I am a passionate believer that branding involves all aspects of organisational behaviour. My commentaries and presentations range across a diversity of issues and draw on extensive experience of working in international markets as a high level adviser to senior management.
This website is where I post my latest blogs, published articles and presentations, it is also where you can access my previous published and presentation material.
In 2016 I sold my company, SCG International, to my long-standing Russian client, Sait Gutseriev, executive for the Safmar Group. This has given me the opportunity to embark on a new era, acting as an independent consultant after the responsibilities of running a company for 25 years. While I have always enjoyed providing strategic advice and creative solutions across a wide range of sectors, I can now focus on activities that I particularly enjoy and continue to intrigue me.
Everyone it seems is talking about disruption resulting from consumer empowerment facilitated by the internet and digital technology. Equally company culture development, wellbeing and workplaces have become key management topics along with commercial sustainability. These issues link directly with a fundamental message I been been preaching as a branding consultant and architect for the last few years – the importance of ‘creating places where people want to be’. More recently ‘placemaking’ has become an overused term but the principle works across all sectors if ‘place’ is also seen as including both digital, human and physical interactions.
The challenge is then to create a synergy of satisfying experiences for the target audiences.
So my new mantra needs to be ‘creating experiences that people want’! That applies to products, services, places and people. Small wonder the Customer Experience Officer is the new CEO company role for some organisations. That’s fine as long as they realise they also need to meet the needs of their internal clients… their employees !
The fundamental principle of branding is to create a perceived added value in the widest sense, satisfying relevant emotional and commercial criteria. So in some ways nothing has changed as ultimate value has always been the positive perception of price, quality and experience … and achieving the right mix to meet the target audiences’ and users’ changing aspirations and needs.
As this blog shows, I have written and presented on many of these issues for some years. It is interesting to see the basic principles of engagement and relevance still hold true despite the fast changing digital landscape, growth and influence of social media and empowered, informed consumers and users. The ancient mantra of ‘adopt, adapt, improve’ – like Toyota’s original dictum ‘continuous improvement’ – may be dressed up in the new corporate speak of visions and values, but this simple message is still a tough but essential requirement of all managements in a competitive market.
You can find a range of presentations on real estate, banking and retail if you check out SCG London’s library on slideshare where there are more than 40+ presentations I have made over the last few years.
https://www.slideshare.net/SCGLondon/presentations?order=latest
My German Retail Blog contribution for 2019: Clive Woodger, Founder, SCG London: "The retail sector faces a conundrum when it comes to sustainability. Retailers, brands and developers promoting their green credentials comes across as green window dressing – or worse, corporate virtue signalling, given that their prime…
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Strategy, Branding, Marketing, and Design experts in 1 room discussing trends & challenges in retail. International experience, British & Ukrainian market specifics. Anna Poberezhna, Clive Woodger, Euan Cameron, Nikolay Novikov & Mykola Chumak united their efforts to provide synergy solutions. Brick-&-mortar: fewer new outlets, more “hub & spoke” Snapchat…
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Anna Poberezhna & Clive Woodger presented at the Annual Forum Malls Ukraine on Best Practices for the shopping centres, their reconception strategies & solutions: architecture & concept design, branding, marketing and communication strategies. A review of the challenges facing existing centres to achieve positive destination brand differentiation…
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Anna Poberezhna and Clive Woodger talked at the International FMCG Forum. Going international is a major challenge for product and service companies. Branding & Strategy are among the core instruments that help to create a succesful differentiation and an effective market launch. While storytelling and methods of communication that translate brand personality…
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The transformation of pub brands, Transform Magazine, March 2016 Designing and managing 'places where people want to be' is a basic mantra for all those involved in creating destination brands, whether they are shopping centres, retailers, banks or business centres. This has to be the…
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Like ‘branding’, ‘sustainability’ has become a word that means different things to different people and is in danger of becoming just as overused and misused. As a brand consultant, I am dismayed at the still prevailing idea that branding is simply the marketing signature of…
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Have A Nice Festive Season! Best Wishes! Clive Woodger
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Last Friday, Boulevard, premium luxury destination opened in Jeddah, designed by SCG International. The new premium district combines international high-end fashion and accessories retail collections for men, ladies and kids with latest luxury amenities. There are 36 boutiques, including the flagships of Armani, Gucci and Prada.…
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On the 20th of November Algorithm Business Centre opened, it is owned and managed by Corporation A.N.D. and designed by SCG International. The class A business complex is located in the prestigious area of Moscow, opposite the attractive Vorontsovsky Park. Opened in November 2015. The…
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"Creating the Synergy the architecture and place branding. Theory and examples." Presented with my colleague, Anna Poberezhna, at International Expoforum Construction, Archiecture and Real Estate. Download presentation Наш Мастер-класс с Анной Побережной на Международном Экспофоруме Строительства, Архитектуры и Недвижимости в Киеве Особенности градостроительства, которые присущи самым привлекательным для туристов городам…
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