How to
capture culture

The Challenge

As opportunities come there are few as iconic as this. Halfords, being one of our most well known British brands had a lot to be proud of, but had, as a result of some turbulent times and some fairly significant business changes, lost its way from a brand culture perspective, having no clearly defined brand essence that everyone could get behind, or a distinctive set of values that they could own and embrace. Further complicated by the acquisition of the Autocentres business some years previous, there was still work to do integrating the cultures of both businesses into one cohesive brand. At 10 we wholeheartedly believe that it is impossible to win the loyalty of customers before winning the loyalty of employees, that's why we focus on building brands from the inside. Halfords, recognising this as the key to stability and future growth for the brand, tasked us with defining what the Halfords brand and people stood for.

The Approach

The process started by working from the inside, defining the culture and the present proposition by working with as many people as we could from across the business. We embarked upon the journey with a full immersion exercise, interviewing as many people as we could across the country about what the business and the brand meant to them. Knowing we could never talk to all of the employees we created a microsite, 'Who's Hal', for everyone to engage with. 'Who's Hal' allowed employees to tell us how they saw the Halfords brand as if he/she was a person, and helped us to define the characteristics of the brand. As a three-pronged approach, we also held a series of workshops for a cross section of employees to feed into. The combined results provided us with a clearly defined essence and unique set of values true to the Halfords people.

Halfords - Store
Halfords - Brandbook
Halfords - Brand book internal

The Results

This is part of a four-year strategy, but already we can, even in these early days of roll out, see a rejuvenated response to those who have been privy to the new behaviours and essence.

"We knew that 10 had a great track record as an agency, but we chose the team because they had not only done their homework on us, but demonstrated the enthusiasm and excitement we wanted to help us define what we stand for as a brand and as people. The results of their immersion into the business so accurately and creatively pin point our business culture, it's as if the answer was right under our noses the whole time, we just couldn't see it. We are excited by what this clarity will bring to our business, and look forward to fully rolling this out."

Jonathan Crookall, People Director

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