Consultancies work on Good Energy repositioning

Good Energy head of marketing Martin Saunders says he has put together ’a team of experts’ for the project. In addition to Studio Makgill, Good Brand is working on communications and campaigns, Northstar on brand strategy and Beef on a new website.

Saunders, founding partner of design consultancy BB Saunders – which was disbanded in 2009 – worked with Studio Makgill founder Hamish Makgill when the pair were at BB Saunders. Studio Makgill was appointed in February this year, and tasked with creating a marque which would show ’stronger, more iconic recognition’, says Saunders.

Makgill says, ’The Green landscape is full of clichés,’ adding that he was tasked with designing an identity that would stand out from other energy suppliers’ Green offshoots. He adds, ’We didn’t want it to feel too corporate as it’s not an engineering institution.

As a company with a human face it needs to be seen as friendly and approachable.’ One of the Good Energy sub-brands, Generate Your Own, represents the one in 25 of the company’s customers who produce power independently, off-grid.

A symbol based on the sun – ’our most primitive source of energy,’ says Makgill – gives an aesthetic which is ’robust, but softened enough so that it doesn’t appear too technical’. Nine ’earthy colours’, from dark grey through to yellow, give a natural look and feel, says Makgill.

Good Brand has produced a campaign and worked on a strategy which will launch with the identity on 21 June. Using the strapline, ’Together we do this’, the campaign will look to show the provenance of the energy and ’put the mission of the company back into the brand’, according to Sarah Westwood, planner at Good Brand, which is also designing a campaign microsite for the client.

The main website will be designed by digital group Beef, which is reskinning an interim site to launch on 21 June. Five existing sites – hosted on separate domains – will be brought together under the full site.

This will include the main Good Energy site, Good Energy Shop, Generate Your Own, Good Energy Generation and a corporate site. Saunders says he hopes the new site will present a more holistic view of the brand.