Rebrand ‘more than just a new image’ reports Cleaning & Maintenance

Robert Scott, one of the UK’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of cleaning products, has invested in a brand refresh to position the business for future growth. Neil Nixon spoke to Alastair Scott and discovered that a new visual image is just a small part of the story. Robert Scott was founded in 1925, and this fourth-generation family business has built an excellent reputation for a reliable, quality and wide-ranging product range amongst its distributor client-base and their end users. Following a number of acquisitions and a rapidly expanding and evolving range of products, the Robert Scott brand had become, according to Alastair Scott, the company’s sales director, ‘diluted and confused’.

“Having been around for so long, people had got used to us and had – in some cases – lost sight of what we do,” said Alastair Scott.“Following a number of high profile acquisitions we no longer had a clear brand identity – in fact, there was no clear ‘Robert Scott’ branding on most of our product range. But the rebrand was much more than just an exercise in improving the company’s visual identity.

Alastair continued: “The rebrand was only 10% about image – the exercise enabled us to reconnect with our customers and staff to understand what the brand means to them. What are we good at? Where can we improve? These were all questions we asked. The result of all this consultation is a refocused company, and the rebrand is a visual indication of this.”

Serious cleaning know-how

The new strapline, serious cleaning know-how, is also the result of customer and staff consultation. “One of the over-riding responses we received from our conversations with clients was that Robert Scott personnel are extremely helpful and very knowledgeable about all things cleaning related. Therefore the strap-line brings into focus what we already are, not what we aspire to be.”

The rebrand process was led by Studio North, an agency based in Manchester. And the project had real purpose. “This certainly wasn’t a vanity project,” continued Alastair. “Everything we do is to improve efficiency and innovate while never compromising on quality - at the right price. The new brand celebrates the people behind our products and the decades of knowledge they bring to our customers and end-users day-in, day-out. The rebrand is a statement of our commitment to share this expertise to provide the best possible janitorial solutions for our customers’ diverse needs.”

Visitors to Interclean in May will see the new Robert Scott branding in full effect, including new packaging and the company’s new trade-only ecommerce website for existing distributors, along with a brand new product catalogue.“This focused rebranding is also designed to assist our distributors in selling products across our full range,” concluded Alastair Scott. “Our approach to market does not change – we remain committed to our distributors and will not sell direct. Even our ecommerce website is for distributor use only. But everything we have done will assist end users – the customers of our distributors – to identify products, and to recognise the breadth of the Robert Scott offering.”

The strategy behind this rebranding exercise is sound, and the focus that the exercise has provided the company has been extremely valuable. Under the committed and highly skilled management, the future for Robert Scott looks very rosy indeed.

Watch the new company video to find out more.