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
City development: achieving successful destination brands for living, work, rest & play. Creating Places where people want to be: Architecture Trends… Place Branding… Nations…Cities… Audiences London Real Estate Marketing Challenge Offices and Business Centres Shopping Centres Creating Communities You can view the full presentation by…
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My business philosophy is as simple to formulate as it is difficult to implement in practice. I argue that any complex retail entity, such as a shopping centre, will only become a destination brand if there is a central, overarching brand message and engaging customer…
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Interview published in Transform Magazine, April 2015
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Just presented at the Transform Conference Europe about the current Experiential branding challenges in London. Some brands take their personality and message the extra mile by creating impressive experiences for their various stakeholders. The panel here will share stories on experiential branding for both internal…
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Good to be at the inaugural Europa Property NEE #Awards in Minsk last week and the launch of the Belarus Shopping Centre Council. It is always an honour to present an award of the Hypermarket/Big Box Chain of the Year to the #Winner #EUROOPT https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/updates-from-nee-real-estate-awards-gala-forum-minsk-belarus-woodger
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Article published on Rebanking. New Banking Strategies (Ребанкинг. Новые стратегии банкинга) website. This is a link to the article in Russian - Имидж и репутация банка: - за что я должен "любить" свой банк? The English version can be found here - Banking image and reputation attributes -…
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Have contributed to German Retail Blog, which is the English online platform of Lebensmittel Zeitung, Germany's leading retail & fmcg trade publication. Check out my comment: http://www.german-retail-blog.com/topic/past-blogs/Experts-predict-the-future-of-retailing-in-2015-and-beyond-312
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I attended the annual conference Marketing in Real Estate – Dynamic Marketing 2015: “From development to management” organized by PROESTATE, “The Russian Guild of Property Managers and Developers.” The conference was aimed at top-managers of marketing departments, PR specialists, sales managers, working in the sphere…
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I have just attended Asian Business Summit, Retail and Distribution, organised by BBCG Kazakhstan. Check out my presentation "Creating Places Where People Want to Be - Adapting to a Consumer Led Market"
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I will give talk on the Art of Place Branding at the annual conference Marketing in Real Estate Dynamic marketing 2015: “From development to management” organized by PROESTATE, “The Russian Guild of Property Managers and Developers”. The event will take place on 27-28 November at…
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