Business strategy

We help companies to innovate and stand out by defining business strategies and creating new concepts around the product, services, consumer goods, shopping centres and retail establishments to make their brand image gain in competitive edge. We observe the people to see what they want, what they need and what drives them. We analyse the context and its tendencies, the business model, the value chain and the points of contact with the users in order to identify insights and opportunities for innovation.

Strategic definition of new businesses

We specialise in observing users in their context. We apply our analysis tools to find out their needs, wishes and vital motivations and to match them with the targets of the new company, identifying territories for opportunity and defining scenarios of innovation and distinction.

Repositioning of existing business

We analyse the competitive situation of existing businesses on the market, we discover their present and potential customers’ underlying needs and unsettled demands and we redefine the business strategy and the positioning and/or the creation of new product and/or service strategies to place the company in a competitive market situation.

Creation of new concepts of product and service

By applying our analysis methodology, we help you define your company’s product/service strategy from the emotional, functional and visual standpoints: positioning, product strategy, range architecture, product identity and user experience.

User-focused innovation

It is the user or end customer who supports the whole value chain. In Ancor Retail we therefore work from the observation of their lifestyle, their wishes, their functional and emotional needs and the reasons for their consumption.

We understand innovation as designing experiences in which the products and services must be conceived as a sensorial and emotional relationship between the user, the product/service and the brand.

In our working methodology, the users, their emotions, challenges and problems are at the centre of the whole process both when defining strategies and when thinking up new concepts and experiences. We work on the concept of user-focused design.

Brand identity

To create a brand, we must first fully and completely understand the business – its internal structure, its competitive environment and its corporate objectives. From here, we define a brand strategy and personality that will give rise to the brand design and its visual and audio expression, which will be included in the Brand Use Handbook. This holistic vision brings solidity to a branding programme and coherence to each one of the components that comprise it.

Brand strategy

All successful brands are based on a solid strategic approach. The brand strategy expresses the essence of a brand, its DNA, the strategic bases that guide decisions. The brand strategy is based on the business strategy – the vision, mission, positioning and segmentation. This lets us define the differential attributes and personality of the brand.

Brand architecture

Brand architecture is a key strategic aspect in organisations in which various brands are offered side by side. Whether a monolithic brand strategy, a derived brand strategy or a multi-brand strategy (or any of their multiple variants), we define architectures oriented at the consumer, beyond purely organisational or historical factors.

Verbal identity

The personality of the brand is projected through its verbal identity and is faithfully reflected by means of clear and consistent messages. In addition to naming, verbal identity includes all forms of verbal expression: style guidelines, slogans, taglines, descriptors, etc.

Visual identity

Visual identity is much more than designing a logo: It is a complete system with which we create an entire territory of the visual expression of the brand to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Our visual identity is based on creativity and on design, because it allows us to express the strategy in a clearly defined brand universe through a symbol, a logo-symbol, typefaces, corporate colours, graphic designs, as well as their numerous applications in different media.

Digital identity

Your company and your brand have a digital identity under permanent construction on the internet. Brands are present on the internet in very different ways and through all types of devices. The digital expression of the brand therefore requires an in-depth approach to the content offered and specialised treatment that transmits the desired values by adapting the brand identity to the characteristics of each type of media and interface.

User environment

When a customer enters a shop or a shopping centre, visits an insurance agency, attends a fair, spends the night in a hotel or dines in a restaurant, he or she is entering into the essence of the brands that support them. A user environment is one of the most powerful ways of relating a brand to its audience and allowing that audience to experience, in a very real way, what the brand is and what it means. It is the place where the messages and the promises of the brand interact holistically with its customers.

Interior design

Interior design aims to create emotions through all of the senses, which create intense and memorable associations with the brand, thereby reinforcing the values of that brand. From conceptualisation to the layout of the space to the design and selection of furnishings, our architects, interior designers and experts in customer experience know how to transmit the history of your brand into a three-dimensional space, leaving a stark reminder of what the brand is and what it means.

Service areas

The service areas of an office, a commercial establishment, a museum, a hypermarket or a shopping centre very often set them apart compared to the standardised offerings of other similar organisations. The treatment of each of the components that make up these areas and the design of these spaces coherently integrated with the brand work to establish added value concepts at every point of customer contact.

Temporary architecture

A fair, an event or a pop-up store are key places in which the expression of the brand requires specific treatment based on its location and on the type of audience with which it interacts. Furthermore, the brand is displayed in a space in which direct competitors are present and where the user will be able to draw comparisons between competing brands. This is when the brand must transmit its values while also being able to set itself apart in a saturated environment, capture users’ attention and retain it for as long as possible within the display area.

Signage and signposting systems

The signage language and technique that we use at Ancor Retail fosters the immediacy of the message and effective communication at the service of the values represented by the brand. We have an extensive background in designing and implementing signage systems by means of our own process of analysing spaces and flows, defining signs and content, and the graphic design of signage identity.

Service design

In a market saturated with products very similar to one another, companies need to design their services to stand out and achieve maximum user satisfaction (whether customers, employees or the company itself). Service design is a new discipline based on identifying people’s needs and opportunities that lead to the attraction of new clients and to cementing the loyalty of existing ones through differentiated services that add value to the range of products and services offered while strengthening brand values.

Private sector

We develop strategic solutions for services offered by companies in a way that lets them create innovative new services or improve existing ones and take on a leadership position in their market.

• Manufacturers: adding services to the products they offer (‘servicisation’)

• Travel: designing something beyond a destination for the user

• Hotels: developing a complete experience

• Dining: improving existing services and creating new added-value services

• Retail: developing services that improve the shopping experience

• Shopping centres: creating experiences of a memorable visit

• Supermarkets and hypermarkets: designing services that go beyond the existing experience

• Banking and financial services: providing added-value service both in the direct interaction with clients and in administrative processes

• Safety: creating differentiating procedures and services on the market

• Media: designing services that connect with the audience

• Healthcare: putting the patient at the centre of the service

• Transport: managing the experience throughout the journey

• Leisure: designing services that directly connect with the desired experience

Public sector

The public sector needs to develop services that directly connect with the needs of its users and that improve their lives while being efficient and reducing administrative costs as much as possible. Therefore, in-depth knowledge of what they need is essential, going even beyond what they themselves consciously express.

• Central, regional and local government: maximising efficiency and accessibility to local services

• Education: conducting research into improving plans, innovation in programmes and user services

• Health: efficiently co-designing user-centred services

• Volunteer service: applying user-focused design to solve problems in specific projects

Internal brand

Having all your employees in line with the strategic message of your company is crucial for building the structure of a solid brand. Your employees interact with your customers, talk with their families and friends about their jobs and relay messages throughout their network of personal and professional contacts. Each and every one of the employees in your company is a brand ambassador. Therefore, it is essential that the entire organisation is aligned with the values of the brand and the way those values are communicated.

Internal brand culture

Our programmes are based on people. We understand the internal brand as a process of aligning the employees with the brand. In other words, it is the process by which the employees understand the brand, are convinced of its relevance and apply its values in their day-to-day work. Therefore, we work with corporate culture definition and transmission programmes that make sure that the way of doing things in the organisation is related to the values and promises of the brand. These are programmes that, in addition to transmitting values, bring consistency to the organisation and create solid emotional ties to the brand.

Customer service

One of the most important aspects of a service are the people who offer it. At Ancor Retail, we define your company’s customer service culture and design training programmes so that the people in contact with the customer acquire the skills they need to ensure excellent service. The goal is that the service offered meets the quality standards required, correctly transmits the brand values and provides the highest degree of customer satisfaction.

Executive coaching

Coaching is a relationship formula whose objective is to accompany people in their professional and personal development, establishing a unique and special alliance between a client and his or her coach in order to work towards achieving the objectives set out by the client on the basis of equality and respect. Executive coaching services allow the vision, mission and values of the manager to be aligned with those of the company, optimising his or her development and performance and those of his or her co-workers to ensure the achievement of business results and, in this way, coherently transmit the brand’s values.

Team coaching

Team coaching and organisational systems work on the relationship that is formed among members of a team. So a team aligned with the brand values will more easily find solutions and come up with actions to implement in order to overcome a crisis situation more effectively, because they are supported by a strong relationship that, at the same time, will positively impact the performance and results of the team itself.