DIRK KARTES CONSULTANCY

Business analytic
Distinct positioning
Marketing in a digital world
Brand architecture
Implementation
Content communications
In-house academy guide
we believe in better growth: holistic, sustainable, competitive.

WELCOME

The difference is

made by whoever was responsible in marketing and business management. Dirk Kartes has worked for some smaller brands but also for some major ones including McDonald’s, ProSieben, Sky and DPD, BtoB and BtoBC. He was also in charge of the creative agency HEYE and the digital agency Red Urban.

As Vice President in the Scout24 Group, he was responsible for brands and digital marketing.

In 2016, he became Partner of Martin et Karczinski, a leading brand strategy and design house.

Dirk Kartes has managed several companies and has been responsible for 67 major brand campaigns and projects in various positions.

Investors and shareholders

see brand leadership at the corporate level as one of the most effective strategies.

Brands are the elixir of resilient business success. Companies with strong brands and a sustainable substance develop significant competitive and cost advantages. Yet brand name and awareness alone are not enough:

corporate capital is generated through brand substance.

The sat nav

Brand is one of the primary instruments in a company’s cockpit, and functions as a strategic Sat Nav among other things for:

– the next customer, sales and turnover level

– productivity increases through employee activities

– internationalisations

– market or corporate changes (e.g. new competitors or next generation)

Cross selling + brand architecture

The most important thing is the continuous professional, strategic review of the company’s positioning which must be resilient and up-to-date. An older Sat Nav without the latest updates won’t necessarily find the best route.

For example: One of Germany’s first nameable digital transformations took place 15 years ago, when all PROSIEBENSAT1 television stations became multimedia brands (Dirk Kartes was leading part of this change value team).

To change from television to multimedia was a fundamental vertical cross selling activity, connected to a marketable brand structure.

In 2018, PROSIEBENSAT1 did 30% share of sales through digital business.

Why, How, Who... What

Your company’s HOW makes your brand special and remarkable. Our personal view is: 9 out of 10 markets are price driven “me-too” markets. Less than 10 minutes are necessary, and people have spotted the best rational offer (WHAT).

We believe that brand strategy must be operable at a company-wide level and must combine fun with identity.  

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

The author of this quote, the economist Peter Drucker, has published influential works on the theory and practice of management since the 1940s.

He is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern management theory, in which brand theory also emerged. Recent studies regularly report that large corporate projects fail not because of a lack of know-how, but because of a lack of a common position and attitude. Brand strategies have to be lived within the company but experienced by the outside world.

INTERVIEW

A multitude of values is tantamount to none at all

From a strategic point of view, corporate brand values should make it possible to exploit the identity of the past as well as future potentials. Common knowledge, self-evident facts and simple work priorities do not make brands unique and do not build brand capital.

Brand values combine both behavioural and perceptual values. We are very specific about this, because we know: the world needs values. On the one hand, values are THE distinguishing feature in the age of Industry 4.0. On the other hand, companies have a powerful global responsibility. Holistic brand work also positions the company in the context of its universal responsibility for life and resources.

We match corporate identity values with customer data (moral values, mindset, living environments etc.).

People seek identification and orientation

Whether as an employee or as a customer.

According to numerous studies: employees who understand the bigger picture, who are allowed to take the initiative in line with the overall plan and who feel part of a strong community with shared brand values, work more than 30% more efficiently, not least because of their satisfaction, orientation and position within the organization.

Customers, on the other hand, are often guided by gut feeling and identification – not always, but most of the time. This significantly influences order and purchase decisions – and works profitably against automation and interchangeability.

Leading the way

Some of the key questions to be raised at the beginning of a corporate strategy project include such honest things as, what goals do (did) we want to achieve? what happens in the world?

In planning phases, everybody needs support. The daily business run – and it’s valuable to add perspectives, questions and – most of all – answers through research, strategies and ideas. We have some tools in this cases.

INTERVIEW

 

“Employees realize whether they are simply to be “lured in” by a “cute” employer branding campaign (Obstkorb :-), or whether a company lives values.

The whole interview is available at:

https://www.harveynash.de/latest-news/2019-1/the-power-of-talent-and-brand

Analyse and create...

rather than administer. Whilst, for example, such things as customer journeys and brand architecture also follow certain laws with us, it is our holistic interplay of values and people within the company that makes us stand out to bring strategies to life.

At the end...

everything has to make the right impression and experience. At the right place. At the right time.

It does not matter whether we are talking about services or production, B2B or B2C, the welcome received at the reception desk of a hotel or about dispatching an airfreight order.

We sit down with all employees of a company to explain in detail exactly how holistic brand work functions and point out the opportunities for each department to implement the brand strategy in concrete terms.

“Just having book of foreign grammar in your pocket doesn’t mean you actually speak that language.”

Susanne Bösen

Project Planning Sales Business-to-Business

Dirk Kartes and his team connect people with brands. I learned to perceive things with more clarity and to make daily decisions within the context of the brand strategy. Brand work has become applicable to everyone on a daily basis. Everyone is an important part of the brand. 

Expertise and people

Our key competences: Business analytic, Brand Strategy, Digital Marketing, Implementation.

 

Furthermore, we love to support you in your search for new employees and partners for brand and marketing communications with consultancy services for briefings, pitches and personnel-related issues. At the same time, we have great respect for your existing partners like advertising agencies etc.. We believe, that our expertise works as an additional

“MEHRWERT”.

Petra Wurm

Client Business Partner
Consumer Goods and Retail
GfK Gesellschaft für Konsumgüterforschung

I have known Dirk for many years and across different stations of his career. I always highly valued and appreciated the both qualitative and quantitative angle he put into his work. But not only is he really good at what he has been doing these past years, but he is also a very sociable person to be around.

+49 152 256 259 24      |      info@dirkkartes.de

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