Alice Tendler, former top marketer at OVO and BT Group, joined challenger utilities brand Alfred as its first marketer and CMO in April — before the brand had even launched.

"It's been such a privilege, as a marketer, to join a startup," she tells Marketing Week. "Actually literally laying the foundations of what the brand is going to be pre-launch."

At a large marketing organisation, a new starter receives brand codes and guidelines built up over years, even decades. At Alfred, none of that existed. "Now that's all on me, because it doesn't exist," Tendler says.

The business model

Alfred operates differently from other utility brands. Customers pay a membership fee of £195 per year, then pay only wholesale usage prices for electricity, gas, broadband, mobile and insurance. The company has soft launched with a waitlist and targets a full launch in the final quarter of the year. Its pre-launch marketing has centred on earned media, a referral programme and building its social presence.

"What is a real luxury, from a marketing perspective, is to be able to use this period to test and learn," she says. "To trial things, see what works, develop our own voice, which is something I really believe in, and gradually build that sense of who Alfred is and how we get out in the world."

As the business moves from waitlist to launch, Tendler wants to convert pre-launch experimentation into a consistent brand experience. "I think it's starting to roll that out with real consistency," she says. "Starting to see people recognise what Alfred looks and feels like, and making that a really consistent experience through our product."

No legacy decisions

For Tendler, that consistency must extend beyond communications. Joining early means she can shape the brand across the whole business, "from product design, UX, to also culture internally".

"I think generally the thing that I found really refreshing is the sense of anything is possible because there's no established ways of doing things," she says. "There are no generational legacy decisions that have been made that you're living with. Everything is a blank sheet of paper."

Where established businesses have brand books, Alfred has founders who are heavily invested in the marketing department's work. "You're inevitably working very, very closely with those founders, who are every bit as emotionally engaged in the brand as you are," Tendler says. "You get much more attention, much more love, and much more passion for the brand than perhaps you get when you're working on an incumbent brand that's existed for decades."

A different kind of leadership

Tendler previously led a team of around 30 to 40. At Alfred, she started as the only marketer; her team has grown, but the number of marketers still fits on one hand.

"The pace of a startup is really different to the pace of working in a bigger organisation," she says. "That is very liberating as well. You have to work in a much more fluid, collaborative way."

"You have to be prepared to roll your sleeves up and do more yourself," she adds. "If something needs to be done, that's probably me who's going to do it. And I'm going to have to look around and work out how I do this thing that perhaps I've never done before."

She has brought in specialist expertise where needed, including an experienced editor and writer to help develop Alfred's tone of voice. Where large brands can grow silos between functions, Alfred's product and finance teams are highly invested in brand. "Although you're suddenly working with a tiny team and resources are much smaller, there's a lot more crossover and a lot more fluidity between roles and the way that people work," she says.

Getting in front of the camera

The role has also demanded more visibility than she was used to. Alfred is leaning on its founders and wider team across LinkedIn, earned media and social.

"As a marketer, you're sort of behind the brand usually. You're not the brand," she says. "Whereas in something as small and as new as Alfred, you have to get comfortable with being in front of the camera."

Internal engagement has made employee advocacy particularly powerful pre-launch. "Because you know, we're still relatively small, if you work for a startup, I think you feel very passionately engaged," she says. "You think about it all the time. There's just no other way. You're living and breathing it."

The shift has surprised her, giving her a new appreciation for "the power of word of mouth". It has also shaped her view on what big businesses could learn: Alfred proactively generates ideas and makes them happen quickly, a "refreshing mindset" she says larger organisations could and should adopt.