In today’s consumer-savvy marketplace, brands need to be authentic but they also need to evolve to stay competitive in an ever-changing landscape.

So, it’s crucial to take the time to understand your brand from the inside out; to explore your core mission and values and reflect these in every conversation.

After 15 years of operation in the recruitment space, CEO Jason Darbyshire and his team at Charterhouse Partnership decided to take a fresh look at who they were and how to tell their story. They were keen to strengthen Charterhouse’s position and reputation in the industry and carve out a niche as specialists with something different to offer the market. Above all, they wanted to make their brand ‘sticky’ – to create a meaningful vision that would resonate with their audience and unite people in a shared sense of purpose. They approached us to assist them with the biggest change in their organisation’s history. 

Our Approach

Where did we start? On the inside, exploring the hidden depths of the Charterhouse personality. Our Strategy & Engagement team held two on-site workshops: one with the leadership team, the second with key staff within the business. We focussed on a series of important questions, such as Who are we? What do we believe in? What is our shared purpose? And we were absolutely blown away by the response from the business! Faces lit up as individuals across disciplines shared their opinions and ideas. We were seeing Charterhouse employees visibly re-engage with the business as they had their say. And, over the course of the two days, we gained a strong sense of the Charterhouse brand . . . from the inside.

Moving from the inside out, we used and fused these ideas to create a global strategy framework for all the Charterhouse offices. The framework defines Charterhouse’s core values and brand personality and four strategic pillars to incorporate into their new brand message. We also devised a messaging playbook with suggested taglines, brand anchor statements and copy for use in future communications. Much of the content was used in the new Charterhouse Partnership and Charterhouse Medical websites for which we provided full copywriting services.

Our creatives then got busy designing a comprehensive set of new guidelines for the brand. These include a new corporate logo with a contemporary yet classic humanist design aesthetic. Look closely and you’ll notice the Charterhouse ‘open door of opportunity’, a core feature of the organisation’s inclusive approach to business. Our team also highlighted the importance of a consistent, controlled brand message through use of clearly defined typography and a customised colour palette. By providing artistic direction for the new Charterhouse websites, we ensured that many of these aspects were incorporated in the custom design. Additionally, we provided sample advertisements and signage to support the new brand and a series of templates for use throughout the organisation, such as SEEK ads, letterheads, email signatures and business cards.

The Result

‘Think Big. Achieve Bigger.’ The new Charterhouse tagline says it all. Change starts with reflection, insight and ambition, but only gains momentum when these are translated into authentic action. It is an exciting road ahead for Charterhouse and we are proud to have accompanied them at the start of their brand journey.