Building a brand and website to attract ideal customers and increase revenue

Dr. Duncan Philips is a leading expert in surveying Listed Buildings – his knowledge and experience is phenomenal. He appointed Valiant to redesign his website to help reposition his business and attract exactly the right type of audience. We’ve transformed his business – putting him in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose his work as a recognised and respected industry leader.

Dr Philips is a chartered building surveyor with a very specific and specialised focus – historic and listed buildings. With 30 years’ experience helping to preserve and maintain these important architectural gems, he’s become the best in his industry. The challenge he was facing was how to communicate this and elevate the status and impact of his business in what was a small but crowded marketplace. He needed to establish his position as the first choice professional – the company to go to for the most important, interesting and complex projects.

As opposed to the rest of his industry, he knew just how important the quality of his brand, imagery and – even more so – his website would be in achieving this and attracting exactly the kind of work he wanted to undertake. In his words, he wanted “someone who’s never seen or heard of my business before to look at the branding and the website and immediately know that I’m the expert in this particular field.” He understood the return on investment this could deliver, and tasked Valiant with the job. And just to up the ante, Dr Philips told us he’d be happy with nothing less than “god-like genius” from us. So, no pressure then.

Dr Philips’ industry is fascinating and inspiring – we happily immersed ourselves in his world, taking the time to learn everything we could about him, his business and the incredible responsibility that comes with investigating and helping preserve culturally significant buildings. We started with an in-depth Discovery workshop with Dr Philips, backed by our own deep research of the market, his competitors and potential audience.

We knew from the outset that for the branding and especially the website, we would push the boundaries of design and technology further than he was expecting – this would be a beautiful, immersive showcase of the work and life of a respected industry expert and needed to be something very special. We produced a range of concepts, each one pushing the design further – and were delighted when he chose the most transformative. We quickly won Dr Philips’ trust, and he gave us almost free rein to take it as far as we could. The chosen design was a rich, layered exploration of architectural history and craft, brought to life in the build through engaging and tactile technology.

A beautiful website needs beautiful imagery, so we creatively directed a comprehensive set of new shots by an expert architectural photographer, catching the essence of an expert at work in his field. These magazine-quality images truly completed the picture for the site and marketing material.

We initially transitioned his existing brand, to keep consistency with his marketing materials, making it cleaner and stronger to better fit the new style. We overhauled the design of the collateral, reflecting the content-rich, imagery-led nature of the new direction. After the initial transition period, we then created an entirely new brand identity that is sharp, confident and clear – completing the transformation and laying the final foundations for the future of the business.

The website and new brand have been a staggering success. They’ve elevated Dr Philips’ business to a different league of professionalism and expertise. The feedback he’s received from his audience is universally positive – and as a result, it’s not just transformed his image but his entire business:

“It’s now put me in that privileged position where I can pick and choose even whether to give a quote out, not just to do the work.” Well, how about that!

The site has also won numerous accolades, including Awwwards and Hermes Creative Awards.