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The Woodies have a blog. It’s a kind of collective. Not sure we’re about to start a revolution baby, but we might kindle a small debate or two and perhaps raise a smile. Anyway, rather than just blogging corporate Woodreed by fielding our top Woodie (as so many other companies seem to do in a thinly veiled attempt at impressing with their profundity), we wanted all our individual voices to be heard. An agency’s most valuable assets are its people after all. Everyone’s got something to say here and with us everyone’s ideas and opinions matter.

Each week someone different will be blogging. It's mostly about stuff that rocks our world as well as the flipside – the things that just don't cut it with us. We'll blog about inside and outside – inside this glorious industry where we work and outside in the real world.
It's a bit of an experiment, so go with us on this one.

Hope you enjoy.

Monday 24 January 2011

The Woodreed proposition in practice

I was particularly interested in last Wednesday's episode of the new series 'Mary Portas - Secret shopper' on Channel 4. Not only because I think she is a really charismatic lady who talks a lot of sense but because in this episode she highlighted the importance of employee engagement on running a successful business – something us Woodies bang on about on a daily basis and fiercely believe in.

The company in this case were Pilot – the female fast fashion clothes brand . In a mission to uncover why one of the outlets was underperforming Mary took it upon herself to go undercover with a camcorder, interview shoppers and spent time with the employees. The crux of the problem was revealed – the staff were completely unmotivated, no thought or planning had gone into sharing the company vision with them and they had no reason to be evangelists of the brand. The result? Poor sales and a dire customer experience from start to finish.

Once this was established Mary got to work – trained the girls in the art of customer service, got them excited about their roles and importantly involved the MD so he could inspire and lead them. The changing rooms were kitted out and the place tided up but the key difference was that the staff now cared about their company – they felt proud, excited and inspired to be there which had a direct and positive impact on performance.

It’s a great example of the Woodreed proposition at work...your internal audience is just as important as your outside one and your employees are customers too – ignore them at your peril. Take the time to understand them, their mindset and their understanding of your values. Develop an effective internal communications strategy that flows from the top seamlessly around the company and most importantly what we would add is ensure that brand is at the heart of all this. Make sure what you say you are is what your people say you are. Then there’s no stopping you.

For more info on the show visit



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3 comments:

  1. Charlotte24 January 2011 at 07:01

    what a totally brilliant blog. The Woodreed mission continues - bring it on

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  2. Dave Wilson24 January 2011 at 09:23

    So pertinent to our proposition. I like Mary, not only for charisma and pragmatism, I actualy thinks she's soft on the inside and loves making something/someone succesful. Not a cold harded trouble shooter like many of them. Great blog.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown25 January 2011 at 02:36

    Excellent blog - are we paying Mary a fee?

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