As researchers there are few things as satisfying as following a project through from a client’s initial “what if we. . .?” moment to seeing how it has informed tangible, truly positive business changes.
That’s what happened when we saw the refreshed brand identity for Irwin Mitchell unveiled on a large scale at Twickenham last month, marking the start of their partnership with England Rugby as official legal partner and supporter of grassroots initiatives.
What does B2B International have to do with new or refreshed brand identities?
Earlier this year, Irwin Mitchell approached us to conduct extensive client research so they could understand, among other things, what clients thought about its brand and how they wanted to see it evolve in the future.
One thing that struck us was how Irwin Mitchell’s clients were not only willing to take part, but embraced the process by giving open and honest feedback.
As a result we ended up with feedback from around 100 clients (both personal and business). This was no small ask – each client took part in a short telephone interview and we then ran an interactive online focus group over the course of four days with a group of these.
During these focus groups, participants completed a series of exercises where they were shown stimulus/changes in the brand and mock-ups of the website and asked for their views. They also engaged in discussion with other Irwin Mitchell clients in the group.
It’s fantastic to see a law firm thinking in this way, not only asking clients for feedback but then taking it on board. Many business-to-business organisations would benefit from adopting such a customer-centric approach.
And it’s also great when creatives – in this case the in-house design team at Irwin Mitchell – understand how this kind of information informs great work rather than seeing it as an obstacle to their ideas. We amalgamated the feedback and created a briefing document which fed into the redesign of the logo and the website alongside the internal feedback that Irwin Mitchell had already created.
The whole effort culminated with the Twickenham launch – a first for us and a very exciting moment for everyone involved in the project.
We asked Imogen Williams, Research Manager on this project, and she said: “Working alongside Irwin Mitchell on the redevelopment of its brand has been both challenging and rewarding and we are excited with the results. It’s been great to see that the insights from the research have been put into action, and will be of benefit to both Irwin Mitchell and its clients. At Irwin Mitchell they really do practice what they preach: putting their clients at the heart of all their decisions.”
Make sure you look out for Irwin Mitchell next time you’re at an England Rugby match!
