What is CoCenTing?
CoCenTing was founded in June 2020 by Claude Nesser. With 37 years of experience in the communications and marketing sector, Claude took advantage of the period of confinement, brought on by the Covid-19 health crisis, to carry out some deep introspection..
What do I aspire to? What are my strengths?
How can I make the most of them?
In fact, it was right under my nose. 37 years of experience in the communications and marketing sector is enormous. With my in-depth knowledge of the field, and of Luxembourg’s particularities, I will now focus on a handful of clients who wish to be accompanied and consulted in the development and implementation of their marketing communication strategies.
Experiences.
Expertise.
More than thirty years of experience with the most beautiful brands established in the Grand Duchy, coupled with a passion for the particularities of the national market, form the basis of Claude’s expertise: brand communication for companies based in Luxembourg.
By adding a longstanding knowledge and passion for the Luxembourg media world, all the ingredients to ensure that my clients messages have an impact on the target audience are firmly in place.
Positioning of CoCenTing.
Why a picture of a bee? Bees transport pollen and thus enable the reproduction of flowering plants. This process guarantees the survival of plants as well as the preservation of biodiversity and the balance of ecosystems. Good Luxembourg honey, a gift of the bees’ work, is protected by an AOP (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée). CoCenTing also has this attribute in its brand DNA. For CoCenTing ‘AOP’ is a contraction of some characteristics of its personality.
The metaphor with the world of bees can be explained by the fact that CoCenTing, Consumer Centric Thinking company, collects its information at places identified beforehand with its customers.This is another kind of (marketing) pollination.
Brand Communication or Promos?
The answer is unequivocal: focusing exclusively on branding does not yield results. Limiting yourself to promo only doesn’t lead to anything either. In difficult periods it is very tempting to opt for Promotions.
Promos lead to faster results but in the mid and long term there will be no positive impact on your Brand Equity. CoCenTing assists you in defining the right mix, the right frequency, the right budget and the right tone to sharpen your communication. Avoid zero impact!
They trusted CoCenTing.
Merging and clearly structuring the activities of Garage MCM and body shop Carolux was the first challenge facing CoCenTing.
The ‘new’ Carolux came into being on January 4, 2021, when ‘Motor Center Miersch’, known as ‘Garage MCM/Hyundai’, merged with Carolux.
The close collaboration between the two companies over many years pointed the way for Georges Thill, founder and shareholder of both companies.
Georges Thill: “Going back and forth between Erpeldange and Roost complicated our day-to-day organization and life. Bringing the two companies together under one roof represented real added value for us and for our customers.
A single address, streamlined work processes and a complete range of automotive services – this is the new offer we are proposing in Bissen / Roost.
Carolux new logo highlights our two professions. We are, in fact, Bodybuilder + Mechanic, two complete and very distinct professions, which require in-depth and specific knowledge”.
In parallel with this first project, a second, highly rewarding experience was getting underway. Ville Neuve, Distrikt and Ville Neuve+ are the three brands operated by François Hardy and Leslie Otto. Established in the Grand Duchy and Belgium, these three brands offer an eclectic range of clothing. François Hardy contacted me saying he was looking for a coach for his Marketing Manager, who had just been hired and came from a completely different sector. As I analyzed the situation in more detail, I told François that I felt the task went far beyond that, since the three brands were not clearly positioned and their respective targets not identified. An in-depth process of introspection began, involving owners, teams as well as existing and potential customers. The result was a thorough restructuring and a clear, focused Brand Hierarchy. After a year and a half’s coaching, the existing team was than able to build on a solid foundation and develop its marketing and communication plans. In the meantime, a new flagship store has opened at the Retail Park in Waterloo.
The mayor of the commune challenged me to develop a communication strategy tailored to the commune’s specific needs. Existing communications are irregular and unstructured,” he explained. CoCenTing applied its ‘Consumer Centric Thinking’ approach to clearly identify the characteristics and particularities of the commune, and interviewed twenty-seven residents of the villages of Kopstal and Bridel in 1to1. The synthesis of the information gathered during these interviews enabled me to clearly define the personality, DNA, strengths and weaknesses of the commune. Following this analysis, which provided a solid basis for all future actions, the communication plans were drawn up with full knowledge of the facts and taking into account the available budgets. Today, the two communication managers can rely on these foundations to plan, realize and produce the defined media and organize future events. A redesign of the logo, including administrative and communication logos, underline the new wind blowing through the two villages. The new Brand Universe was developed in collaboration with freelance graphic designer Zoë Mondloch. In the meantime, the new communication magazine and KoBri Flash have been launched, and are distributed to all households and available online.
Having already gained experience in institutional communications for small and medium-sized communities, the work for the municipality of Goesdorf started from a different premise, since its communications were virtually non-existent. CoCenTing drew on its Consumer Centric Thinking methodology and questioned the municipality’s citizens. This approach helped to determine the personality, identity and DNA of this commune, made up of 7 different villages. It will come as no surprise to anyone to learn that the inhabitants of the different villages in the commune have different concerns, and are mainly interested in and concerned by everything to do with their village. The central school in Dahl, which has been operational since the start of the 2022/2023 school year, will be one of the elements that can be said to bind the commune’s 1,700 inhabitants together. A Schoulbuet was produced and distributed to all households at the beginning of September, representing the commune’s first communication medium, to which has now been added the Géisdrefer Lanter, the brand-new communication newsletter. A new Brand Universe has been created, represented by a new logo in the form of a Living Logo. CoCenTing worked with freelance graphic designer Zoë Mondloch. Aside from its main representation, the logo will evolve over the course of the four seasons. One of CoCenTing’s aims is to coach the existing team, so that they can take over the communications strategy from 2024 onwards. Last but not least, a song was created for the commune, based on the slogan “Hei wëll ech bleiwen”. It’s a slogan that was obvious from the interviews we conducted. For the song, which is largely inspired by Colette and Fernand’s mythical song “Hei kann ech net bleiwen”, CoCenTing collaborated with Joël Heyard. Here’s the link to listen to it…
Guy Feidt, Managing Director of the eponymous company, is passionate about quarrying. His interest goes far beyond the simple exploitation of quarries. After the quarrying phase, he is determined to give nature back its ideal living spaces, ensuring that flora and fauna can flourish to the full.
CoCenTing, in collaboration with other specialist players, has just produced flexible media that can be viewed easily, wherever and whenever you want. A corporate film, roughly 6 minutes long, has been produced, documenting the life of a quarry through its three main phases, and explaining in greater detail the final stage, known as ‘renaturation’. The following thematic vignettes will be added to this main film: How a quarry works, flora and fauna, products and renaturation. These vignettes of 90’’ will be complementary to the corporate film, depending on the target audience.
CoCenTing worked with imaj, Guy Schon’s company, to design, direct and produce the film and capsules. Fernand Mathes’ voice-over for the Luxembourg version was recorded in Joël Heyard’s studios.
Among other things, these different media have been integrated into the new website, which has undergone a complete overhaul in collaboration with VidaleGloesener. The aim of the new site was to be more user-friendly, so that information could be accessed with maximum three clicks. Beautiful photos of animals and birds living in a quarry were taken by photographer Marc Steichen.
In order to identify the roots of the Carrières Feidt quarries in even greater depth, an introspective study has been realised with Dutch photographer Jasper Faber.
His innovative methodology, known as Rootsourcephotography, is an astonishing and ground-breaking process that links the past to the present, showing others and ourselves who we are through what we do. Jasper Faber, through his company nocameracompany, represents in images what CoCenTing expresses in simple words.
CoCenTing and clc manager Tom Baumert were faced with a major challenge. What are the clc’s services and assets? What is its added value, its value proposition?
Everything was supposed to be analyzed, without however stipulating from the outset that the name, consisting of a cohabitation between the acronym (clc) and the full name, Confédération luxembourgeoise du Commerce, posed a problem.
Was it only the name that was at the root of the diffuse perception of the confederation and perpetual confusion with the Chamber of Commerce, and therefore needed to be changed?
Let’s take a closer look at the various steps that were taken throughout the introspection process.
In line with CoCenTing’s “Let’s be Consumer Centric” methodology, joint interviews were conducted by Tom Baumert and Claude Nesser, with representatives of member federations, as well as with executives of directly affiliated companies, and interviews with various stake holders of the confederation of commerce.
The synthesis of these interviews enabled CoCenTing to define the confederation’s DNA, extract a SWOT analysis, generate a USP and draw up the Strategic Pyramid.
Armed with this information, CoCenTing proposed to its customer to then schedule Workshops in ‘Co-Creation’ mode.
The aim of the Workshops was to involve part of the clc’s management team in these strategic decisions, without imposing anything, but rather to determine together the path for the confederation’s future positioning.
After a complementary retreat with members of the Executive Board and the Board of Directors, chaired by Carole Muller, it became clear in the end that a name change was unavoidable.
The new name had to include two elements from the previous name: ‘Confederation’ (Uniqueness) and ‘Luxembourg’ (a differentiating element compared with the Chamber of Commerce, which operates more internationally).
A detailed briefing, based on the confederation’s DNA, values and USP, was given by Marie-Laure Moreau, the confederation’s Head of Marketing, and Claude Nesser to the Mikado agency to develop the future branding of the now-defunct ‘clc’. This Brand Universe, backed by the new slogan “Moving our community forward”, will help to position the Luxembourg Confederation more sharply, to better assert itself in the future and, above all, to differentiate itself from the Chamber of Commerce and other Luxembourg federations.
Last but not least, a musical signature has been designed in collaboration with Joël Heyard. You can hear it at upcoming events organized by Luxembourg Confederation, or by clicking here.
FeBu, the Fédération Bureautique had run out of steam and wanted to breathe new life into the federation, founded in 1964 and affiliated to Luxembourg Confederation (formerly clc).
With this in mind, the board of directors, through its chairman Claude Trierweiler, organized a competition between agencies in May 2023, which was won by CoCenTing.
The approach was CoCenTing’s characteristic “Let’s be Consumer Centric” methodology. Interviews with active and non-active members of the Federation revealed the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as its DNA and personality.
In order to involve the Federation’s steering committee in the process and in determining the next steps, five Workshops were organized to define possible areas for improvement and the Federation’s future operations.
The main objectives of these Workshops were to motivate current members to become more involved in the Federation (Get agile, stay agile!) and to recruit new members. On the agenda for the next stage would have been the challenge of providing the (financial) means to make the Federation more relevant again, and thus ensure its survival.
The synthesis of the Workshops, however, distilled that it was more appropriate for the Fédération Bureautique to join a larger federation, also affiliated to Luxembourg Confederation, to defend the interests of its members. The continuing decline in membership numbers was the undeniable indicator of a move in this direction.