Guest Blog: Let Your Fingers Do the Branding
Guest blogger: Chandlee Lewis
Is your brand delivering the way you want it to in this tough market? Does it reflect the core values of your company? Does it clearly convey what you are promising your customers? Does your company behave in a way that is consistent with the brand and that also strengthens it? Are you getting the best value for the staff time spent in branding meetings?
These are some of the questions successful companies are asking themselves today. Until recently, it was possible to create a brand strategy and be confident that the same platform would be viable long-term. However, that is no longer the case. Current market conditions offer a perfect opportunity - as well as a catalyst - to ensure that your brand is saying what you want it to say, that you are optimally positioned, and that you are targeting the audiences that have the greatest need for your “promise”. Just as a season change is the best time for your car’s periodic tune-up, this new season and new economy are a perfect - in fact, critical - time for a branding “tune-up”.
When you undertake a project as important as a brand “tune-up”, you will obviously need to make sure that you are getting the best guidance from your staff. You will need everyone’s input. Yet, meetings of all types typically revolve around those staff members who are outgoing and willing to engage actively in discussion. The less confident or bored staffers often fade into the background: doodling - or, worse, ensconced in their own private worlds of daydreams. Their lack of participation does not mean that they do not have valuable information or insights. It means simply that they are unable or unwilling to share them. Since they have not been involved, these passive participants do not feel committed to the outcome of the meeting and may even surface later to criticize it, whether or not they actually remember what took place.
Interesting new research suggests that doodlers remember more information than daydreamers. But the fact remains that a branding meeting conducted in the traditional manner results in the company sustaining at least 4 types of losses:
Now contrast that scenario with a branding meeting in which 100% of the participants are working with 100% attention for 100% of the time of the meeting, and the end result is a concrete product that embodied the clear identity of your brand. Such a scenario would yield a cost-effective meeting, completed in less time than traditional meetings, and carry the additional benefits of complete group support and a model that can be manipulated, explained, and shared by the
whole group.
An innovative way to achieve that degree of success is literally through play. A facilitation methodology, LEGO SERIOUSPlay, developed by the business arm of the well-known LEGO toy company, has shown great success in helping groups function more effectively, efficiently, and cohesively, and with lasting results. In so doing it also saves you money in both the development and execution of your brand. And it’s fun.
The process is based on the “Constructivism” theory of Jean Piaget and his colleagues in Switzerland, and the “Constructionism” theory of Seymour Papert of MIT. Both Piaget and Papert developed their theories by observing the learning activities of children. The two scholars worked from the premise that both children and adults acquire knowledge in the same way, and that learning is enhanced when people are engaged in constructing a product.
Piaget referred to the way children learn as “concrete thinking” – thinking with and through concrete objects. He viewed this as a stage of learning that children would grow out of as they developed more formal, abstract ways of thinking. In contrast, Papert viewed concrete thinking as a legitimate style of thinking in itself, and not simply a stage that would be left behind. As he saw it, if adults forego concrete thinking as they develop intellectually, they merely limit themselves by cutting off a valid path to knowledge.
Concrete thinking is at the root of the LEGO SERIOUSPlay (LSP) methodology. Play is seen not as a leisure or frivolous activity, but as something serious that can open the door to imagination and learning, just as it does for children. Group members literally think through their fingers, and in the process use creative energy they may have forgotten they possessed. What’s more, because the method is dynamic and requires a concrete product from each participant, those doodlers who hear but don’t contribute are drawn into the action, as are the daydreamers, who are so actively involved that there is no opportunity to drift off.
Typically, LSP facilitators design a workshop specific to your company’s needs and focus. For example, in early rounds of a branding tune-up, they would guide your staff in building a representation of the core identity of the brand, and then ask each person to make a story about what they have built and share it with the rest of the group as a way of explaining their insights and perspectives, and creating meaning and context. Other participants would be invited to ask questions for clarification.
In a succeeding round, participants would be challenged to create a shared identity for the brand, incorporating elements from the individual models and adding new elements as necessary, to arrive at a complete picture. During the building process, participants would be encouraged to change their physical positions from time to time to look at the model from different perspectives, perhaps gaining new insights or visualizing new benefits. In this way, participants achieve an appreciation of every aspect of the brand, of the total experience that it offers, and begin to understand how to build it into a company asset.
The workshop would culminate in the group’s extraction of simple guiding principles to act as the basis for all future brand decisions and company actions. As defined by David Ogilvy, a brand is “the intangible sum of a product's attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it's advertised.” Once the fingers of the group have defined the core identity of the brand, the guiding principles greatly simplify creating or adjusting its attributes to be in tune with the ever-evolving business landscape.
Your branding agency or consultant is sure to thank you for having taken such a step to create a strong brand identity that they can then use with confidence to create and direct your messages, collateral, and the many other ways in which you project your brand to the market. The market is sure to respond with a positive message as well.
About the author: Chandlee Lewis is the founder and CEO of Envision the Results, LLC. She can be contacted at clewis@envisiontheresults.com.
Is your brand delivering the way you want it to in this tough market? Does it reflect the core values of your company? Does it clearly convey what you are promising your customers? Does your company behave in a way that is consistent with the brand and that also strengthens it? Are you getting the best value for the staff time spent in branding meetings?
These are some of the questions successful companies are asking themselves today. Until recently, it was possible to create a brand strategy and be confident that the same platform would be viable long-term. However, that is no longer the case. Current market conditions offer a perfect opportunity - as well as a catalyst - to ensure that your brand is saying what you want it to say, that you are optimally positioned, and that you are targeting the audiences that have the greatest need for your “promise”. Just as a season change is the best time for your car’s periodic tune-up, this new season and new economy are a perfect - in fact, critical - time for a branding “tune-up”.
When you undertake a project as important as a brand “tune-up”, you will obviously need to make sure that you are getting the best guidance from your staff. You will need everyone’s input. Yet, meetings of all types typically revolve around those staff members who are outgoing and willing to engage actively in discussion. The less confident or bored staffers often fade into the background: doodling - or, worse, ensconced in their own private worlds of daydreams. Their lack of participation does not mean that they do not have valuable information or insights. It means simply that they are unable or unwilling to share them. Since they have not been involved, these passive participants do not feel committed to the outcome of the meeting and may even surface later to criticize it, whether or not they actually remember what took place.
Interesting new research suggests that doodlers remember more information than daydreamers. But the fact remains that a branding meeting conducted in the traditional manner results in the company sustaining at least 4 types of losses:
- The value of the salaries of non-engaged staff during the time of the meeting
- The lost contributions of non-engaged staff to the group effort
- The opportunity cost of staff accomplishments had they not even attended the meeting
- The value of the inevitable extra time required to complete the task with only partial participation.
Now contrast that scenario with a branding meeting in which 100% of the participants are working with 100% attention for 100% of the time of the meeting, and the end result is a concrete product that embodied the clear identity of your brand. Such a scenario would yield a cost-effective meeting, completed in less time than traditional meetings, and carry the additional benefits of complete group support and a model that can be manipulated, explained, and shared by the
whole group.An innovative way to achieve that degree of success is literally through play. A facilitation methodology, LEGO SERIOUSPlay, developed by the business arm of the well-known LEGO toy company, has shown great success in helping groups function more effectively, efficiently, and cohesively, and with lasting results. In so doing it also saves you money in both the development and execution of your brand. And it’s fun.
The process is based on the “Constructivism” theory of Jean Piaget and his colleagues in Switzerland, and the “Constructionism” theory of Seymour Papert of MIT. Both Piaget and Papert developed their theories by observing the learning activities of children. The two scholars worked from the premise that both children and adults acquire knowledge in the same way, and that learning is enhanced when people are engaged in constructing a product.
Piaget referred to the way children learn as “concrete thinking” – thinking with and through concrete objects. He viewed this as a stage of learning that children would grow out of as they developed more formal, abstract ways of thinking. In contrast, Papert viewed concrete thinking as a legitimate style of thinking in itself, and not simply a stage that would be left behind. As he saw it, if adults forego concrete thinking as they develop intellectually, they merely limit themselves by cutting off a valid path to knowledge.
Concrete thinking is at the root of the LEGO SERIOUSPlay (LSP) methodology. Play is seen not as a leisure or frivolous activity, but as something serious that can open the door to imagination and learning, just as it does for children. Group members literally think through their fingers, and in the process use creative energy they may have forgotten they possessed. What’s more, because the method is dynamic and requires a concrete product from each participant, those doodlers who hear but don’t contribute are drawn into the action, as are the daydreamers, who are so actively involved that there is no opportunity to drift off.
Typically, LSP facilitators design a workshop specific to your company’s needs and focus. For example, in early rounds of a branding tune-up, they would guide your staff in building a representation of the core identity of the brand, and then ask each person to make a story about what they have built and share it with the rest of the group as a way of explaining their insights and perspectives, and creating meaning and context. Other participants would be invited to ask questions for clarification.
In a succeeding round, participants would be challenged to create a shared identity for the brand, incorporating elements from the individual models and adding new elements as necessary, to arrive at a complete picture. During the building process, participants would be encouraged to change their physical positions from time to time to look at the model from different perspectives, perhaps gaining new insights or visualizing new benefits. In this way, participants achieve an appreciation of every aspect of the brand, of the total experience that it offers, and begin to understand how to build it into a company asset.
The workshop would culminate in the group’s extraction of simple guiding principles to act as the basis for all future brand decisions and company actions. As defined by David Ogilvy, a brand is “the intangible sum of a product's attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it's advertised.” Once the fingers of the group have defined the core identity of the brand, the guiding principles greatly simplify creating or adjusting its attributes to be in tune with the ever-evolving business landscape.
Your branding agency or consultant is sure to thank you for having taken such a step to create a strong brand identity that they can then use with confidence to create and direct your messages, collateral, and the many other ways in which you project your brand to the market. The market is sure to respond with a positive message as well.
About the author: Chandlee Lewis is the founder and CEO of Envision the Results, LLC. She can be contacted at clewis@envisiontheresults.com.
Labels: branding trends, corporate branding, guest blogger
posted by Harris Eisenberg at
9:59 AM
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