06
Good words
I have had the opportunity to work closely with Tim for the past six months. Tim’s knowledge and previous experience in build-to-rent has been invaluable as we develop a marketing strategy for Liv Group, a leading BTR company in the UK that Cortland acquired in 2019 . Tim’s demonstrated brand-building and marketing experience in other industries, when combined with his knowledge of BTR, brings innovative thinking to an industry that needs transformative strategies to become relevant and a consideration choice to successfully grow.
Tim Hermeling
Executive Vice President, marketing
Cortland
We have now worked together at different times for over five years. During this period, you have helped to shape the LIV brand with a significant contribution to our strategic thinking around the UK Build to Rent sector. You have successfully led numerous workshops with teams from different parts of our business, which has resulted in fresh thinking as well as great motivation internally.
More recently you have also supported us following our acquisition by Cortland, our new US parent and your role in helping the two businesses consider the various aspects of coming together has been particularly helpful.
On a personal level, I have always valued your thoughtful insights, which have undoubtedly added real value in developing our brand and marketing strategy.
Graham Bates
Senior Director Strategy Europe
Liv
Tim is a proper brand expert. Not in the academic or theoretical sense (although he does know his stuff) more from a practical sense of how to build and leverage your brand. His real life experience allows him to really connect with his clients, to understand what they need, and then to help them side by side in improving their brands. He is also able to take a whole company view, not just building a brand for a brands sake, but how will this really impact and help the business grow and prosper.
On top of all that he is a positive, warm and engaging person. He makes this all fun and interesting which is why he achieves such amazing results.
Ed Haddon - Business and life coaching for entrepreneurs
"Tim is an alchemist. I’ve not met many people like Tim in the creative industries. He has all the insight and imagination needed to conjure up ideas which give clients goosebumps; and yet, unlike those few other who can consistently achieve this, has his feet planted firmly on the ground. He has been there and done it; and learnt every lesson along the way – which means he cuts straight to the point whilst others are still making the same mistakes he made years ago. In the same way that Marlon Brando could move an eyebrow and save the script writers pages of narrative, Tim can bumble into a meeting, cough-up a couple of sentences, and in so doing so, unlock bright futures for clients"
Patrick Bell - Growth & Innovation Advisor to Marketing & Education services
"Tim is a great professional – he is incredibly knowledgeable and is able to impart this in a practical, stimulating and enjoyable way. Tim simplifies the subject of branding / marketing such that it is clear and easy to understand whilst using his extensive experience to enable a detailed exploration of the fundamentals of business identity. As a facilitator Tim’s engaging manner ensures challenge and debate within a cohesive group experience. He encourages business confidence and offers insights into future possibilities otherwise not considered. I could not recommend him more highly"
Nancy Wilde - Entrepreneur Coach
nancywilde.co.uk
"Tim is a highly perceptive individual who really understands brands and brings together creativity, strategic thinking and practical know how to offer excellent advice and solutions. He is also a pleasure to work with!"
Amelia Nolan
Managing Director - Asia Pacific at Alejandro Bulgheroni Family Vineyards
"I've had the distinct pleasure of working with Tim Watson since 1998. When I met Tim, he was a partner / managing director at ATTIK London. The first thing I said to myself - this guy is really smart. Then he started teasing me about being an American, having white teeth, and being too positive. That's when I knew I liked him. He left ATTIK to lead Duffy London, then consult independently, became a really big shot at Fitch London, and then make the smart move to go back to consulting. Between all these great companies, he's worked with me at CO-OP and done some of our best brand strategy work.
So what's to like about this Brit with the salty tongue? First, Tim will make you laugh. Second, Tim loves brands. It's what makes him one of the best brand strategists I know. What's even better is that he approaches brand challenges uniquely every time. Recycling old processes is not in this guy's DNA. Third, he's like a great trial lawyer building a case. First he researches and understands everything there is to know. Then he methodically peals back the layers to find the core - the truth. Then he switches direction and gives you that ah-ha moment when you say "it was right there...why didn't I think of that?" Fourth, he strives for excellence and pushes everyone to do the same. He's not content with "okay." And finally, Tim gets results. After Tim's work, clients have said and I quote, "wow, golly gee. That was right on." (I'm embarrassed for the CEO who said said this but it's true)"
Jim Moran
"A cool guy and a great strategist. Tim's helped me out so many times and his level headed approach to brand strategy has always added massive value to our creativity"
Ian Thompson
Owner, Thompson Brand Partners
"Having Tim on campus was like putting a pair of fine, noise-cancelling headphones on the organisation. With the extraneous hubbub and interference gone, he re-introduced us to the essence of the enterprise and found a compelling way of articulating it afresh. As profound an exercise as it was simple"
Professor Geoff Smith
Deputy Rector
University College Falmouth
"It’s a funny old world, we can split smaller things than atoms, take holidays in space, read the most subtle and multilayered indications of a person through the most fleeting of glimpses of their face, but most of us still commit ourselves and our money to business projects where the very welfare of us and our family hang, without really being able to articulate to ourselves, let alone to our customers, what it is that makes our organisation unique and different. It isn’t that we're all dumb (so Tim tells me), but rather that the insightful perspective of an outsider informed by spending all his time “doing this stuff”, is one of the most under-appreciated tools we can all use to get to the essence of our vision and apply it practically and holistically"
Simon farr
Deputy Chairman
Bibendum Wine Ltd
"We hired Tim to help us reposition the cinema advertising industry in the United States relative to other medium. We needed to create a fresh and relevant story about a widely known, but still growing industry and tout our corporate leadership position. He was able, through internal and external interviews as well as a comparison to the more developed European cinema advertising business, to help us achieve clarity about our messaging allowing us to speak to the right people with the right sell. Tim got fully immersed in the project and brought both strategic and creative insights that are still bearing fruit two years later"
Amy Randall
Senior VP of Marketing
National CineMedia
"My experience of Tim is that he understands branding to be as much about organisational dynamics, (if not more so) than creating an image, design scheme or logo.
I was impressed by how quickly he understood our organisational dynamics. This was not a simple task as it involved three parties - a joint venture between two HEI’s (with their own strong brands) and their subsidiary service and development company.
Feedback from my staff who met him found him to be perceptive, open in his questioning style and engaging. My individual experience was that he explained what he was attempting to do very clearly from the outset and he was brave enough to articulate the challenges as he saw them on his journey in a way that invited feedback and open discussion.
For me, however the most impressive thing was that he was prepared to grasp a potentially thorny issue and articulate that in our case we did not actually need a competitive separate standalone brand for our subsidiary, but rather something that was a subtle ‘ingredient’,(even an invisible or experiential) brand’.
He offered a number of practical ways in which genuine visibility and traction would be created for our joint venture, which would enable it to be better defined, owned and loved for what it does rather than for its self promotion . The appropriateness of this analysis will be hard to perceive by outsiders and I appreciate this approach will not apply to all branding problems, (where often enhanced visibility is in fact required) but for most joint ventures it is a very perceptive and in my view absolutely correct and liberating analysis.
Finally Tim conveyed his findings to the Board in a deceptively simple presentation. His success indicator is that he managed to convince all three parties and to evoke a feeling of optimism. Another success indicator is that what he recommended seemed to translate fairly easily into a next stage project brief for designers etc, which is a demonstration of the concreteness of his approach"
Professor Anne Carlisle
Rector & CEO
University College Falmouth