The Work

"What if" – a simple phrase that unlocks the vast potential of human creativity and innovation. Language shapes our reality and powers our imagination. Our work starts with these two words, expanding possibilities before narrowing to deliver impactful results within the cruel but necessary constraints of time and budget.

Brand Design, Purpose-Driven Strategy Ne-Lo Team Brand Design, Purpose-Driven Strategy Ne-Lo Team

Changing the shape of public transport.

Company Purpose Framework


Before we designed anything the Ne-Lo team worked with Hannover employees and key clients to hear all stakeholder perspectives. A series of work shops engage the team to help them articulate their Shared Belief, Vision, Mission and Values into a singular narrative we call the Purpose Framework. Armed with an aligned narrative for the future of Hannover this could then be brought across marketing and brand.

Brand Strategy – Changing the shape of public transport.


When it comes to designing transport systems with heavy infrastructure costs long term vision is required to factor in inevitable changes in technology and in culture. These are the tricky problems of transport consulting – the ever changing shape of moving people and goods move efficiently and sustainably.

This fluidity of problem solving is where Hannover Consulting thrives. Constantly flexing and challenging assumptions and ways of working. They are changing the way we move in the future.

Brand Design System


To capture the changing shape of transport we built a modular brand mark that works with existing logotype. Each shape offering another piece of the puzzle to solve the every changing future of transport.

Fonts, Scales and Brand Colours were adjusted to create a contemporary look that could be rollout across all touch-points.

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Brand & Marketing Ne-Lo Team Brand & Marketing Ne-Lo Team

Selfwealth: Rebranding for exponential growth.

Yes, we are adopting a sports line – it’s a literal cheer that expresses one’s joy and encouragement towards another person’s achievement. This is the Australia we all love. We are proudly the Australian investment platform that gives you global access.

To our customers – It’s not us talking to them, we are them. It’s a line that can be spoken by the company but also our customers. It’s what we all feel when we look at our own financial wealth – Grow damn you grow! Grow!

To our employees – ‘GYGT’ is a rally cry for people to join us and encouragement for personal and professional growth. It captures the culture of a company with a mission.

To our shareholders – It’s a message that growth is at the top of our agenda and that there is so much excitement it compels us to use an exclamation mark!

Grow you good thing!

 

Let’s not grow portfolios.
Let’s grow people.
Let’s make money-makers.

Time to shake off ageing ideals and equip people with the tools to take control of their own wealth creation.

To take accountability for our financial strategy – confident in the pursuit of our goals.


Let’s be Selfwealthy and go where we can grow.

 
 

Our brand symbol - the ‘Exponential Ramp’

Intentionally simple, when applied it can symbolise financial growth but it can also be used more playfully as a ramp to anything someone can dream up. ‘Wealth creation’ is not just about money. It’s about what that unlocks for someone’s life and all the emotions that go along with it. To express this we have created a series of ‘toppers’ that can also be placed above our symbol to capture different feelings and emotions.

 

A Brand Design System to inform all touchpoints.

A good brand design system is anything but simple, but that’s exactly what needs to deliver.
— Kieran Antill, Director of Brand and Marketing

App Design and Store touch-points

Podcast

Marketing website – UX / UI

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Research & Insights Ne-Lo Team Research & Insights Ne-Lo Team

From data overload to insight-driven. ASX-listed Selfwealth invests in stakeholder voice to grow market share.

Context

In 2021, Selfwealth were in a period of rapid growth, largely off the back of a doubling of the active investor market. There was a huge amount of competition in the market and the Selfwealth leadership recognised early that they needed to be proactive about ensuring their ongoing sustainable growth. Having just invested in a research project with a Big 4 consulting firm which left them with lots of data but little direction, Selfwealth engaged Ne-Lo to support with deepening customer understanding, building culture, and focusing strategy, product roadmap, and brand.

Solution

‍Over the past two years, Ne-Lo have worked closely with the Selfwealth board and executive team to clarify purpose, and bring the voice of stakeholders into the boardroom to inform bold decisions. This has largely focused on the evolution of a customer-centric product, and a repositioning of the brand.

Throughout this process, we have engaged:

100% of Selfwealth employees
8,500+ current customers
1,000+ prospective customers

Based on insights gathered, the Selfwealth team have clarified a company purpose to guide their long term growth, developed a new product roadmap and successfully launched a number of new markets and features, and repositioned their brand with a clear focus on the target audience they provide value for.

Outcomes

Selfwealth have increase active traders from 85,000 to 128,000.
Selfwealth is now the 3rd largest (from 5th) investment platform in Australia, behind only Commbank and NAB.

Ne-Lo’s approach gave us a firm grasp of who our customers are, why they choose us, and what they value. We also clarified our company purpose which aligns and focuses the business to achieve strategic outcomes.
— Josh Sprague, Chief Product Officer at Selfwealth
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Strategy & Culture Ne-Lo Team Strategy & Culture Ne-Lo Team

Aussie retail icon Dymocks turns to purpose-driven strategy to stand out in the new world of books.

It all begins with an idea.

Project Context

Ne-Lo were initially engaged by Dymocks five months into the tenure of MD, Mark Newman. While there had been a series of 3-year strategic plans, a brand strategy and a recent strategic review, there was a pressing need to tackle three specific challenges:

 

Q1.

Align on and define a clear company purpose to build focus and alignment around key strategic initiatives.

Q2.

Better utilise employee insights and engagement to build buy-in and awareness of the strategic direction of the company.

Q3.

Embed the Dymocks company purpose in strategic decision making to avoid it being just another document.

 

Solution‍

The Ne-Lo team first engaged the entire head office team in a full day offsite workshop which provided the platform for everyone to have input into clarifying the Dymocks Purpose. The insights from the day were then refined across a series of executive team workshops to develop the Purpose Framework, consisting of ‘Shared Belief’, ‘Vision’, ‘Mission’ and ‘Values’. The framework was then shared with the Dymocks board, employees and franchisees for input before being further refined and used to develop a suite of shareable assets to keep it front of mind across the organisation and to guide development of the company’s 3 year strategic plan.

One year on from the initial project, Dymocks engaged Ne-Lo to facilitate an annual strategic review to ensure the company purpose was being effective in moving them towards being a purpose-driven organisation. In partnership with decision-making science consultancy, Catalyze APAC, we facilitated a workshop to review progress against all Dymocks’ strategic pillars, identified the potential options for focus in the coming year and aligned the Dymocks team on the criteria through which they would decide which strategic option to focus on. We ensured that the company purpose was appropriately represented in the criteria and facilitated the process of clarifying the key strategic actions for the coming year.

 
Every stage of the process of clarifying our purpose made us feel we were in control of the journey, but provided clear, succinct input and advice to help us get there.
— Mark Newman, MD of Dymocks Books
 
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Strategy & Culture Ne-Lo Team Strategy & Culture Ne-Lo Team

ASX-200 listed McMillan Shakespeare refreshes purpose and clarifies EVP to become an employer of choice.

It all begins with an idea.

Context

Ne-Lo were engaged by McMillan Shakespeare Head of Strategy Andrew Suckling, CEO Mike Salisbury, CHRO Suzanne Shepherd and Chief Customer Officer, Julia Edwards-Smith to facilitate a refresh of their company strategy. The previous purpose had been developed five years previously but there was a feeling that it may not be as relevant in the current state of the business and it wasn’t providing the desired strategic focus in the face of some major business decisions.

The program of work centered around three key deliverables:

  1. Engage as broadly as possible across MMS’ 1200 employees to clarify a purpose that unites everyone at an organisational level.

  2. Develop a company purpose that builds strategic alignment and focus.

  3. Connect the new purpose to the development of an employee value proposition, the MMS ‘Human Deal’, to support them to stand out as an employer of choice.

‍Solution

The Ne-Lo team first engaged the board, C-suite and group level executive leaders via 1:1 interviews, focus groups and team workshops, as well as reviewing previous purpose work and relevant strategic plans, employee surveys and customer insights. From there, we were able to develop an aligned executive draft of the MMS Purpose Framework. From there, we designed, developed and facilitated an online forum, designed to give a select group of MMS people awards winners and key stakeholders the opportunity of having a detailed and interactive contribution to the purpose refresh project. We also designed, filmed and managed a video survey, using VideoAsk, which was distributed to all MMS employees. Data from these engagements was analysed and refined into key insights which were workshopped with the executive team to develop the final MMS Company Purpose. As part of the refinement phase, final drafts were run by key stakeholders and the board for final feedback, and shareable assets were developed to support the launch of the new purpose.

Following the completion of the purpose refresh project, the Ne-Lo team worked with CHRO Suzanne Shepherd and her HR team to use the purpose framework and insights in developing an employee value proposition that would support MMS to stand out as an employer of choice in a challenging labour market. We presented pertinent purpose insights and conducted further primary research with key stakeholders before organizing focus areas on a quadrant consisting of a distinctive-hygiene axis and an emotional-rational axis. This aligned the team around the 1 emotional and 1 rational factor that they were going to be known for, and the 1 or 2 emotional and rational factors they were going to maintain as a baseline. Based on further research we identified where MMS were currently performing well or falling short against these promises, and developed a strategic roadmap to amplify the strengths and address the shortfalls.

Outcome‍

The new MMS purpose has led to focused and aligned decisions on some pressing matters and has informed many new cultural initiatives, such as the development of the aforementioned Human Deal and EVP strategy and the launch of a team award at the company’s much-celebrated people awards.

 
Ne-Lo Consulting is exceptional to work with. They have engaged through all levels of our business and their methodology and professionalism have given us very high outcomes that are of real value
— Suzanne Shepherd, Chief Human Resources Officer at McMillan Shakespeareote Source
 
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Research & Insights Ne-Lo Team Research & Insights Ne-Lo Team

ASX-listed Selfwealth invest in deep customer insight and refreshed purpose to focus strategy and support ongoing growth.

It all begins with an idea.

Context

Ne-Lo were initially engaged by Selfwealth Chief Product Officer, Josh Sprague. He was developing his strategic product roadmap in response to an ever more competitive investment market, with the intention of adding more value for customers and avoid price erosion and aimless feature adding. To do so, Selfwealth needed clearer insight on what mattered most to their customers.

While there had been recent work conducted by a big 4 consulting firm, the report delivered plenty of data and little insight, leaving three pressing needs:

  1. Go beyond a demographic understanding of their customer by understanding their beliefs, behaviours, motivations and perception of value in relation to investing

  2. Turn customer data into targeted insights that inform focused strategy

  3. Align the exec. Team around an objective view of what matters most and where to focus attention and resources‍

 

The Solution

  • ‍100% of employees engaged

  • 3600 current customers surveyed

  • 600 target customers surveyed

The Ne-Lo team first engaged the Selfwealth executive team, board and all employees via 1:1 interviews and focus groups to define the strategic questions to be answered and identify any known unknowns. We then identified the target customer groups who would be best placed to give insight into these areas before designing and managing a mixed methods research that saw us collect targeted data from 3600 current Selfwealth customers and 600 target Selfwealth customers. Data was then analysed through the lens of the research question(s) to provide targeted insight that informed pressing strategic decisions.

Through the initial research project, it became clear that Selfwealth required an objective approach to inform aligned strategic decision making. The company was experiencing significant change as a result of rapid growth and had new expertise and new perspectives joining the business. We worked through a purpose framework program, engaging the board, executive team and employees across the business via 1:1 interviews, focus groups and online forums, to clarify the Selfwealth company purpose, consisting of shared belief, vision, mission and values. The Purpose Framework program led to a Selfwealth rebrand, in partnership with BigSpace Agency (insert case study link) and the subsequent launch of the Selfwealth GYGT employer brand.

 

The Outcome

Selfwealth have a set of customer behavioural archetypes that help to frame conversations and shape the strategic direction of the company. This led directly to the launch of the strategic product roadmap, in burger form.

The clearly articulated Purpose Framework has aligned the business on future direction and strategic focus and led directly to a re-brand, in partnership with BigSpace Agency and subsequent launch of the Selfwealth GYGT (Grow You Good Thing!) employer brand.

 
Ne-Lo’s approach gave us a firm grasp of who our customers are, why they choose to use our platform and importantly what delivers them value. We have also benefited from having a clearly articulated company purpose that aligns and focuses the business to achieve strategic outcomes.

— Josh Sprague, Chief Product Officer at Selfwealth
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