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Brand building, challenges, lessons and trusting your gut: In conversation with Charlotte Nichols, founder and owner of Harvey & Hugo

Bdaily correspondent Matthew Neville sat down for a chat with Charlotte Nichols, the founder and owner of Darlington-based PR, social media, and brand-building specialist Harvey & Hugo, as well as its accompanying social media and marketing training school, Hugoversity, and its contract-free, fixed-fee Pay-as-Hugo PR, social media and content marketing services.

Having attended Loughborough University, Charlotte has spent 13 years building Harvey & Hugo’s reputation as a leading PR firm, which has garnered glowing testimonials from a range of clients including the Royal Grammar School, in Newcastle, AlphaGraphics, Modeshift, and Nudl.

Charlotte specialises in exciting and innovative client campaigns with a particular focus on the psychology behind the process of making brands memorable.

Read on to hear about Charlotte’s top tips for building a brand, and what trends are expected to crop up in the ever-evolving world of marketing in 2022.

First things first. You specialise in building brands, but from conception to now, how have you built Harvey & Hugo as a brand?

It takes a lot of time, energy and consistent PR and marketing activity to build a brand and you have to be so passionate about it. In the early days, I had no budget, but I had so much passion to see it through and that’s what helped me get the business to where it is now.

As the business has developed, our budget has steadily increased, which has helped to build it. But building a brand is about so much more than the money you put into it; it’s about creating something that’s different enough to stand out and that takes constant creativity and boldness to do things differently.

You also have to have strong values and stick to them and ensure every piece of PR and marketing you do embodies these. It helps to have a strong purpose and really know why you’re doing what you do – in fact, that’s the first thing I always tell clients to be clear on.

Then it comes down to the consistency of activity on a regular basis: consistent social media, press releases, blogs, articles, events, interviews, advertising, award entries, SEO, speaking opportunities, profile building – using the full mix of all channels to get you noticed.

Consistency has a compounding effect over time and you’ll have more impact more easily the longer you have been doing things. Take social media for example – it’s harder to get those first 1,000 followers than to get from 1,000 to 3,000.

I get a lot of pleasure out of purely creating brands both for my business and for clients. A brand isn’t a real tangible thing at the end of the day, so it’s like you’re creating powerful mystical forces of nature that get to feed into people’s minds and influence their behaviour and purchasing decisions. I love the psychology and neuroscience behind it all.

What is the best or easiest decision you have ever made?

The easiest decision I ever made was to set up Harvey & Hugo.

People say it’s bold to start a business, but for me, it was an easy decision to quit my job and start something of my own because I had this deep burning desire for so long. It was actually a relief when I took the plunge and that nagging feeling inside of me could be finally transformed into hard work rather than wasted energy.

The best decision was to be different enough to offer our flexible, contract-free Pay-as-Hugo services when I launched during the recession in 2009. This definitely helped get us noticed and shook up the market at the time.

We were also one of the first to start offering commercial social media packages as we saw that was the way the industry was going to go and recognised the potential for building brands.

And the worst or most difficult decision you have ever made?

I always find hiring people very difficult. You just can never tell how things are going to work out and this is the area where I’ve made the most mistakes.

I also found it a really difficult decision to give up the office back in 2020 during the pandemic. In hindsight, it was definitely the best decision to make and it’s worked out really well for us over the last two years, but I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be the best thing to do at the time.

Do you have a favourite or most interesting or exciting campaign that you’ve worked on?

For H&H there have been so many – we’ve had a lot of fun with the Pay-as-Hugo brand, which we relaunched last year, along with its own dedicated e-commerce site.

For our clients, I love it when they embrace the creative ideas we give them. I loved working with Mobile Mini on #MMSpotted, where social media users posted photos whenever they spotted the firm’s containers, and Darlington Building Society to help bring their mascot, Darly the train, to life to encourage young savers.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced and how did you overcome them?

I always try to turn a challenge into a business opportunity. Our training school, Hugoversity, was born out of the challenge of customers recruiting their own PR and marketing teams in-house after discovering strong results working with us. Hugoversity helped us turn that into a service and help our clients recruit PR and marketing professionals or train up current members of the team.

It was the same with Pay-as-Hugo: people weren’t committing to retainers during the recession so we created a contract-free offering. We also knew that smaller businesses couldn’t afford contracts and there was a gap in the market to offer fixed-fee services to them.

And the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career?

There is no substitute for hard work – a lot of people view people who work long hours negatively at the moment, but I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today without it. Not everyone wants to work hard, have stress in their lives and take risks and that’s fine – but you can’t expect the same results as those who do.

Stay true to your values and trust your gut. Where I’ve often gone wrong is where I haven’t.

It’s been a tough time for businesses, any advice for anyone who might be beginning to lose heart?

Believe in yourself and remember why you set up in the first place. You need to be resilient in business and get up every time you are knocked down, although I know that’s easier said than done when you are going through a rough time.

When I last felt down about business, I dug out my old business diaries where I wrote down goals and what I had achieved. It was great to look back and see how far I’d come over the years and everything I had achieved. It made it seem possible to achieve my future goals.

We all too easily compare ourselves to other businesses and competitors but the only person or business you should compare yourself to is you or your own.

You’re currently working with BIPC Tees Valley to give 1-1 expert support and advice to other businesses, how does it feel to be able to use your experience to help others?

It’s lovely to be able to give back. I’ve received so much help and advice over the years, including from the BIPC itself, so it’s only fair.

Who or what has been the biggest influence on your career?

My granddad and parents. They inspired me by showing how hard they worked in the family business and really instilled a strong work ethic in me.

Social Media - Love it or hate it? (Personally & business?)

Business-wise, I love it. It’s so valuable to have a social media presence and all sorts of opportunities can come about because of it.

However, on a personal level, I struggle with it. I stopped using Facebook about five years ago because I didn’t like how much time I wasted on there and the fact I wasn’t in control of the information I was presented with and consuming.

I still use my personal Instagram, although I am posting much less than I ever did. If I shared more of my personal life on my business social media accounts I would have more followers and engagement but I value my privacy more since having a daughter.

Top trends you’re expecting to see in 2022?

This year is shaping up to be really exciting when it comes to PR and marketing.

I’m expecting to see more collaborations – these have been a hot trend in fashion for a while now but I expect other businesses to be doing the same, following the lead of Greggs x Primark

Video is continuing to boom and video platforms like TikTok and Instagram will continue to grow in popularity.

One thing we saw during the pandemic was businesses genuinely caring and doing the right thing above profitability, and that’s going to continue to be important. You’ve seen this lately with brands like M&S and IKEA pulling out of Russia – they’re losing a lot of money doing this, but ultimately they will gain brand equity over time.

You’re stuck on a desert island - what three things would you take with you?

If I couldn’t take my family, I would take my phone, laptop and remote Wi-Fi connection – is that cheating?

Any book recommendations for our readers?

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is my go-to recommendation as it contains so much wisdom, but I also recently really enjoyed reading Happy, Sexy, Millionaire by Steven Bartlett, which is a much easier read.

Any pointers for people looking to start a career in PR and marketing?

Hone your communication skills – you really need to be an all-rounder in today’s multimedia world. Work on your written skills (grammar and spelling is so important), verbal skills – everything from in-person networking, telephone skills and how you present yourself on video – and also your non-verbal communication skills, like your body language.

Anything you would warn people about when starting a business or building their brand?

Have a really nice long holiday before you set up. After that, any time off will never be the same, as you will never truly be ‘off’. Even if I’m not replying to emails etc, I struggle to turn my brain off sometimes.

And finally, what are your three key things everyone must do to start building their brand?

1. Be consistent: don’t expect results immediately. It can take 36 months to see an impact when building a brand from scratch.
2. Be creative: you have to cut through the noise and challenge ‘normal’.
3. Stay true to your brand values and purpose: follow your gut.

Find out more about Harvey & Hugo here.

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