Remembering Glenn Tutssel.

Renowned designer Glenn Tutssel died very recently. He was a longtime friend of our founder Richard Williams – they were at college together at the turn on the 1970s. He was also the man who gave Garrick Hamm his break in the design industry. Garrick has penned this tribute to his friend and mentor.

“1989 March 8am, Olaf Street, London.

“I sat in a swanky white reception, my head spinning, looking at the wonderful work displayed in its glass cabinets, waiting for the Group Creative Director Glenn Tutssel. The door blew open and in scuttled a man in a dog tooth jacket with an old orange Sainsbury’s bag and a big smile.

I was instantly put at ease, (especially by the bag, I had one of those). He flicked through my folio, pointed out one project that he wasn’t impressed with and then looked up and offered me a job. I had only come for work experience but tripped out walking on air. It is a feeling only equalled when I become a father for the first time. Glenn gave me my big break and it would change my life.

But let’s get things straight, it was no sleigh ride. Glenn was old school. A black belt from Barry, not an easy boss, he was driven to be the best and you had to join him, or it didn’t end well.

When reviewing work, Glenn would breeze in, in a hurry, probably straight from the BBC or a British Airways meeting. He always used the same opening line, ‘Just show me the one’. As a junior, frankly, I never knew. I had loads of half-baked ideas, scribbles at best, but he would pull something out that he’d spotted and set me on my way.

That’s what Glenn did and he was the very best at it – spotting ideas and crafting them.

I remember one Friday, frustrated with my junior wishy-washy behaviour on a project, (no I didn’t have ‘The One’) he pulled me aside and said, ‘You have this project to prove yourself. If you don’t crack it, you’re fired’. As I said, he wasn’t a man to mess with.

That afternoon he could see I was drowning and sidled up to me. I thought I was doomed, instead he said gently ‘Come to my house on Sunday’ and handed me his address. Sunday arrived and we worked on the project in his studio. Me the understudy, Glenn the master, turning a pig’s ear into a silk purse and then he took me to the pub for a couple of pints of Bass. ‘Always a brace Garrick, you can never have just one’. Then the penny dropped. This was the Glenn all over, a serious taskmaster, dedicated and driven, but deep down a man with a huge heart. He was a family man, who worked and played hard, but hell, made sure you did the work first.

He taught me how to craft a design and how to come at ideas from a new perspective, it’s something I’ve been using for the last 20 years at WMH – big ideas, beautifully executed…well we try. Glenn did this for countless young designers. He has influenced and nurtured so many new agencies and designers and created plenty of lifelong friendships along the way. Goodness, he even introduced me to my wife…

You can judge a true creative by what they do after they’ve done the big agency jobs, when the money’s safely in the bank. Well, Glenn continued to design and sculpt. He was a man in love with his craft, (along with his amazingly supportive wife Jane and family) producing beautiful work right up to the week of his death. He continued to support me and WMH’s work and it was he who pulled together a wonderful book to remember the late Richard Murray.

He will be deeply missed”

Garrick was a design junior with Glenn for 4 years at Michael Peters & Partners, and then designer at Tutssel’s for another 5 years, where he met his wife Polly, before starting WMH.

We were so sorry to hear of Karen’s untimely death. Pearlfisher’s founders are friends of ours and our thoughts are with Jonathan and his family as well as all the people who work in the company who have lost a unique leader. Our Garrick Hamm and Wybe Magermans both worked closely with Karen.

Garrick says: “I first met Karen when I joined Michael Peters & Partners as a junior. She was a big character, with plenty of practical jokes and a great eye for clever ideas, beautifully executed. She and Jonathan soon left to open MP&P in NY. I believe her parting gift was a firework under Mark Wickens’ chair. They soon returned to set up the award winning Pearlfisher, with the ever energetic Mike Branson. Ours is a friendly rivalry and we have the greatest respect for them.

Karen was a one-off, with a smile to match her character. She was a very talented designer and the design world will be a duller place without her.

…I can still see Wickens’ face when the firework went off! My thoughts are with Jonathan and their family and, of course, everyone at Pearlfisher.”

Wybe says; “I joined Pearlfisher in 2006 as an account director.

Karen was not a creative director in the typical sense of someone who reviewed work daily. Her role was more of an ‘agency inspirer’ – setting out a wider remit for the agency and keeping the team on track with this vision.  She wouldn’t mind my saying that she was not always the easiest person to work for. She was demanding, would always keep you on your toes, continuously testing and challenging you. Yet, this is what keeps an agency’s thinking fresh.

Life’s episodes tested Karen greatly, but she always turned those pains into positives. She launched 36º, a range of baby wear using Nasa-developed fabrics to help keep infants at the perfect temperature and reduce the risk of cot death. She fought a continuous fight for cancer related causes and more recently she focused on sustainability and especially the role of packaging in cluttering up the planet. She famously said that she was trying to design herself out of a job by pushing clients to reduce packaging and ultimately remove it altogether. 

A jester and provocateur, Karen’s voice in the creative industry will be sorely missed”.

WMH raises a glass of her favourite champagne to Karen.

Jo Loves, by Jo Malone, is doing its part to save the planet this week by giving customers a tote bag for free when they opt out of box packaging. The brand’s ‘packaging free week’ coincides with World Environment Day on Wednesday.

This gesture smacks of green tokenism. Jo Loves says on its website that it only uses fully recyclable and FSC-approved material for its boxes and sleeves and that it aims to make its other non-recyclable packaging materials and products – of which there are many – recyclable. If the brand wants to show commitment to sustainability it needs to do so throughout its entire operations and put a rigorous CSR policy in place. A packaging free week does not change how it impacts the environment as a company.

Go green from within

Some higher-end brands may argue that being sustainable is at odds with luxury. Many luxury brands talk about their commitment to social and environmental issues but few take a proactive stance.

That doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Stella McCartney’s personal passion is the driver for the brand’s policy on sustainability. The designer is a vocal animal rights activist and has made a commitment to never use animal-derived materials such as fur, leather and feathers. This policy is implemented throughout the organisation. Rumour has it the brand’s employees aren’t allowed to eat meat-based sandwiches for lunch in the company’s offices. Even the mannequins in the stores are made from largely biodegradable sugar cane.

This commitment makes sustainability part of the brand’s DNA and means the consumer that buys that brand can’t opt out in any way. Brands have the power to change consumer behaviour and have a positive impact on the environment. Waitrose & Partners removed all plastic bags for loose fruit and vegetables and 5p single-use plastic bags from spring this year. Soon after this came into play, I walked into a Waitrose one evening without any bags on me. I only realised my problem at the self-service check out and had to walk out of the store cradling the products in my arms. I learned my lesson and will never go into a Waitrose without a bag.

In order to create behaviour, telling people to be more sustainable won’t do the trick. We are creatures of habit that need simple tricks to help us in our daily lives. We respond well to small pushes, or nudges, in the right direction. Ariel succeeded in doing this with its ‘Turn to 30’ campaign which asked people to make a simple change when doing their clothes washing.

Creatures of habit

When Patagonia launched their Repair Your Gear service they went as far as telling people not to buy its products in order to encourage them to consider the effect of consumerism on the environment. Urban Outfitters is launching an online subscription service, called Nuuly, that allows customers to rent and return clothes – emulating the trailblazing companies such as Rent the Runway which has been offering this for over a decade. Both Patagonia and Urban Outfitters have made changes because they understand their audience and what motivates them.

To avoid accusations of greenwashing, brands must do the right thing behind the scenes until they have an approach to sustainability that is genuine, effective and worthy of being talked about. Only then can they look at how to take this further by developing policies or products and services that help us lazy consumers do something good.

Author: Wybe Magermans – Managing Director.

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2019 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

Margarine is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. A milestone anniversary, yet the butter replacer is not looking particularly good for its age. It was originally created for Napoleon III in 1869 as a cheap butter substitute for the French armed forces and lower classes. By the mid-20^th century, margarine had overtaken butter in popularity, but its glory days seem all but over.

That’s surprising, as generally plants are rather trendy at the moment. They are making a definite comeback in our interiors and are hits on the supermarket shelves too. And, you might forget, margarine is a plant-based product.

The rise of plant power

Whatever the reason – environmental, health, animal welfare or taste – many of us are looking for plant-based alternatives. Even in carnivorous America, 39% of the population are actively trying to eat more plant-based foods, according to a recent Nielsen Homescan survey. This demand has translated into the launch of heaps of innovative plant-based products. New brands are popping up everywhere, and a wide range of plant-based alternatives are posting significant growth. Where in the past these categories might have been awash with plethora of niche brands, we are now seeing players such as Oatly or Earth Balance firmly establishing themselves. And retailers, including Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, are investing heavily in their own vegan ranges, such as M&S Plant Kitchen launched to co-incide with the last “Veganuary”.

As a category margarine, of course, has a major perception issue. It is almost the poster child for over-processed foods. Its initial popularity was in the post-war era when these were seen as a positive, safer and better-quality alternative to farm products. Margarine also suffers from bad health credentials, known for containing trans-fat, which has been associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Yet many of today’s margarines have 0% trans fats, and actually contribute to better heart health.

Yellow fats

Unilever used to be one of the world’s largest producers of the “pretend butter”, with household brands such as Flora and the amazingly named “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”. This, however, was never the sexiest part of its business. Internally, the margarine category was given the alluring moniker of “yellow fats”. And here lies the problem. Unilever never really saw its future potential, and this resulted in the sale of the business two years ago. Unilever said the margarine business was a “declining segment” that could be “better managed by others”.

It is not that Unilever doesn’t believe in the power of plants. At the end of last year, it acquired The Vegetarian Butcher, a growing meat-free food company based in the Netherlands. Yet it continued to view margarine as a low margin product from a different century. Newly-launched in 2019, it would be a completely different category. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Unilever should have put its marketing prowess in repositioning a whole category, not individual brands.

New owners new vision?

Under new ownership, Flora decided to go 100% vegan, removing dairy from its complete portfolio of products. This is the first major relaunch from Upfield, Flora’s new owner, and it will be interesting to see if it can learn from Unilever’s mistakes. The company paid good money for the Unilever hand-me-downs – a set of old-fashioned brands that have been starved of investment for years and are pretty low on consumer love. To get a return on that investment, Upfield should start by reframing margarine away from butter. To capitalise on the growth of plant-based products, it should see its brands competing with a Koko, Good Karma or Rebel Kitchen.

Upfield, and other margarine brand owners, will need to transform their brands by leaving behind the old visual language of margarine, focus on real product innovation and target a younger audience which doesn’t know the previous century margarine. Only then can they unlock the power of plants for the margarine business and secure the next 150 years for the product.

Author: Wybe Magermans – Managing Director.

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2019 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

We are all fascinated by the real-time thriller that’s playing out on our high streets – the one where the big internet baddies take out all our well-loved store brands, one by one.

In the UK, plans for an ‘Amazon Tax’ are gaining more traction as politicians say online retail giants should be hit in the wallet to level the playing field for our ailing high streets. So, would this save the British high street, or the US malls and shopping centres in Europe?

Of course it won’t. Bricks and mortar retail, as we know it, shouldn’t be protected from online shopping. Instead, it desperately needs to innovate.

Innovate or you die

Lack of innovation was the cause of death for one of the great retail behemoths: Toys R Us. It was such a perfect business, in a huge and growing sector, with a great name and extensive stock. Yet, like many corporations, Toys R Us didn’t believe in the internet. So, it out-sourced its fulfilment to Amazon 17 years ago and unwittingly introduced its consumers to the habit of buying toys online. This simple act was the beginning of its end.

Innovation, however, is what will keep shops open and, as in many business sectors, this innovation will come from outside. It won’t come from existing retailers that are ‘protected’ by governments with special tax exemptions and subsidies, but from outsiders that bring fresh perspectives and challenge conventions. We can already see this in action.

Apple famously reinvented retail when it opened its first store almost two decades ago. People thought it was foolish: how could it make money when it had only a handful of different products on sale? Surely it couldn’t compete with department stores, or specialist technology retailers?

Fast forward to 2019 and with 500+ outlets, Apple’s stores are the envy of the high street. Its average sale per square foot increased from $4,551 in 2014 to $5,628 last year, according to eMarketer. By comparison, leading US apparel retailer Lululemon Athletica ‘only’ sells at $1,560 per square foot. Apple even beats luxury players like Tiffany.

Big baddie Amazon believes in the physical too. As well as having acquired Wholefoods, it operates ten Amazon Go stores in the US and has now secured its first site outside the US, near Oxford Circus in central London. In these cashier-less stores, customers scan their smartphones at a turnstile to enter then cameras and sensors identify what they take from the shelves. When shoppers are finished, Amazon bills their credit cards as they leave the store.

For direct-to-consumer brands, physical stores have become critical for growth. UK cycling brand Rapha, for example, can only be purchased in its own physical or online stores. With a turnover of £85 million, it is one of sport fashion’s success stories. In August 2017, Rapha founder Simon Mottram sold a majority share of his company to Walmart’s heirs, for a reported £200 million.

Rapha was built on a very close connection to consumers. Cyclists like meeting other cyclists to talk about their shared passion for bikes and fashionable Lycra. Rapha’s stores became a meeting point to do just this. On the back of these stores, the brand created a great membership programme and opened 21 clubhouses across the globe. Physical retail isn’t just another sales channel in their value chain – it’s a vital way of creating a deeper relationship with their customers.

Other big brand owners are learning from this. P&G’s detergent brand Tide is expanding its foray into retail. It opened its first dry cleaning store in 2010, and now has 125 branches run by franchise owners in the US. Last month, the Tide team announced that it would pull together other services, such as drop-off locations, into a new offer: Tide Cleaners. The brand now plans to double the number of places around the country where customers can drop-off and pick-up laundry to 2,000 by late 2020.

Like Apple, Amazon, Rapha and Tide all acknowledge the power of the physical. Last time I checked, we humans still like getting physical, too.

These innovative retail businesses all adhere to three principles:

1. Make it yours.
They work to ensure shoppers can feel the brand, something they can’t online. The key is: do not become an anonymous white box of nothing.

2. Go beyond the product. 
A retail space doesn’t have to be a Nike Town. However, there must be a reason for visiting beyond buying the product.

3. Be where your consumer is. 
Don’t think people will keep on driving half an hour to go to your store. Open smaller stores where people are – in train stations, near offices, on neighbourhood high streets.

Innovation will be the saviour of retail, as it is the saviour for many sectors. Businesses that currently don’t own physical space, are probably the ones that understand this most. Can you imagine when Oscar-winning Netflix starts a cinema chain? I wouldn’t want to be CEO of Odeon and Cineworld.

Author: Wybe Magermans – Managing Director. First published in Retail Design World.

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2019 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.