A little over a year ago, Peter Busby approached AARDMAAN to help them think through new business ideas, and help the put in place a strategic framework for this new business. Within months of our first strategic thinking workshop, Grayce was launched on the market.

A year since their launch, Grayce is thriving, growing and going from strength to strength. They are winning new customers and orders because, as Peter says, the proposition resonates with their target customers. 

What appealed to them was AARDMAAN's ability to think about what a proposition should be, to approach that from a number of different dimensions, and to home in what the market proposition should be.

“You focused on where the market opportunity really was for us, where the real value is, and where the compelling customer offering is."

From a strategic point of view what you did was extremely powerful. We moved from a business idea that would have taken time to input and execute on, that would have been dependent on more expensive people, that would struggle to differentiate itself, and would have struggled to gain the necessary traction. Instead we got a place where we had "white space", a clear proposition, something to differentiate ourselves, and something that fulfilled the market need. It has given us space to operate, which is hugely beneficial.

"You took us through a process where we refined our ideas and our propositions to a point where we felt we had a compelling proposition that we could test with the market."

The strategic thinking process paid dividends for Grayce. They now have customers, a pipeline and more people joining. From a standing start when they opened for business, with just a website and an idea a year ago, they now have blue chip clients. 

Despite the fact that we are a start up, that we are new, and that not many people know us, we are getting in to see a lot of senior people. My own anecdotal evidence walking round my network and beyond is that ‘this is of real interest’.

"I would absolutely recommend that everybody do this because it is hard to get customer feedback in the absence of a response."

It may take six or nine months to hear, and for that to filter down. That is huge amount of wasted time. From my experience, if you test that model, test your idea, with someone independent taking you through a thought process, before you take it to the market place, you will have a much better proposition at the end of the day. You will be more successful more quickly.

Read the full Grayce Story

"Upfront we realized it would be a very challenging target to realize, but you made 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."

Two of the world’s leading specialists in GRC, CSI Netherlands BV and su53 Solutions Ltd, merged to create the largest independent GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance) consulting firm for SAP clients in the world, and aardmaan was there from the start to help the newly formed company create a new brand identity.

This is the story of the formation of that new company.

The two companies had been working together for a number of years, and recognised that their combined expertise, capability and innovation would enable them to offer their clients the full range of GRC design, implementation and support services, and create a stronger business.

Both companies were eager to re-brand the merged business and create new marketing materials in time for the launch of the new merged company.

A Strategic Rebrand

Seventy Three Design was selected in a competitive pitch to deliver a new company name, re-brand, create new marketing materials and deliver a new website within three months. Vicki Lovegrove of Seventy Three Design approached aardmaan to support the project with strategic marketing workshops, company naming and content development.

Our goal was to help the two companies to merge by building a powerful brand - sending out a clear message that the company had gained strength and power from the merger and is a global leader in its field.

A powerful and relevant name

We needed to come up with a new name, brand identity and a new website - ready for launch to internal and external audiences for the first week of January. A tall order. The client expressed doubt that we'd be able to create a powerful and relevant name that resonated with their clients and would get buy-in from senior stakeholders in the time.

Thinking through every angle

Our first step was to understand the two companies strengths, values and capabilities.  We worked with the senior management team to gain a big picture view of the business - acting as a catalyst in developing a powerful business and marketing strategy. The process, though very intensive and painful at times, delivered the rewards of clarity and focus. Without this we wouldn't have come up with a powerful brand name or unique company positioning.

Finding a word that wasn't taken

We came up with dozens of names. A huge spidersweb of words - even looking at a combination of Dutch and English words. Then came the domain name test and we discovered that even the most obscure weren't available. 

But we found our word. And that word was available as a domain name ... in all its country variants too.

We decided we were only going to present one brand name. Of all the names we looked at - there was only one obvious choice.

The moment of truth

The MD was nervous and asked whether we had any alternatives to present to the board. We were confident that we had found the right name for their new company. A name that would be appropriate to their market, the company and their values.

That name is Integrc (in-teg-ri-see)

Smiles broke out around the room. The first response was: "I like it! That's brilliant!" and  "Where did that come from? Pure genius!"

We'd cracked it.

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 had been a 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.

A name so appropriate, it made grown men cry

We could finally reveal Integrc to the world ... a name so appropriate to the market, the company and their values!

Launch day finally arrived and the feedback from the client was phenomenal. Everyone they've spoken to love the name: their employees, clients, partners and major stakeholders too.  

Accolades don't come any stronger than this > Michael Rasmussen, the man who coined the term GRC wrote to say: "Integrc, I love your business name, particularly when you pronounce it similar to integrity. Actually very jealous and envious that I did not think of that."   

Read the case study >

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?  

Born in the Seychelles in November 1936, Emilienne was a remarkable woman and led a remarkable life.

Emilienne's funeral is on Monday, 9th May at 10:40 at Barham in Kent. Family flowers only please - donations in lieu of flowers to Kingsdown Cat Sanctuary .

Thought we'd share some of that learning here.

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

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

MarconiCalling  demonstrates just how much the world has changed in the last decade. It gives us a glimpse back to what "ambitious" websites were like in the early Noughties. How the world has changed ... 

That was quite something ... have just been watching the inauguration. Probably one of the most momentous days we will ever witness.

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

You sell but your customers buy. You have a sales process and your customers have a buying process.