I would go for a bit of harmless fun in an attempt to lighten up a subject that for many is either dull or impenetrable or both.

It doesn't particularly do it for me, but I can't see it's particularly harmful.  Judging by Adam's webcasts it's very 'him'.

The opinion I've held for a long time is that most marketing is an exercise in narcissistic self-congratulation and admiration in the Emperor's clothes. I'm well aware that marketing, when done well, can be work very well but an awful lot of it is a triumph of conceptual over effective. The net result for many companies is that remaining "on brand" is achieved at the expense of saying anything useful or relatable. It's a corporate equivalent of politicians never committing to a stance for fear of saying something wrong.

Regarding the Heat Geek message you found, @editor, I don't think there is any "should" about how serious or not a heating system design ought to be. There's certainly a "should" related to how seriously an installer and a customer ought to take the importance of the process, but that's not quite the same. To give a parallel, when my father came round from his heart transplant surgery (way back in the early 80s, so one of the early ones), his surgeon visited to let him know how the procedure went. He told my father that they took the old one out, sewed up the holes and were now using it as a football, but first took a biopsy and could now estimate that, without the operation, he'd've had perhaps another week to live. The surgeon was certainly flippant but that lack of seriousness added to dad's confidence his surgical team were so competent that they could joke about it.

Does the Heat Geek message work? It's certainly not blinding with technical jargon and is far more approachable than any bland corporate-speak. My only real issue with it is that I find the emojis break up the text to the extent it takes longer to read, so that's my variant on the "perhaps I'm getting old" theme. More importantly, though, I think the only real test should be whether it reinforces or detracts from the information the customer needs. I'm sure it says clearly what Heat Geek want to say but does it say what a customer needs to know? As a punter, I couldn't care less what a CEO says unless it's related specifically to my installation and if I need to read a sound bite from Adam Chapman to find out there's a guarantee then the rest of the documentation wasn't effective.

Overall, I'd say it's a good attempt at doing what my father's surgeon was doing but otherwise some content I'd ignore before reading all the way through. I do not, however, think it is doing any harm at all.

The layout is confusing - much better like this:

We believe heat pumps are the future of home heating.

Successful implementation is a journey guided by knowledge, driven by skill and supported by our guarantee.

We design for performance to create comfortable homes and reduce carbon emissions.

To me an excessiveness of emojis screams AI written text, which tells me that you put minimal effort into writing it. That leads me to conclude that you can't be bothered to do your other work properly either.

If you notice the marketing, it's either not working on your or not aimed at you

I think Heat Geek have done an amazing job on their branding and they actually are bordering on a lifestyle brand. 

This is something I would love to replicate in my own business.

The customers that are attracted to HG and receive these surveys are already bought into the HG brand, they know who Adam is, they recognise the colour pallette and logos etc.

In regards to the seriousness, I don’t think it needs to be that deep when you are having a heating system, it can feel fun and lighthearted.

There are so many brands out there that just blend in, eco this, something energy, something renewables. The brand voice is where we show who we are.

Posted by: @tomtheheatingengineer

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I think Heat Geek have done an amazing job on their branding and they actually are bordering on a lifestyle brand. 

This is something I would love to replicate in my own business.

 

The customers that are attracted to HG and receive these surveys are already bought into the HG brand, they know who Adam is, they recognise the colour pallette and logos etc.

In regards to the seriousness, I don’t think it needs to be that deep when you are having a heating system, it can feel fun and lighthearted.

There are so many brands out there that just blend in, eco this, something energy, something renewables. The brand voice is where we show who we are.

 

Im a scientist/engineer by training, so in principle I hate branding bollox.  Nevertheless I agree with you because I recognise that not everyone has a science/engineering background, branding does have a value in establishing a market position, and there is nothing wrong with making a bit of light hearted fun out of a subject which, for most people, is inherently dull.  

The caveat I would put on this is that I cannot agree with branding where it is a means to disguise a poor product.  In the case of Heat Geek it appears that its fundamentally a good product, so why not have a bit of fun with it?

Of course its a personal question whether you like the style of a brand; I am sure that those responsible for branding are aware of this and tailor it to their target market.

I agree that message looks a bit improvised.. Just like many draft mission or vision statements, before they are worked on. 

We did not buy Heat Geek's branding, we bought the expertise and overall service guarantee (based on previous systems that they installed). 

Did I see those values in practice when our heatpump was installed? Yes, our installer was very tuned for precision work and performance. 

@jamespa By ‘Poor Product’ I take it you are referring not to the material product itself but the design of and the installation process itself. I think there is general agreement that the majority of heat pump manufacturers are supplying products of good quality and not dissimilar performance to each other. The branding is therefore more to do with the installer’s skills and abilities to carry out work efficiently the in my opinion. Regards, Toodles.

Posted by: @toodles

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@jamespa By ‘Poor Product’ I take it you are referring not to the material product itself but the design of and the installation process itself. I think there is general agreement that the majority of heat pump manufacturers are supplying products of good quality and not dissimilar performance to each other. The branding is therefore more to do with the installer’s skills and abilities to carry out work efficiently the in my opinion.

Yes exactly that.  To put it another way I mean Heat Geek's product (which is an installed system) not the components (such as a heat pump) that they use to make their product. 

My impression, based on what we hear on this site, is that Heat Geek's product is generally good and, as you say, they use components which are also generally good.

What Heat Geek are selling is quality. Why settle for an M&S shirt when you can having a bespoke tailored shirt for a similar price?

Seemingly-AI output is cheap. It's nice that you can buy a shirt for £5 from a market stall but look at how badly the seams are sewn. Companies that use obviously AI-generated text or images heavily are sending a message that they don't care about quality all they care about is how little they can spend.

Those two things are in conflict, and the risk is that the latter dilutes the former. More generally, the initial pitch for HG in terms of doing things properly was good and it made them attractive to me as someone considering the next heat pump install. But the more they turn into an AI-focused venture capital funded startup the more they send the message that they are actually drifting away from my interests as a potential customer.