Impact

Take a look at some of the projects we've worked on and the impact made.

Leeds University Business School

Brief and approach

Leeds University Business School (LUBS) recently embarked on a refreshed strategy development process.

We supported them throughout the entire process by:

Primary objectives

Understand brand perceptions of LUBS from the perspective of internal and external stakeholders
Benchmark how far away they are from the desired future state in terms of reputation and positioning
Identify opportunities to better meet the needs of external stakeholders
Better understand effective communications initiatives to improve engagement with all stakeholder groups

Results

Based on our findings from across the series of depth interviews, workshops, and quantitative surveys, we pulled together a key findings and recommendations report that informed the final strategy and future direction for the School in terms of reputation and positioning.

This work has also subsequently informed a creative services brief to refresh the visual identity for the School.

Nathalie has offered invaluable support to the strategy development process at Leeds University Business School. In particular, the mentorship to workstream leads as they worked through the process of visioning, gap analysis and developing strategic objectives.
The external perspective helped keep us out of the weeds and thinking big picture. Moreover, the team brought in their knowledge, experience and data from the broader HE sector to support our reflections and debates. Finally, we have benefited from the momentum they have provided to the process to keep us on track and accountable to timescales.

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Loughborough University, School of Design and Creative Arts

Brief

In late 2019, Loughborough University’s School of Design and Creative Arts was formed as a result of a merger between three Schools that previously covered creative arts, media and design.

Although they were using School of Design and Creative Arts as a working title, there was confusion over the new identity and how the new School should be positioned both internally and externally to its varied audience groups.

There was also a need to review the visual identity – historically one of the Schools had its own distinct sub-brand and the other two Schools had aligned with the main Loughborough University brand.

Problems to solve

Approach

We undertook a series of internal stakeholder workshops to understand the strategic direction for the new School, points of differentiation, audience mapping and what the School wants to be known for.

We worked with the University’s creative services team to understand the existing brand architecture and guidelines around visual identity.

We undertook primary and desk-based research to review the current identity for the merged Schools.

We completed primary research (qualitative and quantitative) to understand audience needs and perceptions.

We undertook competitor benchmarking (against their current and aspirational comparators) to identify points of differentiation and opportunities for the newly merged School.

Results

Based on our findings and outputs from across the full range of workshops, audience insight and desk-based market research that we undertook, we pulled together a key findings and recommendations report that informed the future direction for the School in terms of their strategic objectives, reputation and positioning.

This work also subsequently informed a creative services brief to refresh the visual identity for the School which, based on the findings from the primary research, needed to be much more closely aligned with the master Loughborough University brand.

The work is comprehensive and informative. It confirms some of the things we knew already and brings also new insights to the table. The report is well written, and one colleague reflected that the findings are uplifting.

Overall, the project is seen as an important building block for our marketing and communications as well as for the development of the strategic direction of the new school.