You feel your strategy can be sharper, bolder, sexier. You feel that one simple brand story could unify your company and give both your own people as well as the consumer clarity what your company is about. The result: All noses in the same direction and a big leap forward.

Well, that’s what we are specialized in.

We give you that 5-year-ahead-dot on the horizon. Inspiring, visually detailed, yet incredibly simple.

Plus: We make it visually super detailed. We give you everything you need to start running. Logo, store concept, marketing, fonts – you name it. Done and carried by your company, in 5 weeks.

If this is what you need, give us a call.

This one may be done separately, but is also a part of any new or sharpened strategy (see above).
When a company makes a big move forward, it’s usually combined with making that new direction VISUAL as well. You want the entire brand to ‘breath’ your purpose, your mission.
Well, we’re really, really good at making that. In fact, this might be where we set ourselves apart from other consultancies the most.
For us, the visual translation of a strategy into your brand isn’t something that comes after the strategy is done. Nope. It’s integrated from the beginning. That’s because we weren’t schooled as Business Administrators or Econometrists. We were schooled as designers (Parsons School of Design, NYU, New York).
We can create (only if relevant) your entire brand book: logo, brand, brand story, mission, identity, tone of voice, etcetera – and we accompany it with visual examples. So everyone working on the brand knows the DO’s and DON’Ts of your new or sharpened brand.
And yes, we deliver it in such high detail that you don’t need an advertising agency or design agency after we’re finished. It’s just, well – done.

We have made turnaround strategies in cases that differ from “Can you help us improve our numbers” to cases like “We’re in deep shit! We only have three months left, help!”

We have done these turnaround strategies all over the world and we can say we’re really the right guys to hire for those types of jobs.

Why?

See, when you ask most consultancies or agencies to give you a ‘strategy’ they start working on the brand, the logo and launch a new tv-campaign.

But when your KPI’s are seriously going the wrong way, only working on the ‘brand’ won’t help you. See, you company is doing bad for a REASON. It might be your prices are off. It might be your assortment is crap. It might be your stores are a mess. In any case – the reason is in the CORE OF YOUR BUSINESS.

So that’s where we start. With solving the actual problem you have. Sounds complicated, but even a store, even an assortment, even your prices, can be fixed within a matter of weeks.

This is how we did it for example with the Dutch household chain Blokker. They were in deep, deep shit when we sat down with their CEO. They had just adopted a ‘new’ strategy, that turned our to be disastrous for them and their KPI’s were dropping fast.

In the weeks following we ended their terrible strategy, we brought them back to the place they belonged, we changed their assortment, changed their prices and we started simple but really effective marketing to actually SELL some stuff. And you know what? Their figures came around. They started to improve, and within 3 months they were up by index 140. And today we can safely say that Blokker wouldn’t be here, without our intervention.

In short: If you are in trouble, hire a company that is outspoken, and dares to tackle your real problems. And yes, we can make your logo and brand story too 😉

Many retailers and brand-manufacturers struggle with their assortment. What is an offer that makes sense to the consumer? How much innovation should we allow? What is enough rotation? And could we maybe have cluttered our system with loads of non-performing SKU’s, making life for both us and the consumer more difficult than neccassary?

We have developed our own software to X-ray an entire assortment in 2 days and get out invaluable insights that form the basis for mayor improvements.

Let us give you an example: When we X-rayed the assortment of Gall & Gall, the largest wine & liquor store chain of The Netherlands, we found that they could lose no less than 60% of their assortment without hurting them one bit. 60%!

Now, most consultancies would stop here.

We don’t.

First, we gave Gall & Gall a super easy grid system to fill their new, smaller assortment in a matter of 4 weeks. Next, we invented a new way to selling wine called TasteProfiles, with which you can find the wine you love within 23 seconds. Then we redesigned the wine meters in their restore without using a lot of CAPEX, and build the introduction campaign.

And you know what: Their sales went up. Within a couple of weeks. Without making big costs. (And remember: All of that with 60% less assortment).

Are you curious what your assortment tells us? And what chances it can bring?

We can have your assortment X-ray done in 2 days. Give us a call.

So here’s a common problem: 

You private label role is undefined, all over the place on price & quality and product and packaging are undesirable.

What can we do?

Well, we fix that.

Why should you want to do that?

Because PL is the anchor of your assortment. If the product that carry your logo are vague, unclear and untrusted – so is the logo on your store. 

And have we done private label projects for others?

You bet. In fact, many of the products in your cupboard or bathroom closet have started on our drawing board, there’s simply too many to name.

If you have the feeling your private label has an unclear role in your assortment – give us a call. We make your PL the star of the show again within weeks.

There are many, many companies that claim they can help you redesign your store. And it’s true: They can change the color of the walls, bring in fancy fixtures and create a lot of blablabla about the purpose of your store.

But here is the problem: Litereally zero KPI’s are impacted when you change the color on the walls to a nice shade of green, or make your fixtures out of fancy wood.

Why? Because no-one cares. Customers care about products. And price. And service. And yes, it’s nice to have all that in a nice store. But put shit-product in a beautiful store, and it still won’t sell.

A store is the place where all the gears of your business-machine must come together seemlessly. A good store makes the products shine and tells their story. A good store explains what my price experience should be. A good store helps my decision making and helps me find the product I’m looking for.

We have built stores with this principle all over the world.

We build the new format that made Vomar the fastest growing supermarketing chain for the 4th year in a row now. 

We build a completely automized to-go store for Zabka (Poland), which they are now building 5000 of.

Many Albert Heijns and AH ToGo stores are based on our concepts.

And there’s dozens more.

Long story short: You just want a diferent shade on the wall? Call someone else. 

You want to impact your KPI’s? Call us.

We can safely say that marketing is the least efficient part of any (retail) company.

It’s where left brained people try to make sense of a right brained subject – which oftentimes results in extremely vague brand books full of compromises that – when executed – don’t lead to very convincing nor impactful stories for the consumer.

Recognizeable?

Well, we have a solution. Let us help you make your brand book and marketing strategy.

Why is that better? 

1: Because we do this daily (your people with all respect, don’t)

2: Because we’re outsiders and can actually objectively look at your company and tell you what is important, and what’s not.

3: We can give you everything you need to get your marketing underway in a way that BOTH loads the brand story and sells product. In a way that isn’t vague, but very clear. In a way that excites, touches or makes you smile.

The deliverable is a book that YOU can give to your advertising company, which basically says “This is what we want.” Full of images, examples and guidelines to help anyone working on the brand.

So stop trying to come up with a strong brand/marketing story yourselves. It’s very hard, and maybe even impossible. Let us do it, so you can get going with a really strong marketing campaing, 5 weeks from now.

When you are expanding, merging or acquiring  – you need a vision document that basically answers all the questions that come up during such a time.

A document for all stakeholders with ‘THE PLAN.’ 

A document that excites, that inspires, that can make everything clear that is now vague, that makes your new future tangible.

A document that makes your stakeholders say “AHA! I understand where you are going with this. And I love it!”

That is what we do and did for clients like Dia (Spain, 6000 stores) ING (Europe, 4,7B profit) and Ahold (Europe/US, God knows how many stores).

When this kind of document is what you need, give us a call.

You have a plan to start something new. You have the business plan, you have the connections, and you know what to do to make it run operationally. 

Now you need the brand, the visuals, the launch strategy, and the marketing plan. 

Well, that’s what we do. And we can have this done within 5 weeks, ready for implementation.

What we deliver is your handbook. It’s the handbook you and everyone working on your brand need for implementation. But it’s also the book that will convince any stakeholder you need to be convinced. 

By the way, we also make the visuals for your website, your store and whatever else you need. It’s a total package. It’s done

So what’s this?

Well, we take a week and put your company through our X-ray. 

We look at your stores (if you have stores), your brand your data, your KPI’s and we talk to your people. 

Then we come back and tell you where you can find mayor improvements, and HOW you can obtain them.

Sounds simple, is simple. We meet on Monday, and tell you the good and bad news on Friday. 

Think we can’t do a whole lot in a week? Well, we’ve seen so many companies that we can read your company easily within a week. AND have time left to give you the first solutions, already visually executed.

We work for retail chains and consumer brands:

1. We work for large chains like Albert Heijn (1000 stores), Dia (6000 stores) or Zabka (7000 stores).
2. We work for national, medium sized chains like Etos, Big Bazar or Karstadt.
3. We work for consumer-goods brands like Danone, Barilla, Ola, Becel and others.
4. We work for service providers like Flo Energy (Singapore).
5. We work for players in finance, like ING or Rabobank.
6. And we work for serious and funded startups (we make their total entry plan for brand, marketing, product, etc)

As for the sectors, we work in all kinds of sectors, as long as it involves selling product or services to a mass-audience.

Yes, we work all over the world.

Our project took us to: Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Netherlands, Senegal, United Kingdom, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, Switserland, Portugal, Spain, Estonia, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Greece, Romania, Servia, France, Turkey and Brazil.

We are an international consultancy, and quickly understanding your market – wherever it is –  is a part of what we do.

Whenever a company is planning a change project. This can be a partial change, like let’s say an assortment rationalisation, brand-hierarchy-restructuring or a new store format. But it can also be a change project on the whole, and a new course or strategy is desired.

Our huge benefit in these situations is that we can bring speed of decision and speed of change. We do this by approaching your question objectively and with years of international experience. Next we make your new direction visual and tangible, whatever it is. This forces us to make the big and bold decisions that are needed for every succesful change. This way we turned KPI’s in the right direction within a matter of weeks, with numerous companies around the world.

Plus: We made the change project actually fun and exciting. See: Change can be scary, and there’s always a risk it get’s stuck in endless internal blablabla. We give you structure, and put a visual and exciting dot on the horizon for everyone to understand. So you can say: “Guys, THIS is where we’re going.”

Most other consultancies approach your challenge in a left-brained manner, just like your own people would. They analyse the market, look at consumer-behaviour, predict your figures and chances for the coming years – and make a very complicated looking Powerpoint out of this.

However, this Powerpoint still doesn’t give direction. And usually still does not answer the big questions, nor gives a shared direction for your people.

And it is definitely not exciting.

We approach your problem in a left AND right-brained manner. We analyse your market, your data, your consumers. And yes, we see the trends in the market. But that’s only the beginning. Next we visualize your new future, based upon these insights. And only when you start making things visual and concrete, and start pulling your ideas into the real world – you get the clear and practical solutions you’re looking for. Only then you can create a visual and shared goal for your people, that you can show to anybody after which they’ll say. “Aha! I see where were going! And I love it!” 

This is why this small consultancy is preferred over McKinsey or BCG by the CEO’s of some of the largest retailers and brands in the world.

A project usually is 5 weeks start to finish. After you give us a green light, we start with interviews with your people. Next, we go into the market, go see where your product is sold, and understand your market. Next, we take your data and put it through our X-ray. This phase is usually done after 1-2 weeks.

Now we have all the input we need, the ‘magic-phase’ begins. This is where we leave other consultancies behind.

From our input, a solution starts to emerge. A clear direction you need to take in order to start seriously improving your KPI’s. A direction that is exciting and tantilizing. We start making it visual. We visualize your product, store, and marketing to create this dot on the horizon. Your shared goal for the coming period.

Then we come back and present this in a workshop with you. We finetune it together.  Then we work on it again, and create a final ‘working hypothesis,’ that is presentable to your team, your people and your stakeholders. Now, with this clear plan, your change project can be put into 5th gear, and you can assign clear tasks to your team to make this plan a reality within another week or 5. Usually we stick around for this period to help your people stay on the right track, but usually it is pretty clear what needs to be done.

This way we realized indexes of 150 within two months(!), start to finish.

You work with Rik primarily. Also you will see Roosje, who’s our expert in data insights. Behind the scenes there’s more people supporting us, but you won’t be bothered with them. For us, one of the big annoyances is when you’re handed over to a team of juniors, or see different faces all the time. So that won’t ever happen. You work with the boss of the company, and that’s it.

You have your plan within 5 weeks. This plan is visual and presentable to your stakeholders and your team. After these 5 weeks you know what you need to do, you can start implementing and assign clear tasks to your team.

Yes we can do that. This phase of implementation is not nearly as hour-intensive as the first 5 weeks, so we can make a plan to keep your people on the right track during implementation. But our (common) goal is to make ourselves obsolete as quickly as possible. It needs to be YOUR plan. That’s why we make it really clear, visual and detailed. So your people can start running with it as soon as possible.

No problem. Just give Rik a call on INT 31 6 24 19 68 98. He’s happy to talk to you.