The Brand Midwife

The most beautiful pitches in England?

Opened up the Country House Hideout encampments at Wyresdale Park this weekend, in the Forest of Bowland just south of the Lake District. I described this in the brochure as the original Swallows and Amazons location in the brochure but that was off the back of some feats of imagination when I saw it in the rain in November and January. However reality exceeds the picture in my mind's eye.

Where else in England can you row a boat up to your tent? Or have your own private jetty?

The tents are real hideouts buried in the woods each with a view over the estate's private lake and Nicky Nook, as nice a fell as anything in the Lake District.

 

And the children got into the discovery theme as their parents allowed them to roam the deserted shores of Wyresdale lake.

      Wyresdale is an undiscovered gem and truly an idyll.

The Brand Midwife goes glamping full time

My longest standing client is Feather Down Farms, the luxury camping concept that came out of Holland. In the last year I have been developing an even posher spin-off, Country House Hideout in the UK with my Dutch business partner, Luite Moraal.  

Just a month ago he approached me about going one step further and running both operations in the UK. Of course I said yes! I am currently winding down my other consulting interests to be Mr Glamping full time. So it's back to running things rather than advising on things. 

Postings on here will be almost exclusively on my experiences with farmers and house owners and happy campers for the foreseeable. I hope it will make interesting reading.

Camping not busking

Last week's episode of Country House Rescue was fun to watch. Of course it is a trifle nerve wracking to see oneself on TV and more weirdly, hear one's voice. The Whitbourne Hall episode was filmed over the course of six months, during which time not only their story was evolving but also our product. It starts off over a year ago when all we had was a set of drawings and no name for Country House Hideout. 'Hideaway Homes' was the working title at the time and that is what came out in the edit. Furious purchase of keywords in the course of the episode's airing however meant that I was able to cover that particular base and lead interested parties to the correct website - oh, the wonders of Google!

Brand Midwife gives birth to another venture

For a year now I have been in discussions with Brand Keys. They are a New York based research boutique specialising in consumer engagement with brands. Brand Keys is led Robert Passikoff (“the most quoted brand consultant in the USA”) and Amy Shea. With my interest in matters of the mind, I was always going to be intrigued by a method described as “brand psychotherapy”.  In fact with its Jungian typology, I usually describe it as ‘Myers Briggs for brands’ to those that have undergone the aforementioned psychometric tests.

 After months of discussion a bunch of us including Mark Palmer and Andrew Crosthwaite have got the Brand Keys presence off the ground in the UK now. The launch event at the IPA was well attended by the great and the good of the brand world and now we are following up on the leads generated there. More of which later.

Getting that Zeitgeist feeling

Excuse the Guardian the terrible punning on 'noughties' and 'tenties' but it is nice to have got a name check for Feather Down Farms in a round-up of the decade recently.

With a bit of luck and a following wind, our next glamping venture Country House Hideout can also ride the tiger of another Zeitgeist prediction of the Guardian. That poshness and country houses will be in for 2010.