A matter perhaps overlooked by many is the important role an effective marketing and communications strategy plays within a business. Rayanne Baker spoke to Chloe Leach-O’Connell, Managing Director at Leach-O’Connell Consultancy, about what makes a good strategy and her experience working within the coach and bus industry
Chloe, who spent her childhood in Spain before coming back to the UK to study Spanish and Journalism at the University of Leeds, has worked for some big names, such as Arriva and Transdev. However, her beginnings were a little more humble. After graduating in 2000, Chloe started working for a translation and localisation company in Leeds. “That’s when people started wanting to translate websites not just print, so I worked on promoting the localisation of websites and software – it was all very new at the time. I spent a lot of time there working with the sales director, working with companies like UBS and Honda, looking at all of their translation and software needs,” said Chloe. It had nothing to do with buses, but that’s how she got into marketing and communication.
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Following her time with the aforementioned translation and localisation company, Chloe started working in Arriva’s marketing department. Chloe expressed that it was a big change for her and it took a little bit of adjusting, saying: “When you’ve come from another industry it’s completely different. The industry I came from was B2B sales, so it was a bit of a shock, it was nothing like I’d been used to before. But it was a really interesting industry and I still absolutely love it. It took a little bit of getting used to, especially with it being a very male dominated industry back then, it’s getting lots better now. But for a young woman in her early 20s it was a bit of a shock to the system, but I really enjoyed the challenge. There were lots of things that needed to progress, especially the marketing and PR areas, so it was a really good opportunity for me to go in there and make a difference.”
Chloe spoke fondly of her time at Arriva, adding: “I learnt a lot in my time working with Arriva. One of the main things about Arriva was that I had a team of directors around me who were keen to see people develop and progress. I had a really good opportunity to develop, so I went from being the Marketing Manager and by the time I left Arriva I was part of the regional leadership team at Arriva Yorkshire and Arriva North East. I think they really nurtured talent and I think that’s something I also now consider. Every organisation should value that ability to inspire, motivate and develop team members. There’s nothing more powerful than a motivated team.”
Leach-O’Connell Consultancy
In 2016 Chloe set off to start her own business, appropriately named Leach-O’Connell Consultancy. After building a name for herself in the transport industry, it makes sense that her name would become her brand. Chloe commented on why she decided to start her own business: “I’ve wanted to start my own business for a long time, probably for the past five or six years. I could see that within the industry, although some companies were doing it, there was a big gap where people didn’t really understand the importance of having a strong corporate narrative. I can’t put enough emphasis on how important it is as a company or organisation to have a strong personality that customers can buy into, and that the customers understand as well as the employees. If you get that right, that really leads your marketing – your story.
“My time at Transdev really helped cement my thoughts around this ideology too. Alex and his team do it really well. I think a lot of companies don’t really see it, and don’t understand the power that it gives an organisation. So I saw the opportunity and thought, now is the time.”
She spoke about what her business aims to do and how she achieves these goals, adding: “My business covers everything from transformational programmes, communications strategies, marketing campaigns to PR, internal communications and market research. I think I work very differently to most standard PR and communications or marketing agencies, because I specialise in bringing external and internal communications together. A traditional PR or marketing company has little to do with internal communication or engagement programmes. This just doesn’t work in my opinion, all your communications should be absolutely aligned in tone, style and message. This way you drive all engagement and bring the company’s brand and values to life for employees, customers and stakeholders.
“Where some agencies will concentrate on one campaign here and there, I specialise in understanding the whole organisation first, getting to grips with what they want to stand for, values, behaviours and then making sure that every message hits the spot, giving the company a strong story that we can all buy into.
“Of course, if companies come to me and want help in just one area, I will create something that absolutely does the job, but the real impact happens when your business’ personality is deep rooted. Many believe that ‘personality’ ultimately comes from the leader and in many cases this is true. However, if you can build values and behaviours within your company that reflect the ‘personality’ you want to create you are well on your way to transformation. Many companies have these values – but they don’t bring them to life in their communications or in a creative way. They’re just posters on a wall, wallpaper. This is why so many people rubbish them, saying it’s a load of strategic nonsense. But, do it right and your whole business comes to life.
Chloe continued: “I spend a lot of time talking about delivering outstanding customer experience, the holy grail of passenger transport. And I work with clients to help build and develop programmes to enhance it. There are so many areas that come into play to make the experience reach levels where it really starts to delight customers and it’s important that teams are working together to deliver. Marketing is just one part of a package of things that makes a route or a network successful, I think that a lot of people still don’t get that. Marketing isn’t something you throw out there for a quick win. You have to have a route that’s punctuality and reliability scores are up where they should be, you need to have a driver that’s smart, that’s friendly and helpful, technology to make payment easy, real time information, on street information, the list goes on. It’s pretty difficult to deliver every single element, but the whole customer journey needs to be taken into account. If you’re on the road to getting all of this right, and not forgetting a customer services function that doesn’t just work but really cares for customers, then you can market your company with flair, personality and creativity. This all goes back to making sure the whole company is part of the story and the overall communications strategy.”
What makes a good marketing and communications strategy?
Reflecting on everything she has learnt and the fundamentals that she runs her own business on, Chloe spoke about what advice she would give to operators who want to improve their marketing and communications strategy: “I think the impact can be absolutely massive. People underestimate it because they see marketing as a single campaign. We must understand the power of brand and personality. I’m not talking about route brands, they definitely have their place, I’m talking about the umbrella brand, the family brand. The brand they sit under. When communications and marketing is disjointed it’s not believable for the customer, or colleagues. And when it’s believable for colleagues that’s when it becomes really powerful, a motivated workforce will absolutely deliver an enhanced customer experience.”
Chloe continued: “You’ve got to think about where that first contact is too. You’ll have so many touchpoints, through technology, customer services and of course the driver, you need to make sure every one of them is working for you. I’m so passionate about the driver being the touch point which has the most impact on ‘your brand’ and this is often neglected. We spend a lot of time getting every area just right, yet the first impression of your brand is going to be that driver interaction which can make or break a journey. So, to have drivers inspired, motivated and wanting to go that extra mile makes a huge difference. You can’t expect to be able to deliver an outstanding product if the people at the forefront of your business, the people facing your customers, don’t believe it. If they aren’t coming along on the journey with you as a business, about what you’re about, what you stand for, what your values are and what you want to go out and deliver each day, if they don’t understand that or if they don’t get it, you fall at the very first hurdle.”
She added: “Operators have to absolutely understand that brand marketing is what you do when you’ve got everything as it should be, when you know that you are absolutely confident in your product, in your service. There’s no point in marketing a service that you know isn’t performing where it should. That’s key, because a lot of the time people think that marketing will just miraculously make something successful, it’s not true, it has to be great from the start and then you need to be creative in telling people about it.
“Also, I think that people are sometimes a little bit nervous about being bold and strong in marketing. When you’ve got your products and services right it’s about being proud and being quite loud about how great you are. I think that if you can do that confidently and clearly, without being arrogant of course, that is really strong. It’s always great to have a big dose of creativity too, that can really lead those bold messages. Companies should be proud about what they’re good at and just keep telling people about it.”
Proud moments
Having worked for some of the biggest names in the industry, it’s no surprise that Chloe has had some proud moments. “There’s loads of things I’m proud of throughout my career,” Chloe said. “With my team, we’ve won awards, had award winning campaigns, and all that’s been great. But I think the thing I’m most proud of is all the moments leading up to those achievements. Working with colleagues to develop, motivate and inspire them, and watching them succeed in those achievements with you. Although that’s the pinnacle when you win awards, really the bit that makes you so proud is when you see your team succeeding, and all those individuals in their own right succeeding too, that’s just amazing and I love it.”
Speaking about her time working with her team, Chloe shared some words of wisdom, saying: “One thing that we always used to say, and I still stand by this now. In the industry you get some weird requests that come through, like filming in depots or singing on buses. I think that you should always, no matter how busy you are, say yes. I used to always encourage my colleagues to embrace opportunities, they said yes to David Jason, Touch of Frost, Ashley Banjo, who came to film with drivers who learned how to dance, Alan Bennett, Jonathon Ross, who hosted his whole Radio 2 show from a depot in Wakefield, and Patrick Stewart, to name but a few. Make coming to work really exciting and varied. Who cares if you’re up until 11 o’clock at night, welcome all of this because it’s so good for the business and so good for your PR and communications – always say yes.”
