Everyone is given the chance to be heard - it doesn't feel 'hierarchical', and people always have a voice in meetings. There is a good focus on training for people across levels - and a value placed on thinking which I haven't experienced at any other company. We also manage to work successfully and collaboratively with other offices across the world (in the UK, US, Asia and Poland) - which has been a difficulty in my other places of work!
Insights and strategy are keywords in today's world of business. But what will make a successful strategy? And in the midst of today's ocean of information, what are the relevant and commercially valuable insights?
At Branding Science, our team is dedicated to working with pharmaceutical teams to find answers to these questions. However, no one brand team faces the same challenges. We recognize that each team needs to work around a series of internal and external factors - all changing at a pace never seen before.
Together with our consultancy arm Brand Sight International, we have built strong expertise designing tailored research and consultancy programs to address our clients' specific business need and objectives. These consist in gathering the brand key stakeholders in workshops at regular intervals in order to review latest market trends and brand performance. These programs identify gaps in knowledge and allow alignment plans to be made.
Furthermore, in collaboration with our sister company Living Brand Productions, we bring our insights to life by using multimedia materials such as compelling films or interactive databases as part of our research. This helps us to make our debriefs and workshops more dynamic and engaging. We also storyline our presentations, so that every detail is fully explained. More importantly, it makes our work memorable, a crucial point if insights are to lead to action.
Our methodologies are based on a mix of proven and innovative techniques. We work with our clients around a series of frameworks and exercises derived from different fields of research, such as sociology, psychology, or management science.
May not always be considered unique benefits, but no less important are the healthcare and life insurance we provide to all and the discounted Virgin Active membership and cycle to work scheme. We have also listened to staff following the Great Place to Work initiative and looking at ways to improve our physical and mental wellbeing and hoping to implement a confidential help line number for impartial advice across a range of sensitive topics.
Staff at all levels are encouraged to join a number of different non work related initiatives to pull people together and help promote a sense of fun in the office as well supporting the local community and a number of worthwhile charities. Our Social committee are always looking at the next event or way to get the team involved. The great office bake off highlighted some hidden talents and last year's summer event also saw great team work with some very competitive quintessentially English summer games! Our Office Heroes shout out, allows staff to acknowledge members of the team that have gone above and beyond to support their colleagues and all with a glass in hand!
Charity is at the heart of Branding Science and we are advocates for several charities, such as Trinity Hospice, Woodland Trust, 65 Degrees North along with a few others. Halow Charity Bike ride is just one of the main events we take part in each year and we provide employees with time out from work (up to 5 days), to dedicate yourselves to a charity close to them.
The trust and belief we have in our team to operate remotely has never been more evident during these unprecedented times we currently find ourselves in. To minimise the risk of exposure to the COVID 19 virus in our London office, we rapidly implemented a working from home policy, literally overnight. This needed to take into account a variety of different challenges including the need to remain flexible with working hours, especially those with small children. The team have adapted quickly to the 'new normal', rescheduling meetings to run virtually and a fundamental change in the way we conduct market research. Our culture to ensure we look after each other has never been more important and recreating eating together around the 'virtual kitchen table' at lunch time and sharing a drink at the 'virtual happy hour' on a Friday has allowed us to remain connected.
I founded Branding Science in 2002 with a very clear vision of what I wanted to achieve and a powerful idea around Insight, Strategy and Action, which are the key elements of taking a client’s problem that we are being asked to solve, identifying the best solution and devising the best method to implement that necessary remedy.
We have a sound foundation of values that we strive hard to maintain and instil in all of our staff; self-belief, a passion that needs to be infectious and the courage to be different. We embrace diversity and the benefit of different ways of thinking, using different minds when focused on a particular problem, along with being innovative, clever and fun and not taking ourselves too seriously which is an important part of our values and reflected in our branding. We have created an environment for clear and creative thinking to some challenging areas of healthcare.
As a company we have doubled in size in the last 3 years, while maintaining our core values and culture, creating a fun and inspiring place to work. We are always learning and improving where we can. Along our journey, by attracting outstanding staff we continue to grow and provide an excellent service to our clients.
Brand Scientists hail from a whole host of different backgrounds from medical to marketing and scientific to behavioural experts and psychologists. It is not only desirable but essential that we gather a broad base of experience and knowledge to apply to our thinking. Different perspectives and different ‘lenses’ all contribute to our research and ensure our study designs and findings are rich in content and relevant to our client’s situation. While we don’t have any positions currently advertised (recruitment is paused during the current pandemic) we are always on the look out for fresh minds to join the team. It wont necessarily be your academic grades that win you a seat at the Branding Science table but an ability to demonstrate relevant thinking, creativity and offering a perspective on the insights we gather. Once part of the team we have an induction period and regular ongoing training that everyone from the MD to the graduates is involved in, honing our skills in research, interviewing, presenting, data analysis, psychology, sociology, anthropology … I could go on! Continued learning generates new thinking which is valuable for having the cutting edge over our competitors while on a personal level each member of the team continues to grow, learning new skills and expertises.