An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Be authentic — everything we do is authentically Wendy Morrison Design. Years ago we dabbled with the idea of being more commercial but it never felt right. We stuck with our core authenticity and if you have a truly beautiful product that people can’t ignore, sooner or later you’ll get the breaks to grow your brand and business.
As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to Interview Wendy Morrison.
Wendy Morrison is a Textile designer based in Edinburgh, Scotland, with an outward-looking approach and curious nature. Wendy takes inspiration from an eclectic range of sources, including Oriental symbolism, chinoiserie, art history and colour, as well as nature and its connections to life and the world around us. Over the past 6 years, Wendy has expanded her range of designs, techniques and products, including the release of fabrics, wallpapers and a selection of soft furnishings. Wendy Morrison Design has partnered with the likes of Anthropologie, John Lewis and has recently collaborated with major French retailer, Monoprix which saw Wendy’s designs come to life across fashion, homewares, stationery and more.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
After gaining a fashion degree from The Scottish College of Textiles, I started my career designing a wide variety of clothing, including mens and womenswear, sports and leisurewear, for a range of well-known brands. The experience gave me invaluable insight into the world of design, as well as the business side of the fashion industry. After learning all I could, I then embarked on my solo career, using my experience and creativity to build a reputation as a successful freelance fashion designer. I worked in a freelance capacity in the fashion industry for a number of years before a new commission introduced me to the world of rug design. Accepting that commission took my career in a completely unexpected direction — rug design offered a creative platform that perfectly suited my love of colour, detail, history and storytelling. A debut collection was very well received and, in 2004, we launched Wendy Morrison Design with a focus on designing and producing bespoke rugs for interior designers, architects and high-end consumers.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The only marketing mistakes I could think of were painful and not worth repeating! Instead I’d like to share the story of accidental marketing success, which is funny in the sense that marketing is meant to be strategic and planned! Way back in 2017, I happened to suggest we invest in an Apple iPhone for photography. We naturally started taking impromptu shots around our home featuring our rugs and some of our favorite curated furniture pieces. We thought, why not post them on that new social app called Instagram? Little did we realize we’d just created the spark that would help our brand find its feet. Lesson — some of the best marketing actions can be spontaneous, authentic and just ‘meant to be’.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
We aim to create beautiful handcrafted rugs that can be passed on from one generation to the next, working with integrity, care and kindness, and continuing to support the age-old traditions of rug storytelling and weaving. Although designed to be used, our rugs are not regular, everyday items; they are not designed to tick a box or fit a particular look. Each design is unique and individual, with its own journey to completion and its own story to tell. The craft of rug making has always been about stories, the colour and detail of life woven through cloth, giving feeling, emotion and longevity to beliefs and ideas. Art, beauty, history, tradition, craftsmanship and longevity are part of every rug we create. I follow my heart with the stories I am inspired to tell, which results in a personal connection to each design. Every design, and the story it tells, matter to me, which puts honesty and emotion at the heart of each one.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
An exciting new project I am currently working on is the One Hundred Birds 100 Flowers hand knotted rug. One Hundred Birds 100 Flowers hand-knotted design was inspired by a pair of hanging scrolls from the Edo period by Suzuki Kitsu (1796–1858) called 100 Birds and 100 Hundred Animals. As the title suggests it is composed of many Animals and Birds — some imaginary, some native, others from foreign lands all coexisting within these scrolls, set against a densely coloured blue-green landscape amid blossoming flowers and plants from all four seasons. The animal scroll seems to be a prayer for good fortune and peace, creating a Buddhist paradise, or land of the immortals, another reflection of how many following the pandemic are sharing more of themselves within their homes and its interiors.
Ok let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
Brand marketing is your means to tell the world about your brand, its missions, its values, etc. In my experience, we have achieved our brand growth predominantly through social media and through collaborations with aligned brands. Product marketing is the promotion of your actual products. Now for a brand like ours, unsurprisingly our products align very well with our brand values so there isn’t a huge difference in our marketing techniques.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
General marketing and advertising is a means to an end. Marketing and advertising efforts drive people to learn about your brand. If you don’t have the brand that you, your team and your customers believe in (aims, values, etc) then why would customers that you have worked so hard to bring into your community, want to stay?
Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each.
- Live your brand values — we ran an internal workshop including all staff to define our values which were documented in our brand book. It’s imperative that we live and breathe our values in all aspects of the business as this is what everyone else will see as the ‘brand’.
- Be authentic — everything we do is authentically Wendy Morrison Design. Years ago we dabbled with the idea of being more commercial but it never felt right. We stuck with our core authenticity and if you have a truly beautiful product that people can’t ignore, sooner or later you’ll get the breaks to grow your brand and business..
- Be customer centric — your customers are your lifeblood. We aim to have 100% customer satisfaction within the bounds of our brand values. If you put the customer first you can’t go wrong. Listen and learn from your customers at every opportunity.
- Be a business for good — We’re currently working on becoming BCorp certified. The process of certification is a fantastic way of guiding your brand to make decisions and set strategies that have a positive impact on all those that interact with the business. For all at Wendy Morrison Design, this is a huge driver for motivation.
- Build a community — a fantastic way to interact with your customers. We’re always building a community of like-minded souls through our social media channels. It’s the perfect way to share our authentic content and engage with our community.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
House of Hackney. As an outsider looking in, I think they’ve pretty much nailed the 5 strategies above!
In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand building campaign? Is it similar, is it different?
Brand building is notoriously difficult to measure for success. In my experience I would say the clearest indications of success are
- the amount of interest shown in your brand. Do you have an increasing number of enquiries for collaborations, for example?
- Is there an increasing amount of chatter about the brand and is it all positive?
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
Social media has been a huge factor in building our brand and will continue to play a crucial role in engaging with our community. We’ve also recently started working with a PR partner to help us in our mission to elevate the brand.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think as a business we have already been hugely inspired by the BCorp movement and we are entirely motivated to become a certified BCorp business. BCorp is all about making business a force for good. The most fundamental aspect is the commitment to treat all stakeholders with passion and respect. The traditional ‘for profit’ business has sole responsibility to bring profits to the shareholders. The BCorp model turns this on its head in an effort to bring a positive impact to our world. Such a hugely positive movement!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself!
We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have a lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
There are some very inspirational ladies out there who have built amazing fashion/textile brands. I’d love to meet any of them for lunch — Dolly Parton, Kelly Hoppen, Orla Keily, Tricia Guild, Stella McCartney. It would be enlightening to hear the story of their personal journeys.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
@wendymorrisondesign
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Wendy Morrison: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
