Transforming a Digital Staffing Pioneer
The Setting
When Coople pioneered digital staffing, they transformed how businesses found flexible workers.
Operating across Switzerland and the UK, they built a marketplace connecting prestigious clients with skilled workers across multiple sectors.
The Challenge
As their success attracted attention, Coople faced three critical challenges:
1. Market Differentiation
Standing out in an increasingly crowded marketplace as traditional agencies went digital and tech startups entered the space
2. Brand Fragmentation
Unifying their identity across multiple industries, markets and both sides of their marketplace (workers and businesses)
3. Brand Maturity
Evolving their visual identity to appeal to enterprise clients while maintaining their innovative edge
The Approach:
1. Measure: Finding What Actually Works
What I Delivered:
Deep Customer Insights: Analysed 5,000+ user responses to uncover who Coople's users truly considered competitors and where Coople held genuine advantages
Data-Led Segmentation: Combined platform behaviour, financial data, and customer research to identify the most valuable and satisfied segments across both sides of the marketplace
Predictive Tools: Developed six "golden questions" for worker profiling and a decision-maker needs framework for businesses to optimize future experiences
Business Impact:
Coople gained the ability to predict which users would generate the most revenue with the least servicing cost. This clarity enabled them to refine their acquisition strategy and focus resources on segments with the highest lifetime value.
2. Simplify:
What I Delivered:
Unified Positioning: Developed Coople’s "Rewarding Ambition" positioning, resonating with both businesses seeking committed workers and individuals looking for meaningful flexible work
Decision Framework: Created actionable guidelines that helped teams make faster, more consistent decisions across markets
Streamlined Strategy: Simplified the brand strategy to something all stakeholders could understand and implement, while still differentiating Coople as a long-term partner rather than just another staffing platform
Business Impact:
By differentiating as a long-term partner rather than just another staffing platform, Coople could justify premium positioning while building stronger relationships with both workers and hiring businesses. This shifted conversations from price to value, supporting their enterprise growth strategy.
3. Amplify:
What I Delivered:
Evolved Brand Identity: Transformed Coople's visual identity from startup-bold to enterprise-ready while maintaining recognition
Behaviour-Driven Voice: Created communication guidelines to encourage positive platform behaviour by emphasizing the long-term benefits
Targeted Content Strategy: Developed landing page and content approaches specifically for profitable segments to improve recruitment and priming them for self-service before signup
Business Impact:
The refreshed identity and strategy helped Coople to compete effectively for enterprise clients without sacrificing their core proposition.
Additionally, by emphasizing long-term benefits of platform engagement in communications, Coople could increased valuable behaviors like providing ratings and favoriting reliable workers — enabling a virtuous cycle of platform improvement.
The Results:
Unified Strategy: One brand message for both workers and businesses across all industries and countries
Clear Focus: Found which customers made the most money and focused efforts there
Enterprise Appeal: Updated the visual identity to attract bigger clients while staying recognizable
Faster Decisions: Created simple tools to help teams make better decisions more quickly
Better User Behaviour: Got users to do more helpful things on the platform through smarter communication
Leading a marketplace or SaaS platform?
Whether you're struggling with differentiation, looking to reduce manual intervention or aiming to scale efficiently, let's discuss how these insights could guide your growth.