McNicholas Positioning for Success. Brief Communicating the real story. McNicholas is one of the UK’s leading infrastructure service solutions providers, with its rich family heritage it has continued to develop and grow through astute leadership and a dynamic high performing workforce. Through its focus on operational strength and consistent delivery for clients McNicholas has developed an impressive client base and has worked on many of the country’s largest infrastructure projects. This focus and dedication has resulted in it being guilty of hiding many of its greatest achievements and not telling the world the ‘truth’ about its status and the scale of its capabilities. Medicine Man were brought in to help review how the company defined itself and how it communicated this to both internal and external audiences. Ultimately with the aim to reposition the company and let the world know who they are and the great things they can do. Aim of the Project To unlock and define the unique McNicholas offer across all of its sectors and services and tell the story in a way that allows the casual observer as well as their specialist B2B audience to instantly ‘get’ the company, its scale and where it operates. Client: McNicholas Services: Brand refresh, Website Approach Keeping the nation connected. By getting under the skin of the company and spending time meeting and interviewing all the directors and senior figures we quickly revealed some very interesting insight. As we pulled all of this information together, a picture emerged of a dynamic, committed company underpinned by a strong set of values. Branding and Tone of Voice Using all of this information we were able to slightly adapt the company values and define the complete communication language. Part of this process included a complete review of the logo and its usage – we pursued many avenues, deciding to evolve the existing logo while incorporating a new strapline, ‘Keeping the nation connected’. This strapline gave a clear definition of what the company does, and we developed a new set of brand guidelines to complement their new brand identity. Website Once the new brand identity and communication language were established the new company website followed suit. The website needed to function for a variety of different audiences, so we built the site with full CMS and responsive for all browsers including mobile. By starting with defining the company’s services and the sectors, we were able to build a tailored site map and clear content requirements. We mapped out site user journeys for specific user groups including the B2B audience, job hunters, graduates and those requiring the care line service. Visual We worked closely with McNicholas to define a strong visual identity which relied on bold images and a confident, descriptive narrative to fit with the new brand identity. To complete the brand evolution we arranged photoshoots to fill in gaps in photography, focusing on people shots. Internal Communication The internal communication style was adapted to become more vibrant and fresh whilst maintaining the friendly, fun and informal style. We developed a template for the quarterly staff magazine, along with safety, training and signage material. As part of the site setup guide, we designed an interactive 3D for site operatives to use on their mobile/tablet devices. This enabled them to comply with all the safety regulations without having to resort to using the bulky guidebook. Results Significant improvement in the company profile and key contributory factor in achieving record business growth: company order book sitting at circa £1bn Client retention at record levels with sustained track record of generating long-term frame work contractors as well as new alliance frameworks. And a great, long lasting partnership!