Our collaboration of calculations and creativity came together earlier this year when WB Accountants brought their 30 years of accounting experience from Mudgee to Wollongong.
Based on a shared interest in business growth, they asked Beans to jump on board and help establish their brand in Wollongong. The project took us back to basics as we worked closely with the accounting firm to define their product offering, develop a clear message and prepare their sales processes and strategy.
It’s common knowledge that before you learn to run, you walk. And in business, before you can start selling, you need to know what the product is and what makes it different. With this being said, the first step for WB Accountants was to clarify their offering, make it more accessible to customers and create something business owners really want to buy.
To do this, we got stuck into research.
One of the key insights we uncovered in our research centred around the uncertainty many business owners have around their accountants billing practices. For some accounting firms, it is commonplace to put every single phone call, email or minute into the line items of their invoices, leaving their clients with a big surprise when the bill finally arrives. To tackle this we worked closely with WB Accountants to develop ten key product packages with scalable inclusions and price points to cater to businesses of all sizes and stages of growth. Beans rolled out the packages in line with the existing WB Accountants brand: White for those starting out, Stone for growing entities, Blue for big businesses, Black for the bigger and Platinum for the biggest. These options were then mirrored and adjusted based on the business structure – sole traders and partnerships vs companies and trading trusts.
With WB Accountants industry and their existing brand in mind, Beans designed used credit card monikers to represent the various packages. The packages provide clarity for customers, as well as help WB Accountants ensure they set the right service expectations internally.
Our next step was to get these products to the market with a clear message and fresh creative. WB Accountants already had a strong brand but the missing piece of the puzzle was a distinct message that would speak to an audience of business owners. To help them achieve this, we continued our research, evaluated their competitors and even tapped into our own experience and the experience of other local businesses. Many cited the fact that they had little interaction with their accountants… Except when the bill arrived. This got us thinking…
⁃ How often do you hear from your accountant?
⁃ When was the last time they called you?
⁃ If they did call, was it to check up on your business or if you got their invoice?
This led us to the campaign headline: What has your accountant done for you lately?
This message highlights WB Accountants’ commitment to the long term growth and success of the businesses they work with. It also poses a question to their key audience – “Is your current accountant doing enough for you and your business?” while providing a solution in the form of WB Accountants.
After refining our creative strategy and direction, we rolled the message across stationery, print materials, social media, the website and to a newly collated database of clients and prospects.
We didn’t stop there. To get this message to more of the right people, we developed a digital campaign across Google and social media platforms, combining WB Accountants thorough service quality with a bit of humour, we came up with a series of visuals to match.
.jpeg)
