“HELP!
SAVE MY BUSINESS”
Klaus Werndl. Client for 35 years.
We helped Klaus save his father’s company. We used creative thinking to reposition Werndl. Feel at Home at the Office. We zigged when the competition zagged. Became the market leader by selling the ‘why?’ not the ‘what? From nowhere to German market leader to a €175 million sale.
“HELP!
SAVE MY BUSINESS”
Klaus Werndl. Client for 35 years.
We helped Klaus save his father’s company. We used creative thinking to reposition Werndl. Feel at Home at the Office. We zigged when the competition zagged. Became the market leader by selling the ‘why?’ not the ‘what? From nowhere to German market leader to a €175 million sale.
Rethink
CREATING HUGE ADDED VALUE
Klaus Werndl was ambitious and wanted to take his office furniture company to the no.1 spot in Germany. Using the simple idea – strategy is about being different. We developed two themes: for the factory: the Spirit of Innovation and for the market: Feel at Home at the Office. This gave us the strategy architecture for all future actions. This energised the company, the market as well as giving focus for everything we did. For more than a decade Werndl outperformed the industry average consistently by wide margins.
Rethink
CREATING HUGE ADDED VALUE
Klaus Werndl was ambitious and wanted to take his office furniture company to the no.1 spot in Germany. Using the simple idea – strategy is about being different. We developed two themes: for the factory: the Spirit of Innovation and for the market: Feel at Home at the Office. This gave us the strategy architecture for all future actions. This energised the company, the market as well as giving focus for everything we did. For more than a decade Werndl outperformed the industry average consistently by wide margins.
WE DEVELOPED A BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY
Get out of the red ocean
Get away from the world of hyper-competition. Stop going head to head with the same competitors.
Create your own blue ocean
We can help you create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant.
CREATING HUGE ADDED VALUE
Get out of the red ocean
Get away from the world of hyper-competition. Stop going head to head with the same competitors.
Create your own blue ocean
We can help you create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant.
Refocus
How we did it.
To outperform the market
we made some decisions:
Office furniture was fashion.
Move to fast track assembly.
Superior Marketing.
Become a LoveMark.
Doing business with friends.
Refocus
How we did it.
To outperform the market we made some decisions:
Office furniture was fashion.
Move to fast track assembly.
Superior Marketing.
Become a LoveMark.
Doing business with friends.
TO BUILD THE BRAND, WE SELL THE ‘WHY?’ NOT THE ‘WHAT?
Re-energize
1. Move away from the ‘what?’ to the ‘why?
This has long been the secret of the world-class brands, such as Apple (Think different), BMW (the joy of motoring).
2. You need to invest in the look and feel.
This we build into the success of Werndl by carefully controlling all visual and textual assets. So that everyone has the same experience when they touched the brand.
3. Continually delight and surprise your market and friends.
Result: Werndl was sold for €175 million to Steelcase.
Client Werndl
Sector Office furniture Since 1984
Ownership Private
Result Sold for €175 million to Steelcase
Location Germany
Re-energize
TO BUILD THE BRAND, WE SELL THE ‘WHY?’ NOT THE ‘WHAT?
1. Move away from the ‘what?’ to the ‘why?
This has long been the secret of the world-class brands, such as Apple (Think different), BMW (the joy of motoring).
2. You need to invest in the look and feel.
This we build into the success of Werndl by carefully controlling all visual and textual assets. So that everyone has the same experience when they touched the brand.
3. Continually delight and surprise your market and friends.
Result: Werndl was sold for €175 million to Steelcase.
Client Werndl
Sector Office furniture Since 1984
Ownership Private
Result Sold for €175 million to Steelcase
Location Germany
From Werndl to Steelcase.
Rethinker.co was asked to help for
WORLD WIDE BRANDING
Love how you work™
Steelcase is a huge global company. The need for a clearly differentiated global positioning is critical. We were asked to help. Having successfully launched the brand in Europe, we decided to take the high ground, to distance ourselves from the competition. To sell the ‘why?’ not the ‘what?’. Eventually, working closely with the US team we helped develop the LoveHowYouWork theme. This theme Steelcase now proudly uses worldwide.
You are unique™
There are 426 million people born after 1980 in India and 218 million in China. This group we call GenY. They are driving the Asian economies relentlessly forward. Steelcase Asia Pacific asked us to help introduce themselves and their new products into these important markets. We sought to address this problem. We wanted to design a strategy that would launch Steelcase in a sustainable empathetic manner and compliment our LoveHowYouWork theme.
The theme ‘You are Unique’ was born.
Client Steelcase
Sector Office and solutions
Revenue $2,4 billion
Location global
From Werndl to Steelcase.
Rethinker.co was asked to help for
WORLD WIDE BRANDING
Love how you work™
Steelcase is a huge global company. The need for a clearly differentiated global positioning is critical. We were asked to help. Having successfully launched the brand
in Europe, we decided to take the high ground, to distance ourselves from the competition. To sell the ‘why?’ not the ‘what?’. Eventually, working closely with the US team we helped develop the LoveHowYouWork theme. This theme Steelcase now proudly uses worldwide.
You are unique™
There are 426 million people born after 1980 in India and 218 million in China. This group we call GenY. They are driving the Asian economies relentlessly forward. Steelcase Asia Pacific asked us to help introduce themselves and their new products into these important markets. We sought to address this problem. We wanted to design a strategy that would launch Steelcase in a sustainable empathetic manner and compliment our LoveHowYouWork theme.
The theme ‘You are Unique’ was born.
Client Steelcase
Sector Office and solutions
Revenue $2,4 billion
Location global
