AGFS Branding Session
Art, Susannah & Alex | March 2021
AGFS Branding Session
Art, Susannah & Alex | March 2021
Capturing the essence of AGFS’s brand purpose, vision, mission, personality and positioning to fuel cohesive and relational communications
Why it’s a good idea for us to start with a brand workshop and what will the outcome be…
This session will help us express our brand difference and design a customer journey that incorporates our ‘whole proposition’ and really connects and aligns our brand more closely with our customers.
The outcome of the session will be the story elements needed to create an advanced branding brief to define where we are now, what we want to achieve and a roadmap to get us there.
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‘We recognise that our business proposition and the scope of our audience has evolved and as a result so has the opportunity we have to connect, grow and empower our audience.’
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‘We recognise that our business proposition and the scope of our audience has evolved and as a result so has the opportunity we have to connect, grow and empower our audience.’
To meet the needs of our customers we are looking to:
Connect multiple stakeholders with our whole-proposition with clear messaging and a cohesive identity that ‘hits home’ for our audience
Create a destination website that is a resourceful platform to solve problems for our audience, as well as our business
Generate new leads to increase our revenue streams by growing engagement levels with our community
Firstly let’s just articulate what branding and or marketing can be defined as:
– The process by which we create value for our community and strengthen our relationships with them –
It is my belief that the essence of the AGFS brand and the role it plays in the community is about:
– Support, Guidance and Connection –
….so it seems natural and exciting that we would align our marketing strategy with those values in order to strengthen, develop, grow our community.
To achieve this we are embarking on a project to create a ‘destination’ website designed to offer the support, guidance and connections we have the capacity to provide.
A ‘destination’ website will act as an information-services portal focused on the customer journey – providing an assortment of relevant content, how-to-guides, resources and action points that address specific audience problems, whilst offering support and guidance in knowing what to do next.
The starting point in establishing the best ways to support our community is for us to dig deep and really understand the real-world problems our communities face, so that we can position our proposition to meet their needs and help them develop a better understanding of the principles and processes underlying the services we provide.
Exercise 1 - Persona Empathy - Defining Our Target Audience
Defining customers in the classifications of their sector and titles - A B C D E - is no longer enough. We need to understand and relate to our target audience as people with things on their mind, beliefs and aspirations as well as understanding the individual problems and challenges that affect their lives and the roles they play in our communities.
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Exercise 1 - Persona Empathy - Defining Our Target Audience
Defining customers in the classifications of their sector and titles - A B C D E - is no longer enough. We need to understand and relate to our target audience as people with things on their mind, beliefs and aspirations as well as understanding the individual problems and challenges that affect their lives and the roles they play in our communities.
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A far better way to get a true fix on our target audience is by creating individual personas and recognising the challenges and opportunities in their lives. Imagine YOU are your audience for a day/week/month and start to imagine what their life is all about.
Write down our core customer profiles as we currently see them, i.e. Parents, ISW’s, Local Authorities, Solicitors. Then imagine them as individuals, perhaps someone you have worked with recently, and write down their name and then think about what you imagine their working day is like.
Empathise with the persona and ideate ways to improve their lives. Paint a picture of the main objectives of their role? What do they really want to achieve? How do they measure achievement? What are the main challenges, pressures, issues, or problems they face daily/weekly/monthly? What are the key opportunities they have to make a difference? What do they really want to achieve? How do they measure achievement?
(Obviously, parents/families aren’t in an industry-specific job, but we can imagine for this exercise that their role is as a parent, the problems they are facing are as a family and the support they want/need etc.)
Then write down the challenges and problems that they encounter and we help to solve in 7/9 bullet points. This exercise is helpful because each person will have a different result and story, and it will help to more clearly define the nature of your target audience, the problems they have and how we can help to meet their needs.
Exercise 2 - Front Page News - Establishing Our Brand Vision
Your brand vision is your company’s ultimate ambition. If everything goes to plan, this is what AGFS will have achieved in creating the kind of world wewant to see. Extensive research proves that having a brand vision also has a number of key business benefits: – Leaders find it easier to recruit good people and retain them – Staff are more loyal and more productive – It captures the imagination of people: clients, influencers, management, staff, suppliers, media, etc – Vision-led business cultures significantly outperform those without a vision.
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Exercise 2 - Front Page News - Establishing Our Brand Vision
Your brand vision is your company’s ultimate ambition. If everything goes to plan, this is what AGFS will have achieved in creating the kind of world wewant to see. Extensive research proves that having a brand vision also has a number of key business benefits: – Leaders find it easier to recruit good people and retain them – Staff are more loyal and more productive – It captures the imagination of people: clients, influencers, management, staff, suppliers, media, etc – Vision-led business cultures significantly outperform those without a vision.
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Picture this: 10 years from now, your brand is on the front page news for achieving greatness.
What does the headline say? Have you solved a problem for humanity? Changed the way people do something? Think cause and effect i.e What have you done - (x) - and what did it result in - (y.)
This exercise helps you: align on your company’s vision, or the biggest goal on the horizon. A strong vision helps guide business strategy and motivate the team to achieve it.
Exercise 3 - Bad Guys & Superheroes - Establishing Our Brand Purpose
Purpose-driven brands are powerful because they stand for something. As brands strive for differentiation, relevance and growth, a clear purpose brought to life in compelling ways is often the difference between success and failure. A good definition is ‘a higher order reason for a brand to exist than just making a profit’.
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Exercise 3 - Bad Guys & Superheroes - Establishing Our Brand Purpose
Purpose-driven brands are powerful because they stand for something. As brands strive for differentiation, relevance and growth, a clear purpose brought to life in compelling ways is often the difference between success and failure. A good definition is ‘a higher order reason for a brand to exist than just making a profit’.
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If your brand was a superhero, who are the bad guys?
Who is your arch-nemesis, and what evils are you trying to rid the world of?
Complete the following statement. The first blank is the evil we rid/the BIG problem we solve. The second is the impact it has. Think BIG WORLD! Think HUMAN! Think PROFOUND! Think SIMPLE!
We exist to_______so that_________?
This exercise helps you to understand your brand’s higher purpose.
Sometimes being clear on what we’re against makes it easier to understand what we stand for.
Clearly communicating how we solve a problem that matters will increase our chances of success.
In an ever more competitive world, people trust, believe in and buy into what we stand for, not the services we offer.
There’s a growing body of evidence showing that purpose-driven companies are more successful.
Exercise 4 - The Cocktail Party - Establishing Our Brand Personality
There have been many studies on associating human qualities to brands, and how it gives them a significant advantage, by setting them apart from the competition. A distinctive personality establishes a brand tone of voice or ‘way of speaking’, that helps to develop a relationship with the people your brand is trying to connect with.
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Exercise 4 - The Cocktail Party - Establishing Our Brand Personality
There have been many studies on associating human qualities to brands, and how it gives them a significant advantage, by setting them apart from the competition. A distinctive personality establishes a brand tone of voice or ‘way of speaking’, that helps to develop a relationship with the people your brand is trying to connect with.
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Imagine the AGFS brand is a person who just showed up at a cocktail party full of parents, local authorities, ISW’s and solicitor.
Describe what he/she is like. What is he/she wearing? How does he/she approach people? What does he/she say? Write down as many attributes as you can in one column.
Next, imagine your brand snuck off to the bar and downed a few Long Island Ice Teas, or in Art’s case a pint and a whisky chaser! He/she comes back to the party buzzing. How does your brand act differently? Is he/she funnier? Talking louder? More confrontational? More compassionate? How does he/she approach people now? Write this down in a new column.
This exercise helps you: explore your brand personality and how you might amplify it. In most cases, brands have room to turn up the dial on their personalities. Could you take a little inspiration from your buzzed brand and be more approachable, vibrant, bold or even a bit cheeky?
Some example adjectives - ‘Down To Earth, Welcoming, Honest, Cheerful, Daring, Exciting, Powerful, Imaginative, Challenging, Visionary, Supportive, Inspiring, Confident, Trendy, Innovative, Youthful, Progressive, Modern.’