our clients resisted. They’d say “We don’t need that” or “We’ve already done it”. Of course, nine times out of ten they did need it. And they hadn’t done it. At least not properly.

Instead, our prospects pointed at the tangible products we’d designed and said “We want one of those”.

What should we do?

After lots of head scratching, rather frustratingly, we realised that the answer was under our noses the whole time. Staring us in the face, in fact.

Our website was filled with beautiful hero images of our work. Mainly packaging, plus other associated brand materials that we’d designed and were justifiably proud of.

Likewise, our office prominently featured said packaging, displayed on glass shelves, under spotlights. Plastic dish detergent bottles and the like, presented like museum pieces. Along with the awards we’d won too, obviously.

We realised that OF COURSE that’s what our clients came to us wanting. That’s what we were telling them we did. Loud and clear.

If we wanted to expand our offer upstream, we had to make a change.

Up until then, our company tagline had been ‘Design for brands’. Now WE know that the practice of design includes the essential front end research and strategy activities. But clients tend to define design by its tangible deliverables.

We realised that we needed to shift the focus away from OUR OUTPUTS.

Instead, we should demonstrate the OUTCOMES of the full breadth of our work, and all the expertise required to achieve them.

It was time to take a spoonful of our own strategic medicine.

After much deliberation, we came up with a new value proposition captured by the statement:

“Creating meaningful connections between people and brands.”

No mention of design – and certainly not packaging. Yes, we used design – which often, but not always, resulted in packaging. But that was our means, not our clients' end.

It might sound a little cheesy as a strap line, but remember, most of our clients were big FMCG/CPG companies. They sold products which competed with cheaper, own brand alternatives. They were desperately attempting not to be seen as commodity items. What they wanted more than anything was for their brands to mean something to people.

We removed most of the beautiful images of packages from our website. And took the bottles off our glass shelves. We took the shelves down too.

Instead, we displayed big photographs of people. Wherever possible, we showed them interacting with the brands we designed for. At very least, they’d be in a situation where our client’s brands would be used.

We selected (and took) photographs that felt genuine and told stories. They showed how our clients’ products solved problems, or made life a little better. The people looked confident and happy.

Then we added a small, jewel-like brand logo in the corner – our client's brand logo, not ours.

Further, we rewrote our case studies and included images showing our team members conducting the research we’d done with real people. Usually, in-context, face-to-face ethnography that uncovered the elusive and valuable insights. They weren’t always polished photographs, as you can probably imagine!

Our past success was hampering our future growth.

Dialling down the work that had got us to where we were was a brave step. But our past success was hampering our future growth.

Packaging was still visible, but it was far less prominent. We reasoned that we were already so well known for packaging that we probably couldn’t shift that association fully, even if we tried. We’d retain credibility in that space regardless, so we could risk over-indexing elsewhere.

It wasn’t easy, but it worked. We formalised our Insight and Strategy team, and ring-fenced the revenue it generated, so we could track and celebrate it. The discipline grew to become a healthy profit centre in its own right, as well as feeding the more downstream work.

Some of our long-standing clients continued to use us primarily for design execution. Others took advantage of our full service. But some new clients only engaged us for insight and strategy work. That’s when I knew what we’d done had worked.

Here are five lessons I learned:

1. Don’t stand still

Proactively seek out ways to evolve and grow. Sometimes opportunities occur naturally, or even by accident. If they do, recognise and embrace them. If they don’t, go and find them.

2. Examine what you’re saying

If you want your audience to view you differently, take an honest look at what you’re communicating to them. That’s the main thing they have to go on.

3. Adjacencies first

Start by identifying natural areas of expansion, then build out. This will make your extension feel credible, and you shouldn’t need to hire a completely new team to do the new work.

4. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater

Expand where possible, rather than replace. You don’t want to alienate past and current clients who are happy with what you already provide.

5. Be brave

Clients and prospects aren’t paying much attention. They won’t notice small changes. Choose what you want to tell them, then shout about it.

Have you evolved your offer recently? If so, how?

If not, is now the right time?

I built a 100-person international design consultancy, before selling it.

Now I work independently, providing:

GROWTH ADVICE: Invigorating creative leaders

COMMERCIAL SKILLS TRAINING: Boosting creative careers