5 Big Questions: BILL WALLSGROVE

The Possibility Club

What is the psychology of a brand’s colours?

What is the secret of consultancy?

What is your Ikigai, and how do you know?

In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to brand consultant, copywriter and creative director, BILL WALLSGROVE.

Instagram — @bill_chig

Known for:

• Independent Brand Consultant
• Brand Consultant & BRITE Xpert - Plus X Innovation Hubs
• Brand Specialist - Poet
• Director - Brandad UK
• Brand Director - Neujuice
• Creative Mentor & Brand Consultant - Studio BLUP
• Former Director - BrandVoice Marketing Group
• Former Vice President - European Brand & Packaging Design Association

The Big 5 Questions:

1. How do you measure the impact of what you do?
2. How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
3. How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
4. How do you use creativity to solve problems?
5. How do you collaborate?

Key quotes:

“I speak to very mature companies who still think branding is a logo. Jeff Bezos said a brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

“The whole thing about colours is that they are an instinctive thing and we forget that as humans we are the most successful animals but as animals we have an instinctive reaction to colours, for danger, for poison, for desirability.”

“More and more, particularly with young companies that I’m working with now, they all want to give something back, they want to do things which are sustainable, inclusive, not using cheap labour, being ethical, all these things are becoming more and more important to the next generation of consumers and I think the next generation of businesses.”

“I hate to see big businesses doing the greenwashing that they do. I’m not going to name names but there are lots of companies out there who claim they’re digging wells in Africa, when they’re dumping plastic bottles in the sea at a rate of knots!”

“Sometimes when people start going on a brand journey, they try to do everything all at once.”

“You’ve got to encourage people with experience to go back and tell apprentices, students, graduates about the commercial realities and contexts. It’s changing all the time.”

“Part of what I do is the helicopter view: I can fly overhead and see a bit more because I’m not immersed in it. I joke that sometimes a consultant’s role is to steal a watch and tell you the time. There’s truth in that joke because usually the answer lies in your clients, it’s just you help them get there.”

“Design doesn’t mean creativity, design means problem solving.”

“You can’t predict the future. But you can gamble.”

Useful links:

• Bill Wallsgrove LinkedIn Profile
• Bill Wallsgrove at Neujuice
• Tesco wine tasting notes — in The Grocer (from 2014)
• Martin Kihn — House Of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You The Time (via GoodReads)
• ‘Ikigai’ (Japanese philosophy of a motivating force, via Wikipedia)
• Plus X Innovation Hub, Brighton
• John Alexander - Citizens

This episode was recorded in October 2022

Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible

Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts