Here at New Word Order, a recent project undertaken for a manufacturing company is a great example of how stakeholder engagement can formulate the foundations for insightful strategies.

Our client occupies a strong market position but there were warranted concerns that their brand was passive. With objectives to increase market share and grow into new markets, they knew brand strategy work was required and employed our expertise.

We did a lot of discovery work, including multiple stakeholder engagement projects with staff, customers, ex-customers and prospects. Leadership workshops and brand audits were part of the process. We discovered that some customers referred to them as the “Harry Highpants of the industry” and made comments such as: “If they were the life of their own party, people might warm to them more”.

While these revelations may not sound terribly positive, they were the beginning of a company-wide revolution. Without having a clear picture of their stakeholders' perceptions, their new ventures would not have succeeded.

Thanks to the power of robust and independent stakeholder engagement, our client was able to follow our roadmap to move customers' brand perceptions from staid and fussy to innovative and leading edge.

And as we did for our client, we can uncover and deliver those tough love messages to your senior stakeholders, too—making sure your business-critical projects kick off with the right knowledge.