Phil Ingle Associates: when it’s all in the name

Context: Phil’s business had shifted away from consultancy and training around the ‘sales’ aspect of business development and towards consultancy and training for: leadership, finance, negotiation and communications.

As what Phil Ingle offers has evolved, the relevance of the strapline for Phil Ingle Associates needed updating. With the opportunity to reflect that the lockdown has afforded, Phil Ingle decided to turn to brand specialists Glued.

The requirement: His brief was not simply about relevance but also to develop a strap line that stirred him more than the original ’Empowering Business Development’ had when he first used it.

Glued took the initiative, by looking at part of the business name as well as the strapline. More meaning could be conveyed and more options for straplines possible, where the term following ‘Phil Ingle’ could be used more meaningfully.

The outputs:Trialing a change from ‘Associates’ to ‘Training’, ‘Learning’ and ‘Development’ allowed Glued to consider a whole range of sentiments in the strapline. These included the notions of: ‘having the right attitude for…’; ‘not just training but also action or performance or profit’; ‘effective training being about behaviour’: and ‘being grown-up about training’.

Selection was helped in the shape of a previous brush with copyright over the use of the term ‘profitability’. But aside from this the choice was determined by a balance between the meaning conveyed and Phil’s own emotional response on his initial view of the proposals.

The results: You will see from the images that ‘Phil Ingle Associates, Empowering Business Development’ became ‘Phil Ingle, Learn & Develop, A financial mindset’. Where the term ‘financial’ can be substituted with ‘leadership’, or ‘win/win’, or ‘engaging’: depending on the area of specialty being promoted – but leading with ‘leadership’.

Phil Ingle said of the project “Working with Rob & David on my new logo really pushed my boundaries and maybe their patience, but they were so professional. What came through was their great expertise, willingness to get things right, and some provocative thinking to help me get to something I never expected – but am delighted with.”

Rob Harrison of Glued was keen to praise Phil’s unique approach and style… “Working on Phil’s strapline was really stimulating, in no small part due to Phil’s unique approach to learning and to the specialisms he focuses on. His style is wryly humorous; his focus is on behaviour and attitude; and his use of ’it depends’ is refreshing and thought provoking. We are proud to have been involved.”