“We’ve changed our business model, updated our offer and launched new products, but no one seems to have noticed.”
Clients often tell us a version of this. They are puzzled and frustrated. They have invested significant funds in reshaping their business and brand yet those big changes are failing to resonate. Despite their best efforts, they don’t seem to be relevant to the customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders they want to reach. Meanwhile, their leadership teams are looking for results. The pressure’s on.
We call this a connection problem and we see it all the time. So, what can be done?
The first thing is to make sure you’re clear on who you’re trying to reach. Don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to speak to everyone. Who do you need to connect with and who should you avoid?
Take customers. Are you missing out on new customers who can power your growth? If so, are they aware of you and what do they think of you? They may have very different behaviour and perceptions to your existing customers.
The same goes for employees. How are they feeling about your organisation and where it’s heading? If you need to build new capabilities, how can you appeal to the people you need to deliver that? You can ask the same sorts of questions for investors, government stakeholders and regulators.
The truth is that awareness, understanding and expectations take a long time to shift. Despite the changes you’ve made, perceptions get stuck. Suddenly, you’re out of date, uninteresting and irrelevant. An agile new competitor has repositioned you or your whole sector has an image problem and you’re suffering as a result.
Technology has created huge changes in how brands can and should communicate. You can target your messages not just at specific audiences but specific people. Your core purpose and tone of voice will anchor your key messaging, but there’s scope for nuance and flexibility in how you show up with different audiences and people. The traditional one-way push style of communication has evolved to one that embraces dialogue and interaction.
The Institute of Directors (IoD) faced a lot of these issues when we started working with them.
The IoD has been around for more than 100 years but was not ageing well. It was increasingly seen as old-fashioned, staid and London-centric.
This was not at all the reality. The IoD’s Royal Charter defines their responsibilities to promote good governance and professionalism in business. They had done a huge amount of work to create tools and programmes providing support and professional development for the next generation of business creators and leaders. The offer was great but the people they wanted to reach didn’t know they existed or simply thought of the IoD as an old gentlemen’s club on Pall Mall.
Many of the people starting and building businesses in the UK are young, female and ethnically diverse. A young woman starting a business in her 20s can find many sources of inspiration, support and training. Increasingly, communities spring up on platforms like LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Telegram as well as niche networks like Tech Nation. A more traditional membership-style organisation isn’t as relevant as it once was and an organisation like the IoD seemed completely alien.
While new members were getting harder to reach, at the same time, existing members were getting older and retiring. The IoD needed to connect with new people to rediscover its purpose and secure its future for the next hundred years.
We created a powerful story and value proposition for the IoD aligned with their purpose, ‘better directors for a better world’. The story gave them a platform on which they could connect with the people they needed to reach. This included a new website through which people could join, buy and learn.
The approach has worked. The average age of new members has dropped by ten years since launch and one in three new joiners is female.
Talk to us about building understanding and connection for your business and brand.