This is the last in a four-part series of articles on ‘scaling with soul’.
Small, indie businesses often do well on the soul bit, but struggle to scale or deliver a curated experience. Larger businesses might quickly grow their footprint - but often end up feeling identikit and transactional.
So how do you hold these two conflicting goals of ‘scale’ and ‘soul’ in tension? I thought it would be interesting to share some of the things we’ve learned so far on the journey at Good Space.
In the first article in this series, I talked about why we initially launched each work club under its own unique brand. The intention was sound, in that we wanted each venue to uniquely express the local area it is planted in. But it presented too many challenges.
As far as ‘scale’ and ‘soul’ are concerned, it felt like an uphill battle on both fronts.
So we decided we needed a re-brand. But this wasn’t going to be just about branding. We needed to put some deep thought into our whole brand identity, and how we would consolidate everything under one umbrella.
How would we have one brand but still ensure that each venue has its own unique expression?
Which elements of the brand would be fixed across all venues, and which would be flexible?
On top of the ‘fixed vs flexible’ dilemma there was another challenge.
One of our main concerns was that a branding agency might do a great job, but there would then be a disconnect between their work and the work of a separate interior designer.
As a hospitality brand one of the most crucial ways our brand manifests itself is in the physical space (user experience, key touch points, interior look and feel).
I’ve seen projects before where the workspace experience and aesthetic never quite married up with the heart of the brand.
We were very keen to avoid that.
Inevitably, finding the right agency to do the rebrand was a big deal.
We went on quite a journey to find that partner. A long (and slightly painful) one. But we learned a lot which always makes it worth while. And we were thrilled when in the end we finally came across 93FT - Brand, Interior & Digital Studio.
Here are the key questions that guided us:
- Do these guys really get us?
- Do they have this sort of work in their wheelhouse?
Here's how 93ft answered those core questions for us. And why they ended up being such a good fit:
1. Do these guys really get us?
In all of the interviewing and pitching that goes on at the initial courting stage stage, it all boils down to one question. The question behind all other questions: Do these guys really get us?
Feeling confident in this is especially important when it comes to the core brand principles. If an agency understand the heartbeat of your company, everything else tends to click.
Every time 93ft presented something to us, we'd all say the same thing:
'These guys just get it.'
There was another factor that helped on this front. Something you wouldn't have thought...it really helped that they're from Sheffield!
They’ve got a good healthy no-nonsense approach (typical of that part of the world). Which is always refreshing. But it's especially important when it comes to brand. Conversations around brand are so intangible that you can end up getting lost in a lot of BS if you’re not careful!
So the chemistry was there. We loved their frank and common sense approach.
2. Do they have this sort of work in their wheelhouse?
93ft sit right in that intersection between brand and interior design. Having a foot in both camps gave us great confidence that the brand principles would be truly manifested across the actual workspace experience. So that was a big win.
When it came to past projects, David is a big fan of The Pilgrim hotel in Paddington and loved the work they had done there. Previous work is always a great indicator that it's the right fit.
Here's why specifically the work they had done on The Pilgrim added up for us:
- First off, it counted for something simply by the fact it’s a hotel and the hotel industry is often ahead of coworking in terms of how it conceives of crafting an experience (more than just ‘here is space to sleep & eat’).
- Second, it’s not just a hotel but an independent hotel, brimming with its own unique character.
- And third, it’s a D2C brand. Many coworking operators feel very B2B - which is fine for them, probably because they’re focussed on attracting larger enterprise customers. But we wanted to feel more like a consumer brand. Our focus is mainly on individuals, solopreneurs, and of course start ups - but ones who want to join a more creative and independent community.
So the chemistry and the previous work both combined to make it a great fit.
And now I'm very excited to say the project is complete!
We’re really thrilled with how they’ve fulfilled the brief. It’s fair to say they stepped up to the plate and smashed it out of the park.
The digital launch will happen next week, with our new website going live on Monday 2nd June!
Big props and a major thank you to the whole 93 ft team.
Jamie
