When we embarked on our rebranding exercise in early 2023, the one instruction we gave the consultancy, Nixon Design, was that the result should not be stereotypically financial services. We’re all about people, not money, and we wanted all of our messaging to reflect that.
The resulting four brand values are a reflection of who we are, how we think and how we work:
What money is for
Of these, Care is the one that I love the most. I always say that if my job was all about money, I’d be bored out of my mind, but because it is actually about people, I love what we do!
Money, remember, is only a tool. It’s there to help us live the life we want by providing the things and experiences that make for a rich life.
As financial planners, our job is to understand our clients and their hopes for the future. To challenge their assumptions and educate where necessary. To come alongside them, coaching them to make good decisions that further their progress towards those goals.
If we didn’t actually care about the people we serve, this would be tedious work indeed. But we derive great joy from helping our clients achieve their aims. Why? Because we care.
One brand value to rule them all
Care is a word that can mean lots of different things. Some of us will think about long term care in our old age, a subject that comes up frequently in client conversations.
It can mean taking the time to do a good job with whatever task we are working on.
And it is an emotion as well as an action. If we care about something or for someone, we feel it inside; it drives us. It’s an outward-facing thing, in contrast to an insular world where looking after number one seems to be paramount.
The word covers so much, which is why it is the perfect brand value for us. We care about our clients, we care about each other, we care about the environment and we care about the work we do.
We don’t always get things right, but we care enough to learn from mistakes and to put things right as quickly as we can.
We care enough that we look to continually improve our processes so that we can deliver better service more efficiently.
We care enough about our team to help them find balance through hybrid working, flexible hours and a four-day week that gives them time for themselves beyond their role at Jacksons.
We care enough to begin making changes to work towards becoming carbon neutral and attaining B Corp status, to show the world that we put our money and our actions where our collective mouth is.
We like to think that our care makes us stand out. It really shouldn’t, because surely all of financial services should operate this way. But until the industry experiences a collective epiphany, we’ll carry on doing what we do!