A Chat With: Michael Dale and John Coupland at brand agency: Firebrand

This month’s chat took us into the realms of brand strategy and design with Eastbourne-based agency Firebrand. We caught up with Michael Dale and John Coupland to find out about their career journeys, how Firebrand works, how you could get into similar roles, and why they love Eastbourne

Chalk: Tell us a little about your background.

John: “Back in 2004, I found myself in a role at a marketing agency. From there, I fell into brand management for the Rank Group where I was looking after Mecca Bingo. I soon learnt how powerful a brand is and that it goes far beyond a logo. Having spent time around a lot of the big brand agencies in London, I got a real taste for it.

“When I moved down to Eastbourne 10 years ago, I stumbled across the Firebrand team and their expertise really resonated with me. They were very ahead of the times in brand thinking. I got in contact and the rest is history!”

Michael: “I co-founded Firebrand in the 90s. I had previously been a designer in traditional media and at Firebrand we embraced digital media early on. We were early adopters of creating websites, for example. Around 15 years ago we decided we wanted to become involved in more of the strategic element of brands, rather than just taking design briefs from marketing managers.

What was the old model of branding and how has it changed?

 “The old model of branding was that is was a purely marketing function. A business would put a product or an ad into the market, that becomes your brand. But one of the things I learnt early on is that whilst these elements help to build a brand, it’s grown beyond marketing to other areas across the business. Until recently, no one else was talking about the other elements of brand and branding from the inside-out to create that transformative effect. Today, taking a company-wide ownership of the brand is more recognised. 

“It used to be about colour palettes and imagery. Aesthetics do have a role to play, but the brand model is a cycle that starts with finding a unique value and enabling the people within the business to bring that value to life. Brands these days are about a business creating a space for customers and employees to exist and grow, in return they sustain and grow the brand that helps to grow the business.”

Can you provide a quick summary of what Firebrand does?

“Our core mantra is to help businesses to outsmart their competitors and get greater value and momentum from their marketing. So this means that marketing could yield a greater return if part of a long-term investment to out-wit the competition with a solid strategy. We start with some deep-dive discovery and gain an understanding of a client’s customers, their marketplace, and the competitive market. We then move on to a strategic phase where we understand how our client will be positioned in the marketplace. We might assess their strengths and weaknesses, their opportunities, and value proposition.

“We run a lot of workshops, which may go into a number of areas including their purpose and values. We create a brand compass which helps the client define the elements of what their brand stands for and what it means. We can then translate that into a creative platform to start pushing that brand out. That can include things like how you recruit people into the company (i.e. how you communicate and onboard them), marketing messages, and how the brand looks. 

“We look at all the touchpoints that bring the brand to life after the strategic phase, which can also include product naming, or the architecture of a company’s product portfolio to support the master brand.”

What does a typical Firebrand client look like?

“Typically we work with SMEs that have been around for a few years and have lost their way a bit. They may be repositioning due to changes in the marketplace. We tend to work predominantly in the tech and healthcare sectors, but we have also completed some great projects outside of those sectors, such as place brands for local authorities.

“We also work for some divisions within some larger companies. We do a lot of icon design and UI projects for Siemens, for example.

“Many tech brands we work with approach us following a series of mergers and acquisitions. They may have acquired a few smaller companies in an area they are interested in and need someone objective to help clarify their portfolio and find a common purpose across the different companies to create a unified master brand. Here we need to look at a new set of values and redefine the overall purpose and vision. Having this new purpose and direction helps them with future strategic decisions, such as what businesses they should acquire in the future and which they should let go of.

“It can be challenging work, especially as there can be a lot of siloed thinking amongst the different companies that have been acquired. Resistance to change can be one of the biggest hurdles in these projects. But whilst the vision and the purpose needs to come from senior leadership, it is key to get the employees involved in the creation of the new values and to communicate these in a way that everyone can understand. You can then work with HR to make it into a behavioural framework that is applied throughout the organisation.”

How do you create brands that work?

“We have three principles to create brands that work. Firstly, the ‘Inside Out’ principle is all about aligning brand with the internal culture. If it doesn’t align, customers won’t believe it.

The second principle is ‘Make Life Simple’. This is intrinsic to everything we do in terms of communication and design ethics. There is so much noise out there so the only way to communicate is to be bold and simple. You need to remove the superfluous so that the essential stuff can shine through. 

“The third principle is ‘Big Brand Thinking’. This is about condensing down everything we have learned about branding and making it more accessible for people who don’t understand its power. We want to use the vast array of knowledge we have around big brands and make it relevant to smaller businesses. We are on a mission to remove the academic perspective on brand. Start-up businesses will often look at an inch-thick book around branding and get put off; this is why there is such a barrier to entry with brand.

“Once upon a time, brand used to be what the big boys do. And start-ups wouldn’t think it was for them. But actually, they are probably more branded, as they have an ideology of how they want to grow.”

For anyone reading this who is keen to pursue a career in brand management or design, what paths could they take?

“The old-school route to get into brand was for people to come from a creative service like graphic design or copywriting. But as the industry has matured, you are now getting people from many different backgrounds. We have connected with people from a legal background, journalism, and HR, because brand is now more about the entire business rather than just marketing. You could effectively be working with brand from any aspect of a business.

“Even the way a piece of software functions, the UX of it, is an important part of how a brand is perceived, alongside the job it does for a customer. So you could be approaching it from a software developer perspective too.

“Reading is a good starting point and there are courses around that people can sign up to. However, if you are in education at the moment and are interested in brand, our advice is to start looking at businesses. Really get an idea for what the businesses do, and why they matter to their customers. Once you get a handle on that, you can start to build your expertise.

“Marketing is still a good way in and that is something you can get qualifications in early on. A lot of marketing strategy is aligned with brand and business strategy. So if you were to do an MBA in business, you would be well-armed to understand brand strategy.

“The branding role changes depending on the type of company you work for. In a big organisation, you can get into a very specialist role. If you are in a small business, you have to wear multiple hats. If you are client-side, you can also be part of a brand team or work as part of an agency.”

What are you looking forward to this coming year?

“This year we are looking to try to communicate and streamline our offering. We have gained so much knowledge, we now want to focus more heavily in certain areas. Removing the superfluous!

“We are also going to try to get out and meet more people in the business community. We have also really enjoyed getting back into doing in-person workshops with clients. During COVID, we developed a whole online workshop process which was very successful. But it has been great getting back into proper workshops with lots of things stuck on walls! There is an energy in a room that you just can’t match online.”

Why Eastbourne? What keeps your business here?

“Work-life balance without a doubt. I love the coast, and having the Downs right there too. It has more sunshine hours than anywhere else in the country.

“Eastbourne offers such a great variety of landscapes and is still quite connected to London and Brighton. It’s also such a great place to bring up a family and enjoy outdoor life.”