Huge congratulations go to Edward Kapili, Carmen Lo, Arthur Katende and Rob Crane on achieving distinctions in your MBA at the University of Leicester.

Photo: Social event held to celebrate the successful completion of the LATI case study project, attended by 2008/09 MBA students: Arthur Katende, Edward Kapili, Rob Crane, Carmen Lo, Gillian Hunter and Bodunrin Oyedele 

Thanks to all the University of Leicester Business School students who took part in the 2008 /09 LATI case study project. You worked hard - and are now reaping the rewards! Deservedly!

Case studies created by students from the University of Leicester can be viewed on the LATI website

Thought we'd share some of that learning here.

It has been quite a week for aardmaan. Besides celebrating our tenth year in business, we also celebrated the launch of a major player in the SAP GRC space. This is the story of that strategic rebrand - and how it took us just three months from initial brief to spectacular launch. 

SeventyThree Design contacted us in September about a potential client project. We pitched against two other agencies, and won the contract on 6 October . The project was to create a new brand identity for two leading consultancy players in the SAP GRC space who were merging. They wanted a new web landing page, and material for internal and external launch.

On the 4th November , we presented to the boards of the two companies - one Dutch and the other British. Our proposal included a brand new company name. Don't think they thought we'd come up with a brand name everyone would liked, but the first response was: "That's brilliant! Where did that come from? Pure genius!" Now the hard work began, building on the strategy work we did prior to the board meeting and creating the content and design elements.

On 6th of January , as planned,  the company announced itself to the world! It was an very exciting week and an exhilarating 3 months. We delivered more than expected > a complete new website that is market focused, new service portfolio, a reference library, customer information packs, new corporate brochure, internal and external presentations, corporate guidelines, corporate templates, a calendar and more.

My twitter feed tells the story >

The name of the new company, we can now reveal is Integrc (pronounced In-te-gri-see). Delighted that domain name was available! In all its variations too. So appropriate to the market, the company and their values!

Integrc goes live > 6th January 2012

Launch day finally arrived and the feedback from the client was phenomenal. Everyone they had spoken to loved the name: their employees, clients, partners and major stakeholders too. The website: www.integrc.com went live - on schedule.

"Upfront we realized it would be a very challenging target to realize, but you did make it! We have a terrific new name, a splendid looking website with good content, logo ... thank you for giving us a wonderful start to our journey."

And, CEO of Hallam thinks so too ... great to get the recognition. Don't ask for references near often enough (note to self)

This couldn't have been done without teamwork - so thanks to Vicki of SeventyThree Design for getting me involved and the rest of the dream team for pulling this off > @_sixpm @robthedog and @73design - and of course our amazing client, Integrc > couldn't have done it without you! Loved every minute of it!

So, who do you focus on? Where do you put all your effort? Pleasing the customer or creating something that users will rave about? It's simple really, if you don't excite users, your customers (the guys who sign the cheques) won't get excited either.  Users drive sales. Customers only buy because they see there is a ready market - and they're onto a sure thing. They're only really interested in the bottom line and making a good profit. If users aren't going mad about your product or service - where's the incentive? 

So, how do you treat the users of your products and services? Do you engage them? Talk to them? Or, ignore them?  

The successful completion of the project was celebrated with a game of skittles at the Beacon pub in Loughborough this week.

Some very powerful messaging and imagery. Ads that were witty, entertaining and engaging.