About Afia

Afia

Version: 1

Writer: Dave Wilner

Date: 20^th February 2009

Afia Brand Book

 

When’s the best time to start a business? The honest answer is there’s never really an ideal time. There are always so many good reasons not to do it. You’re moving house. There’s a recession coming. You’re expecting a baby. All good, single reasons not to do it.

 

You’d have to be a complete fecking eijit to start a business when ALL of those things were happening! Ladies and gentlemen – Ben Afia. A man who laughs in the face of adversity and puts two fingers up at convention. A behavioural trait we now know as being Ben-ish. Mind you, he’s done pretty well at it.

 

Here’s the story so far.

 

Ben spent five (?) years in marketing at Boots’, developing their tone of voice and spreading the word nationwide across their stores. Part of this process was training the internal and external writers in how to effectively convey the message and continue to fight the good fight.

 

 

 

 

 

After Boots’ (pun alert) dispensed with his services, the first thing that occurred to Ben was that he now had to buy his own stationery – the curse of the self-employed. But there was more. Having developed Boots’ tone of voice he was aware of just how many companies could do with a personality overhaul.

 

He set himself the task of introducing tone of voice into other companies. But, typical of Ben, he wasn’t interested messing around with Mrs Miggins pie shop. He started working with clients such as Legal & General, Aviva and Barclays; Morrisons, BP and even Boots’ (although they kept him away from the stationery).

 

Word of his success soon spread and Ben found himself needing help to cope with his overflowing order book. What he wanted was like-minded people. People who were interesting and had stories to tell. So he recruited – one at a time as his business grew.

 

Four and a half years later, he finds himself surrounded by a diverse group of writers and trainers. An interesting bunch that vary in pretty much every way; from location (London to Manchester), through accent (posh to local brogue) to education (Cambridge firsts to failed geography A-level students).

 

But they’re a nice bunch. They’re all interesting and they definitely have stories to tell – some more believable than others. Evidence of this was gathered at the last meeting where an unnamed individual was trying to convince others that it is illegal to take a hot-water bottle through customs into New Zealand. Interesting stuff.

 

And this motley crew now find themselves working with an impressive list of clients, extending the existing portfolio to include the likes of Sony, E.ON, Cadbury Schweppes and Vodaphone and is regularly seeing off much bigger agencies. With a projected turnover this year of £?, Afia is now batting well above average.

 

 

 

The message – to help companies find the right voice and train their people to use it.

 

The mission – to eliminate corporate speak, bland words and pointless phrases that say nothing. Instead to preach the use of straight talk.

 

The method - to work hard to understand their customers’ needs allowing the building and maintaining of winning relationships.

So as the business continues to grow, it’s important that it maintains what got it there. No matter how many writers and trainers there are, it’s vital it preserves the spirit that was there from day one. That thing that sets it apart from all other agencies, something that no other agency can offer. Afia is Ben and long may it continue.