This will serve as a starting point for discussion among participants. Workshop Facilitation Guide: Tips & Best Practices | Fellow.app This discussion revolves around an understanding of how things are now, what the business or brand is achieving and what the challenges and problems are that need to be addressed. Choosing in a vacuum is hard. How to Run a Brand Workshop | Trekk This produces a list of customer problems and useful ways to solve them. Its worth noting here that there is no one way that is determined as best practice. We actually have an entire article dedicated to remote facilitation, so if you have a remote workshop planned, make sure to give it a read! Its worth noting that the chosen keywords may or may not appear in the brands messaging, and they arent necessarily meant to be customer-facing. Top 10 Branding Exercises to Attract Customers - DIYMarketers Use these 10 branding exercises to develop your brand persona, competitive differentiation and marketing message to attract customers. Make the transition from hired-gun to highly valued brand strategist in less than 30 days. Form hypotheses about the business to test in the workshop. For an extra bit of fun, ask participants what the brands drink of choice would be, and why. 03. Facilitation is the process of guiding the group through collecting relevant information, identifying underlying challenges, ideating possible solutions, and ultimately helping the team define and commit to the next steps. This is usually determined by a number of factors including. FREE PRO BRAND STRATEGY BLUEPRINT: https://brandmasteracademy.com/brand-strategy-blueprint/?utm_source=youtube\u0026utm_medium=organic\u0026utm_term=vid-desc\u0026utm_content=\u0026utm_campaign=bmsBy the end of this video youll have 8 branding workshop facilitation tips and techniques to run brand strategy workshops like a pro strategist. Define the Brand with a Mission Statement Zulie Rane SHARE The purpose of a branding workshop is for business leaders and branding strategists to define the strategyor vision for the brand. If thats the case, opt for Expert Interviews: a handy way to get all the perspectives on board without diluting the team size and while accommodating everyones busy schedule. Branding tips and tricks | Canva While brands are often developed in a number of ways, the workshop environment is designed to extract ideas, opinions, and creative expression from the leadership team so they are entrenched in the brand-building process and feel connected to the brand will lead. This might sound counterintuitive, and you might think cramming in as much value as you can will emphasize and highlight all the value you have to deliver as a facilitator, but in reality, the only thing it will do is leave your group drained and depleted at the end of the day. Start the second workshop with a fun exercise that examines the brand, messaging, website, and marketing strategies of the clients key competitors. Is there a clear visual hierarchy of information? Your email address will not be published. You do you, but we advocate for comfortable shoes in pretty much every situation.). while another is hoping to dive into the website user experience. 1. Energy is a crucial component in facilitation, and it directly influences the outcomes of your workshop. The brand discovery survey asks core questions about the demographics of the clients target audience. If you have time, go back to those SOMEDAY adjectives and ask the group: what skills do they already have that could help them earn those descriptors? The workshop environment facilitates collaboration, ingenuity, more off-the-wall ideas, and communication. Can they lead strategy workshops? This allows ideas and concepts to ruminate overnight before finalizing. Now that the brand is gone, what will take its place. Once again, using the understanding of the audience and with the advantageous position of having a defined personality, the group can begin to uncover how the brand will communicate. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Eight of the best branding books coming out soon (2023), Definition of brand essence (What is a brand essence? Though many will jump to stories of the founders and their history, its the strategists job to keep the focus on the audience, their story and the background and interests that connect them with the brand on their road to success. But on the back of increased awareness about real branding or branding beyond the logo and the rise of evolving professionals to meet that demand, the strategy workshop has become an increasingly important tool for branding specialist, strategist and their clients. The brand discovery survey asks, What are the problems they (target customers) face? Use the clients answers to go deeper and brainstorm even more problems. For this exercise, participants should imagine the brand as a personwho gets drunk. The best way to get the most out of any brand workshop is to work closely with your branding team. They require cooperation between designers and clients. Each exercise corresponds to a topic covered in the brand discovery survey. Becoming a facilitator is a great career move, how long an average person can keep focussing on cognitively challenging tasks, entire article dedicated to remote facilitation, Making collaborative work feel frictionless by avoiding the usual pitfalls of teamwork like team politics, and circular discussions, and making sure every person in the room gets heard., Resolving possible conflict by mediating different points of views and keeping objectivity at all times., Enabling teams to do their best work by allowing the team to focus on the challenge at hand, instead of having to worry about the organization of the decision-making process.. But whether youre used to it, or not, remote work is here to say, which also means you need to prepare yourself for remote facilitation! Drawing out the competitors strengths and more specifically their weaknesses can open up ideas, opinions and discussions about where the opportunities lie which often gets the collaboration and creative juices flowing. You can ease some of the pressure by reminding participants that no decision is final and that they can sense-check these choices with other groups. There are about a million details a facilitator needs to keep in mind: Is everyone engaged? To do this exercise, simply ask breakout groups to decide on a key component under a time deadline. What are the advantages of remote brand strategy workshops? Forcing the stupid questions about branding helps everyone get on the same page and feel more comfortable together and with you. It wont always be smooth sailing, and you, as a facilitator, need to be prepared for that., Being able to improvise is the secret sauce of every excellent facilitator, and if you want to really master the art of facilitation, you gotta get comfortable with changing your workshop plans on the go.. Branding is important because it gives your business an identity that consumers can connect to. Learn 8 brand strategy workshop facilitation techniques and skills to workshop like a pro. 1. A discussion about each of the following sections is a minimum though a highly detailed and collaborative workshop may aim to develop out each element in the room. It can help you stand out from the crowd, attract more opportunities, and build. There are many approaches to building a brand and the collaborative brand strategy workshop environment is just one. But not to worry, were here to debunk these myths once and for all so you can pay attention to the things that matter. When it comes to developing brand strategies, the branding workshop is the ultimate collaborative experience. Talk about the brand in its best days, what it accomplished, and what made it cease to exist. (This is another modified tip from the great Matt Davies.). Assess the status quo and review your customer personas. How to Create Engaging Personal Branding Workshops - LinkedIn Welcome Canva's blog, Learn. They feel more engaged in the process and better understand why information is included or omitted. As a group, divide them into two categories: VOICE (what is the brand like? A facilitator (or a Workshopper, as we like to call them!) Conventional working scenarios dont address some of the biggest pitfalls of collaboration: The working-style differences, politics that always creep into any group setting, and asymmetrical knowledge., Some of the most effective teams in the world dont rely on just winging it, and instead bet on having effective tools to help them facilitate decision-making and problem-solving, aka having a facilitator in the room whos able to guide the team to their best outcomes., Becoming a facilitator is a great career move, and learning the basics of facilitation is easier than you might think! For example, if participants think of the brand as fun, a drunk brand might be outrageous.. But the most common question we get is also the most essential: what is a brand workshop, anyway? Jan 7, 2021 -- Photo by David Lezcano on Unsplash A brand is not a logo. Come back together and choose a spokesperson to present to the group. Find out how in this article. Well, this is the thing most novice facilitators get wrong., Instead of focussing on guiding the team, uncovering their expertise, and letting them solve the challenge, they put pressure on themselves because they think they need to be the person in the room with the best, brightest, most innovative ideas., Thats because they havent yet adopted the facilitators mindset, which is:, This simple change of perspective shifts the facilitators focus from being the center of attention and the hero to being the guide, the person helping others do their best work.. how does the brand talk?) How to Run a Journey-Mapping Workshop: A Step-by-Step Guide Aggregate the results from your (anonymized) stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and/or surveys and present them for discussion. Where did obituaries differ? The first four exercises are tackled on Day 1. Participants should select one of the choices, and explain their choice on a sticky note. Your email address will not be published. What did your brand leave unaccomplished? Branding Workshop Template | Free Example | FigJam Strategy workshops have no set duration though they can range anywhere from two hours to three days depending on the strategist's approach (and the potential size of the project). A stack of sticky notes with one personality adjective written on each in permanent marker. At the completion of day one, the brand is defined and everyone involved can articulate the: 1. Thats why its crucial that we handle the three most common misconceptions about facilitation from the get-go. Whats the agenda, what are the goals and how exactly do you go about running one? Focus on keeping things crystal clear for your participants. Essentially, this is a time of researching the clients business, its product/service offering, its customers, and its competitors. By forcing company employees to think about the legacy of their brand, it helps them define the values and purpose of the brandand what they want to accomplish with the company before its gone. The result was a clearly defined strategic direction and a brand identity that positioned us as a leading productivity platform.". With this workshop, its you and me together working for a client, and Im giving you the same tips, the same advice, and sharing the same techniques Ive learned over the years on hundreds of design projects. This exercise is a modified tip from Matt Daviess excellent article on facilitating branding workshops. Branding Workshop [The Definitive Guide] - Brand Master Academy How to Run a Successful Brand Strategy Workshop - LinkedIn "The brand workshop was remarkably enjoyable and exactly what we needed. Look at your competitors. Going one step further and envisioning your brand drunk pulls out and highlights the real differentiators. UX workshops are intensive collaborative sessions used to solve problems and enable progress on a particular challenge throughout the design timeline. Try to fill up the entire stack, or about 90 sticky notes. Virtual Workshop Tip #3: Use Third Party Tools. If youre leading a branding workshop, the ideal outcome is that by the end, the leadership of the company youre helping is completely clear on how they want their brand to be perceived and communicated. The deliverables from a brand workshop usually include an updated positioning statement or message map, the creation of visual concepts that ultimately result in a new brand guide, a defined content strategy and marketing communications plan, and sometimes even updated company values or an updated mission statement. The most straightforward way to ease yourself into improvising in a workshop setting is to be prepared for the absolute worst scenario and build in safety networks in case those things do happen. There are five stages to the remote workshop process: Stage 1: Information Gathering Stage 2: Analysis and Preparation Stage 3: Workshop Day 1 - Defining the Brand Stage 4: Workshop Day 2 - Brand Strategy Implementation Let's face it: Facilitating a full-day workshop can be overwhelming. Competitors If youre planning an intense two-hoursession without a break when a handful of your participants were hoping for a coffee after an hour, the second hour wont beasproductive because theyre thinking about theircaffeine.. Branding workshop & training to improve brand image and positioning Using the archetype framework, the group sets out the personality type or mix of personality types that will best represent the brand and resonate with who the audience is. How Do You Create Value For Others? All rights reserved. Facilitators wear many hats, but a lot of their work will be in the following areas:, The goal of a good facilitator is to guide a group to their best outcomes, NOT to solve the challenge for the team (keep this in mind, well be circling back to this later!). The Keys to Starting a Workshop For a successful branding strategy workshop, make sure everyone involved is on board, and encourage everyone to share ideas and take notes throughout the workshop. Prepare thought-provoking questions that will challenge the workshop participants. 2. And we wont share your email address. Use a damp cloth to rinse away excess soap. As a group, discuss whether this adjective describes the brand and invite the person who chose it to add it to a column on the whiteboard. Thankfully, the absence of physical proximity is no longer a barrier. If youre a brand strategist looking for a way to involve your clients then a branding workshop should be something you should look to integrate into your processes. Some act as consultants and project managers who oversee the realisation of the brand development while other brand strategists roll up their sleeves and execute the brand development along with their team. What happens to the brands personality? Remember we told you that a good facilitators goal is to encourage participants to think productively, not solve the teams challenge? It is the first step for creating a successful brand. Day two is focused on real-world implementation of the brand, a step where designers often fall short.