WHAT WE DO
SERVICES
Insight
Do you dare to see the WHOLE TRUTH?
Insights need to be wholistic, deep, empathic and bold. "Consumer Insight" is just one piece to the puzzle. Out there is an entire universe waiting to be discovered, decrypted and understood.
We look at things from four perspectives: Culture, the all-encompassing field of forces. Customers with their feelings, dreams, jobs to be done and pains. Competitors, who you will be measured by. You, your brand, your tradition, your capabilities, your team, your ambitions.
Our focus is on deep qualitative insight, along with category analyses, but our clients also value our sound quantitative expertise. "Beautiful evidence" is hence our principle: our output pleases the brain as well as the eye.
STRATEGy
Don't Follow Strategies THAT CAN'T BE WRONG.
Smart strategies that lead your business or brands right into areas of meaningful impact, loyal customers or sustainable growth.
Impactful strategies must be written boldly and precisely, and clearly state elements of disruption, or they will be worn down along the long road to implementation.
We develop fresh strategies in thoughtful loops with our client teams, including, but not limited to: Brand positioning and identity. Product portfolio planning. New market entries. Product development. Design guidelines. Messages for communication.
Innovation
Having Ideas is A MATTER OF TECHNIQUE.
The safest way to sustainable competitive edge and meaningful connection to people: having better ideas than your rivals! Ideas are no coincidence. They flourish with refined methodology – and a dose of fresh energy.
With agile workshops, Design Thinking sprints and team activation techniques, we help you change paradigms of thinking, renew your brands and offerings and find new products, services and business models.
CHange
Change your Organization. EVERYTHING ELSE WILL FALL IN PLACE.
Thoughtful change management will embed stragegies in culture, make your team better and happier, and activate your organization for the pursuit of your goals.
Most everybody in your team can make amazing, unexpected contributions, if only motivated and empowered to do so.
We accompany your organization with a mix of tried-and-tested and unconventional methods on your way to new behaviors, company culture or leadership style.
WHAT WE DID
PROJECTS
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
"SWELL is a is a major contributor and strategic advisor on bringing to life ideas, strategies, internal restructuring and huge data, providing actionable outcomes for the marketing community. They always provide comprehensive brand and business understanding. Their research support, insights and consultancy is both: goal-oriented and inspiring. SWELL’s flexibility and agility is remarkable."
Miriam Lednicka, Business & Consumer Insights Manager,
Campari Deutschland GmbH
WHO WE ARE
In a nutshell
OUR PROPOSITION
We do everything it takes to discover and unlock sources of growth for your offerings, your team and your brands - in short: your business. Opposites not only attract, but also produce the best results: we marry an agency's creative mind with a strategist's rigorous thinking. Insight generation, strategy development, ideation & innovation and change management team up naturally in our scope of offer - delivered to you by field-tested marketing professionals. We plant a tree with tree-nation for every project we sell.
OUR WAY OF WORKING
We love to surprise. We cherish the little details that oh so often make the difference. We love to cross established methods with agile methods and to fuel these with gamification. Brands looking for new sources of growth and planning for the future don't need off-the-peg answers; they need individual solutions. We introduce new ideas persistently, yet gently with a great dose of empathy for your company culture, as flexibly and earnestly as only a boutique-sized consultancy can do.
SWELL?
"Swell" is the word for large waves hailing from the open seas. Mighty, often steady, unpredictable sometimes, as is life.
It reminds us that energy, freshness, and forces are coming together to a powerful heartbeat of the universe.
"Swell!" is also what we hope our clients say when we deliver them
fresh energy for their business.
Our Passion
We love to do awesome stuff.
We love when clients throw a question on us no one has asked before.
We love when we can prove that there's no such thing as can't.
We love when our work not only hits the mark, but also looks beautiful.
And we love clients who care about our planet and all its dwellers.
OUR CHARACTER
We are curious about most everything - that's why we became consultants and not marketing directors: isn't it swell to peak into all different industries and learn from one for the other?
We admire brilliant ideas, and we know that they can come from everyone. Being snobby never pays.
We are team players and believe in open, honest and respectful communication.
Partner
Dr. Oliver Nickel
"I founded SWELL because I wanted to."
Oliver is a passionate brand strategist and idea generator. He has advised leading corporations, mid-sized companies, as well as smaller family-owned businesses on customer understanding, brand positioning, developing brands or future direction.
He is a Design Thinking, Innovation Sprints and Agile Coaching maniac, and has moderated tons of workshops in the last 10 years.
Before he founded SWELL in 2012 he was managing director at Added Value,
those days a WPP Group brand consultancy.
Oliver loves sharing his knowledge. He currently teaches at the AMD Design School in Munich (Innovation Management) and he has been senior lecturer for Brand Management at the MARKENAKADEMIE (EBS University) in Oestrich-Winkel since 2009. When he's not making his mind on brands and innovation, he spends his time with his loved ones, repairing classic cars, listening to music, windsurfing, wakeboarding, and every now and then collecting slang phrases from his hometown of Hagen, to which he dedicated his own slang phrasebook in 2008.
Rigor & Creativity. Classic Cars. Windsurf, Wake &
Board Shorts. Endlessly curious.
SWELL@WORK
NETWORK
