Client
Serious**

Design Consultancy
Elmwood Design
Nick Ramshaw
0194 387 0229
nick.ramshaw@elmwood.co.uk
www.elmwood.co.uk

The Brief
Envirotech was a small player in the waste management market but had plans to grow into one of the UK’s leading sewage/wastewater management companies in all three main areas of its business: sewage collection by tankers, installation of sewage systems and servicing of sewage systems. Envirotech needed maximum input from limited marketing resources and to defend its business from less scrupulous companies who were mimicking its brand. There was also an opportunity to create a strong presence in a market with few distinctive brands.

University of Sussex

Serious** brand identity

The Design
Elmwood’s solution was to create a new brand identity that marked out a unique territory for the company.

Rather than disguise the substance of the business, the new identity makes a virtue of it – and does so with a sense of humour. The name, which demonstrates the company is serious about its role, came out of a conversation about the possible consequences of not complying with environmental law. Suggestions about what the two asterisks stand for, in phrases like “We deal with **it”, for example, provide an engaging and campaignable platform for all communications. And the colour? It refers directly to the stuff of the business and is uniquely ownable in the sector.

The Results
From the launch of the new identity, turnover increased across the entire business by approximately 75%, achieved with no other marketing support. Combined sales of core activity tanker and maintenance services increased from £1million per annum to nearly £2million per annum. The brand identity was cited by a number of customers as an influencing factor in awarding contracts. New customers mentioned the humour in the identity helped develop a strong working relationship and previous customers who had lost contact were prompted to get in touch on seeing the new livery, in one case leading to a £6,000 contract. Staff morale also improved, with one worker going so far as to say ‘The brand represents the company better than any other I have worked under.
It makes my job easy and fun’.

Judges’ Comments
Cath Keers, Customer Director at O2, called this ‘a bold branding decision, brilliantly executed throughout the organisation and a great “door opener” which delivered tangible business results’. Darren Briggs, Head of Internal Communications at Vodafone ‘loved the innovative and compelling tongue-in-cheek approach’.