NORTHERN CEMETERIES

The Brief

Northern Cemeteries approached COG Strategy with a brief to perform a Brand Audit prior prior to a considering various business opportunities such as merger and acquisitions, rebranding and corporate restructuring.

The Northern Cemeteries Brand Audit is a measure of a brands performance against key business objectives and evaluates industry presence. The COG Strategy Brand Audit would supply detailed insights that would support the rebranding projects including corporate identity, website and digital platforms, outdoor media and company division branding.

It’s the start of the Rebranding Process for Northern Cemeteries where our Sydney Strategy Agency seeks to increase the product’s perceived value to the customer and thereby increase brand equity of this memorialisation not for profit organisation.

The Client

Northern Cemeteries is a not-for-profit organisation with five unique cemetery sites, four located on Sydney’s North Shore and Sandgate Cemetery located in Newcastle. Each location has its own distinct personality catering to diverse communities with individual cultural, traditional and religious needs. 

A not-for-profit organisation, the Northern Cemeteries team is passionate about providing excellence in customer service and customer experiences across each location. From family consultants and chapel commissionaires, to burial, cremation and horticultural teams, we ensure a thoughtful and considered experience. Our vision is to ensure that everyone in the community has access to respectful, dignified services and memorialisation.

The COG Strategy Solution

A deep research excursion to discover the true worth of the brand and use true insights to justify this.

The discoveries made within the Northern Cemeteries brand auditing process delivers key research, trend and insight which offered COG Strategy’s client a dashboard of current business and brand information. The Northern Cemeteries Brand Audit takeaway is an advised action task set that supports brand management, brand repair and brand repositioning. The brand audit will support a brand and marketing strategy for Northern Cemeteries and assist in building brand equity, performance and longevity.

This Brand Audit for Northern Cemeteries considered the current brand health and ability for this New South Wales Memorialisation Not For Profit Organisation to take its model to the market, deliver the portfolio, and communicate it’s proposition and value statements.

Delivery contained clear outcomes that justified a broader brand review, a customer segmentation via highlighted demographic, related products and services. The key focus was towards the digital environment with considerations to The Northern Cemeteries Group’s digital activities and business touch points. A Digital Strategy would be a key follow on activity.

The Results

A comprehensive review that enabled the client to disseminate accurate information to key stakeholders, internally and externally.

This delivery formed the spine of critical briefing and scoping for suppliers to the broader rebranding process, and also enabled justification to the company board to why the business should invest in rebranding and the development of new brand assets. The clear outcome was that critical elements of the Northern Cemeteries brand asset group needed to be overhauled and realigned. These included websites, marketing communications strategies, digital marketing strategy and general corporate identity and positioning.

Immediate Solutions

• Customer-centric: It doesn’t matter who YOU think you are; it matters who THEY think you are. Make your clients feel they’re value not just by what you offer but by how you deliver it.
  
• CX: Ensure a seamless customer experience regardless of how they access you services.
  
• Simplify: Confused people don’t engage. Simplify your processes to make it easy for people to find you and buy from you.
• Relationships: Your ultimate goal is brand loyalty. Give people a reason to stay with you for the long term.