Most people associate Gallagher, established by iconic Kiwi entrepreneur Bill Gallagher senior in 1938, with electric farm fencing. By 2007, the company had diversified to become a successful security company, and also Australasia's largest manufacturer of petrol pumps.

However, like many other New Zealand companies, Gallagher had grown like Topsy, rather than through a consistent brand and product strategy and was fast showing signs of inconsistent presentation in its markets.

Deputy Chief Executive Steve Tucker says: "Over time we started to question if we were focused too much on doing projects right rather than doing the right projects, and noticed some gaps identifying what our customers really wanted. We felt Better by Design could help in this area."

Developing a new brand strategy

In May 2007, Gallagher went through the Design 360 assessment, which resulted in a number of recommendations concerning the future strategy of the group. The most fundamental recommendation was that Gallagher had the potential to become a truly global technology brand and that its current strategy of separate brands for its animal management division, which used Gallagher, and its security management division, under the Cardax and Powerfence brands, and its fuel solutions business under the PEC brand, was not creating value or building equity in the Gallagher brand.

Better by Design challenged the company about why it was developing equity in so many brands, rather than for the group as a whole. However, many staff members felt strongly that there was valuable equity in the different brands. The debate about whether they could all share the same name took some time as Gallagher has 650 staff in New Zealand and 1,000 worldwide.

And, before the company could move to a single brand it had to go 'back to basics' with its brand story. Better by Design recommended that the company did not have the right skill set within the organisation to tell their own brand story, so Brand Managers were appointed in each division to assist with the implementation of the new brand strategy.

Boosting research and development

Changes were recommended also in the product development area.

"As far as design development went, we thought we were pretty good for our end users, and that our products had a 'wow' factor and were generally great products. But we learned we could do a lot better to anticipate consumers' wants and needs," said Tucker.

The research and development team was boosted to 90, including in the expanded petrol pump division where the team is currently looking at vapour recovery at the petrol pump. Gallagher now has over 10 product management staff working with the markets to bring innovative ideas into the development process.

Tucker admits that implementation of its new single brand strategy has been slow. However, he says this has been vital in order to achieve buy in from the Group's international distributor network.

"Change has not yet happened right through the organisation but at management level we are definitely in a better head space than in the past."

Reaping the benefits of a single brand

Going back to a single brand has given the Group clarity of purpose and Tucker says they are on track to increase its 2009 turnover of $200 million to $500 million within five years.

"Last year was one of our best years ever. In the last 12 months we have built a strong executive team, we have elevated brand and design, and we have had a stronger buy in from our distribution network. Our culture is moving towards a single entity.

"We have also just developed a new animal management product - a portable plug and play system. Our new attributes of thinking were embedded in this product development. We had good user analysis and also good design. That product is selling beyond our expectations."