De Baak is a renowned training institute for personal growth losing relevance because of an outdated image. Despite the fact that personal development is hot, De Baak didn’t benefit from it. A strong cultural insight helped us redefine our role within the category. We have successfully reintroduced the brand in an extremely competitive market. Our guiding brand idea of ‘giving space’ literally goes against everything this performance-driven society tells us, making us extremely relevant. We translated that idea from campaign to visual identity and content creating a unique brand experience, leading to unprecedented commercial growth.

Situation:

De Baak is a renowned training institute for personal growth. We have been offering training in personal leadership for more than 75 years. We don’t focus on knowledge but on soft skills: the emotional intelligence. De Baak wants to grow by attracting new clients.

Brief:

Since 2012 we have seen a stagnation in turnover, in the number of registrations and participants. We’re losing relevance due to an exclusive, corporate image in a highly competitive market. How do we make de Baak relevant and accessible to everyone who wants to personally develop themselves?

Commercial objectives:

Sign-ups: +12%

New participants started: +10%

Turnover: + 10%

Brand objectives:

Increase awareness from 34% to 40%

Increase consideration from 18% to 22%

Increase preference from 7% to 10%

De Baak wants to claim a leading position in personal leadership training with a striking and distinctive campaign concept.

1. Personal development is hot: the market is overflowing

Today, people do everything to work on their personal development. There are more options than ever. We have seen the rise of coaches, trainers and gurus. In the digital world, we see apps for self-exploration and personal development becoming increasingly popular. We believe this phenomenon is broader than the Netherlands. A striking local market development however, is the rapid growth of self-proclaimed lifestyle coaches. In 2017, 1,473 self-employed people were registered as lifestyle coaches with the Chamber of Commerce. Five years later (2022) there were 5,443: an increase of 270% (!!!). This growth has continued increasing since the pandemic.

2. Personal development opportunities only add to an already toxic performance-driven society

If you look around carefully, you’ll see something else amid this explosion of opportunities for self-reflection and growth. It has almost come to represent the opposite. It feels like we have to do even more and like we are missing something if we don't participate in this hype. In our performance-driven society, the bar is already set unrealistically high, which means that we often feel overwhelmed. Instead of helping us, all these personal growth opportunities add to this. The burden is very clear in the Netherlands. In the first two quarters of 2021, 15 percent of the population aged 12 years or older was mentally unhealthy. This percentage has not been this high since 2001 and is directly related to our performance-driven society.

(Source: Statistics Netherlands)

We are in the professional training and development business. There is a strong demand for personal growth in the market, but also a strong increase in supply. There seems to be momentum, but we have to be able to capitalise on that. De Baak is not well positioned for this at the moment. The brand has been losing relevance because of an outdated image.

We must reposition the brand. In an overflowing market, we must underline and claim our authority (The training institute for personal leadership for more than 75 years!). We must give more people a clear reason to choose De Baak. De Baak is not just for executives and leaders. De Baak as an attractive place for everyone who wants to grow. By lowering the threshold and increasing appeal, we can grow commercially.

Refocus brand positioning

De Baak holds the deep conviction that each of us is full of potential. Potential that has often remained partially untapped. Working on this is a tough process, so it takes courage. At de Baak, everything we do aims to facilitate participants in this process. We defined this role as our guiding principle: “De Baak gives you the space to dare to discover what is inside you.”

Insight

Through workshops, focus groups and interviews we discovered a strong insight. The uncertainty that exists in every person has become a growth market. The more autonomous you imagine yourself to be, the more sensitive you are to the message that you should not miss opportunities to get more out of yourself and your life. The abundance of opportunities for personal growth, makes us feel like we are falling short rather than allowing us to discover our true potential.

De Baak gives space. It’s a simple idea. And it’s daring. Because we are going to do something disruptive with it in the campaign. In order to stand out in an increasingly cluttered category, we decided to flip the script: we urge people to stop. Here’s why. If you think about it, stopping might be the most productive thing you can do. Because stopping gives you space. Space in which you can reflect, focus on what really matters, get to know yourself and figure out where you want to go. We linked that idea of stopping and space to a feeling of pure relief and made a campaign that reflects de Baak’s sentiment that sometimes, standing still is the best way forward. The strength of the idea lies in the counter-intuitive way of using “STOP” as a way to help people progress.

(Note: Results FY 2023 are based on a very reliable forecast because the majority of the available places have now been reserved.)

Commercial results:

Sign ups: +17% in 2022 // +34% in 2023

New participants started: +20% in 2022 // +23% in 2023

Turnover: +29% in 2022 // +25% in 2023

Brand Objectives:

Increased awareness: from 34% to 45%

Increased consideration: from 18% to 26%

Increased preference: from 7% to 12%

Redirection of digital strategy resulted in:

-12,4% web sessions

+20,8% time on site

+36% conversion rate

Last year (2022) we celebrated de Baak’s 75th year. It was our most successful year, to date. And 2023 is bound to beat that record. This case shows how you can successfully claim your own position by reintroducing the brand in an extremely competitive market, based on 1 simple guiding brand idea and a sharp cultural insight.