A Brand Workshop whistle-stop
If you’ve ever been asked, in life or at work, to describe yourself as a ‘personal brand’ — we’re sorry. The jargon of adland has a way of permeating interview rooms across the land. But we’re here to tell you, against our better judgment, that there’s something in it. You see, dear reader, brands hailed as worldwide success stories have a very common denominator; and it’s all about getting personal.
If brands are like humans (and the best ones are), the way they behave is as intricate and ripe for analysis as the real thing. You wouldn’t claim to know what makes someone tick after just a brief encounter. But this, you probably know. Endless competitor audits and category case studies will have told you as much. Transforming this knowledge into a unique brand personality, well…that’s a different thing altogether. And that’s where we come in.
We all know brands (and people) that shout the loudest. Most of the time, it’s just noise. And in a digital world inundated with brands fighting to have their say, we’ll help yours drown it out. Until it’s nothing but menial background noise.
How the hell are you gonna do that, you may ask? Well, it begins and ends with our brand workshops.
Destination: brand brilliance. First stop: discovery.
As brand consultants, we pride ourselves on getting under the skin of brands and uncovering their DNA. You know your brand best, but sometimes it’s hard to see the wood through the trees. Like having a bad parents’ evening with your favourite child. Whether you’re starting from scratch or planning an overhaul of existing assets, we’ll take the time to understand why you came to us. Is it a matter of boosting sales and smashing KPIs, or repositioning to become perfectly poised for the post-corona landscape?
We’ll comb through your customer data and delve deep into the psyche of your audience.
What do they value in your brand? What are its pain points? Listening to what your consumers have to say is invaluable for shaping the future of your brand, and it’s all about asking the right questions. We aim to leave no stone unturned, challenging preconceived notions and mapping out future perceptions for your brand. We’ll learn what made you famous, and how to capitalise on it.
Finally, we’ll turn the mirror, and get some introspective reasoning on the brand you built.
What was the original vision, and does it still ring true? Has it veered off track? By working
backwards and understanding the collective mission, we can begin to carve its path. Think of your brand as the precious artefact, and us the eager archaeologists. That’s what gets us out of bed in the morning.
So what’s next? Once we’ve gathered our intel, we can begin to compare your brand’s genetic makeup in the define stage of our workshop.
Think of it as a Lovegunn x your brand double date. You tell us what you do and don’t like, and we get you to think outside of the box. You’ll have strong preferences for the way brands communicate, and we’re here to listen. But we’re also here to broaden your horizons. Too often brands compare themselves only to direct competitors within their category, but we cast our net wider than that — into everything popular culture. That means no comparison is too abstract. You’re a fintech brand, but you applaud the tone of TimeOut magazine. You sell carbonated drinks, but a menstrual cup brand gets their packaging just right. In the same breath, we’ll learn about your absolute brand no-no’s, and who’s got it cringe-worthily wrong. Thinking about institutions that align with your own culture and values is most productive when it’s cross-category.
Word associations and cultural references will have you thinking of your brand in a whole new light. Where would your brand fit into celebrity culture? If it were a noughties karaoke track, what would it be? We’ll pit you against street culture, boroughs of London, colours on a Farrow & Ball palette. Once we’ve established prevalent words from research and discussion, we’ll dig a little deeper into what they mean to you, and how they epitomise your brand archetype. All the while, we’ll be considering your competitor landscape and how we can make a splash. We’re not interested in fitting in.
And so we arrive at our third and final stop: development.
We’ve all seen companies who claim they’re all about ‘their people’, but do a little digging, and they can often fall short. Your people are the secret to building an emotional connection with your audience, and an authentic one at that. Identifying their motivations, professional decisions, and bugbears with the business will provide a holistic view of what gives your brand its integrity. What conversations are your employees having by the water cooler?
This can uncover inspiring anecdotes, and delicate home truths. How do they complement or contradict your mission statement? If you’re a company that unites communities, are you doing this from the inside out? It’s often the case that the information we’re presented with needs distilling into its purest form, so we can keep our creative clean, simple and easy to understand. Only then will the mission articulation achieve the highest levels of transparency, and form an unshakeable foundation for our strategy.
Our workshop process collates and filters relevant data to create brand spanking new
strategies that translate into award-winning creative. If it was easy, everyone would do it. As one of our fave clients put it, our ‘ability to breakdown a complex business strategy, then provide a simple but impactful framework, messaging platform and visual identity…is something others failed to do’.
That’s how we keep on top of our game. So, if you’re looking to launch your brand into the stratosphere, look no further. We’re always up for the challenge.
Originally published at https://www.lovegunn.co on June 8, 2020.
