How a strategic brand refresh helped Celtic Routes triple their sales
Working with Celtic Routes on their brand strategy and project managing their rebrand ready for a period of huge growth.
Celtic Routes are a luxury Land Rover self-drive tour company. When they set out to refresh their brand, they needed a partner who could help them distill their vision into something clearer, usable across their marketing, and that felt more ‘them’.
I partnered with them as their external brand strategist to lead the development of their brand strategy and brought together a wider creative team to help bring it to life.
The project impact:
Sales tripled in year 1
Clear brand positioning that speaks to a targeted audience
Messaging tailored to different customers for use across different applications
Regular marketing and PR opportunities leading to visibility and strong growth
Gone from a small husband and wife team to a small team
The challenge: a brand that needed clarity for growth
It’s not just the destination that matters for Celtic Routes – the journey with friends and family is just as enjoyable.
Their brand wasn’t capturing that story or representing the bespoke and luxury side of the brand. Graham and Alexia bought the business because they saw its potential. With their passion for travel and Land Rovers, coupled with their business knowledge, they set out to grow the business.
“Our brand didn't do a good job of representing the quality of our product or the values of our organisation. It was rather cliche and significantly unsophisticated compared to the luxury market we operate in. Fliss was a good fit for us, bringing big company experience but focusing on helping small companies like us to use their brand to thrive. She got what we were trying to do straight away.”They needed support to:
Clarify their positioning and set out the foundations of the brand
Shape and guide the creative direction and define a voice and clear messaging
Find and work closely with specialists to bring them onboard with the strategy and make sure the messaging, visuals and marketing all joined up to tell the brand’s story
Understand how to take it from concept to execution
What we did: a multi-stage brand project
Stage 1: Quick win improvements
We didn’t launch headfirst into a rebrand as they needed to get their existing brand communications working. They’d inherited ad-hoc comms that we instantly recognised could be improved to make a huge difference to the imminent sales year. I brought in So Contented to support us with their messaging and content expertise.
“Throughout the process Fliss has been a real partner. She was more like part of our team rather than a supplier. She’s helped us focus on what we needed to do at each stage rather than getting hung up on building something big and perfect which could cause stumbling blocks. This flexibility and pragmatism has allowed us to see consistent improvements and delivery throughout the process, which has matched our continual growth and evolution as a business.”What we did at stage 1:
Customer research to gain a picture of who they are, brand perception, what was being done well and what could be improved
Customer touchpoints plotted to quickly improve the experience
More targeted and ‘on-brand’ digital ads created
Set up an interim structured email marketing funnel to nurture enquiries and build trust before launching into a new sales process
Temporary refresh of the website to better reflect the existing brand, improve customer experience, and drive leads for the upcoming sales year
The brand before stage 1 of the brand work
Stage 2: Strategy and messaging
From there, we kicked off the rebrand. The brand’s identity wasn’t well established, and wasn’t aligned with the proposition which made marketing and internal decision making difficult. We defined a brand strategy that set out what Celtic Routes stands for, how to talk about the brand, pinpoints the customers they’re targeting and how to go about doing so. This became the foundation for tone of voice, messaging, and creative briefs moving forward.
Defining the strategy enabled Graham and Alexia to decide on their intentions for the business moving forward and be more focused in their marketing tactics.
“The work we did on our brand helped us to understand what we stand for, why we operate in the way we do and what motivates us. Fliss has helped us to categorise and understand our clients better which means we find, attract and retain them better than before.”What we did at stage 2:
Workshop to delve into the brand’s goals and positioning
Defined customer avatars based on research done in stage one
Created a brand strategy document setting out the brand stands for, what they’re aiming to achieve, and how they serve their ideal customers
Collaborated with So Contented on the brand voice and messaging
Defined specific messaging for their different audience types
Stage 3: Creative Collaboration
With the strategy in place, I supported Graham and Alexia in finding the right team that could collaborate on the rebrand and beyond: creating their visual identity, website rebuild, and marketing strategy and ongoing delivery.
I introduced a full team to Graham and Alexia and worked with them to make sure the strategic work came through in the words, visuals and overall feel of the brand as it evolved.
A collaborative and joined-up process was important to ensure the strategy threaded through everything, and that the brand they were investing in was going to perform and build a solid reputation in their industry. At this stage I sat as part of the Celtic Routes team to bridge the gap between understanding the creative process and bringing commercial thinking and understanding of the business needs into the output.
What we did at this stage:
Wrote the visual identity brief and helped Graham to find the right designer
Brought the team onboard with understanding the positioning and how that should flow through everything
Worked closely with Anna in crafting a visual identity – taking her through the strategy and giving feedback on design concepts
Pinpointed the marketing needs of the business, bringing in Laura from Chroma to create and execute a multi-layered marketing strategy. One-Two Digital focused on the digital aspects of Celtic Routes marketing
The Outcome
The strategy and brand development process gave Celtic Routes an ownable identity and differentiated proposition in a crowded market. The brand finally felt cohesive, confident, and with a purpose that connected with its target market.
That foundation supported a creative rollout that helped triple their sales within a year.
“The external change is enormous - seeing the brand come to life has been incredible and will form the platform of our next stage of growth as we mature from a very small husband and wife team to a small and successful company. On top of that, over the year of working together we've tripled sales and aim to triple again next year.”What the work did for them:
Clearer brand positioning that speaks to a targeted audience
A strong brand that enabled more confident content and marketing and a great understanding of how to use their marketing funnel
A unique and consistent brand voice and visuals
Strong and memorable messaging through a proposition grounded in strategy
Regular marketing and PR opportunities leading to visibility and strong growth
Gone from a small husband and wife team to building a small, aligned team who are a good fit for their brand and culture
Why this matters
The process wasn’t about flashy deliverables. It was about doing foundational work that made everything else easier, from creative alignment to marketing execution, and growing a team.
See how I work with established businesses as an external brand strategist.
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