Hay Group

Consultants work with more than 8,000 organizations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, across every major industry, in virtually every corner of the earth.

We were asked to work with the team to produce clearly articulated brand positioning, messaging and use that to inform the development of a new tone of voice, behavioral change and a new identity system to guide the design of collateral; in print and online. Research showed that despite over 70 years of focusing on helping organisations get the right people, in the right roles with the incentives to drive the performance required for success, there had been a tendency to use management language of the day such as human capital, resources, etc. There was almost an avoidance of the word people despite Hay Group’s specialisation.

The worldwide Group Leadership Team developed a new strategy for the organisation to improve its alignment with clients’ needs and increase differentiation in a crowded ‘management consultancy’ market. To implement the strategy, a set of works streams were identified as mission critical, one of them, and the first to be initiated, was a review and refresh of the Hay Group brand to inform changes in behavior, change the way that people communicate and to signify a new direction. A large amount of research had already been undertaken and provided a foundation for the brand work stream.

We used our brand mapping approach to facilitate a process, with the Leadership and Marketing teams to develop brand values and descriptors to pin down what Hay Group is, what it offers and the personality with which it expresses itself. We also agreed a core benefit – the essence of the brand that supports all of their propositions. The messaging that we developed for Hay Group and the transformation project itself brought the branding to life and with the identity system, gave us elements required to develop new internal and external communications tools.