How to have a brand party

My client had 4 brands in the beverage category. We often had a discussion about what each brand stood for. How is each brand different from the other? However, we could not articulate the difference well enough.

During the discussions, I suggested we have a separate workshop on this. We invited all the brand team members from the client and the agency side. Plus the market research team from their MR agency as well.

It occurred to us that we were getting entangled in a lot of jargon. It was important to avoid jargon if we wanted clarity.

My client (the marketing manager) and I discussed various options. And finally arrived at an interesting idea. We devised a new way to run the session. We did not seek anyone's approval.

On the day we started by posing a question that seemed like an ice breaker.

There is a family in which Brand X, Brand Y, Brand Z, Brand A, Brand B, and Brand C are members. Brand C is the teenage girl. Each of the brands Brand X, Brand Y, Brand Z, Brand A, and Brand B was distinctly different from each other. In names, look and feel pricing, and so on. But all from the same family. All packaging carries the mandatory company logo and colours.

How do we differentiate each brand from one another? We posed a question to the group.

"It has just been found out that the unmarried teenage girl in the family is found to be pregnant. How will each brand react/respond to the situation? Each person had to take part in the role play. Think as if he/she is Brand X or Brand Y and enact his/her response to the question."

It was fascinating to watch the discussion. Brands that stood for clear brand values, responded with clarity and conviction. They could not be mistaken for any other brand (even within the same category).

Where the brand responses were vague we knew that their brand values were a bit fuzzy.

This led to much work to get clarity on values identity, communication and tone, and style.

Why am I sharing this after all these years? Because I got a call from one of the brand managers who had participated in that workshop. And we briefly spoke about the brand party.

Why did the brand party work?

We knew what we were looking for. And we knew that doing the same thing over and over again will lead to the same results. So we were willing to take the risk and try something different.

We had a few trials amongst a small bunch. It helped in developing a clear process for the final day.

One final matter of detail. We had everything that might have been available at a typical party. Soft drinks. Small eats. Soft Music etc. Even the seating reflected a party and not a 'group discussion'

I still remember the final conversation with the senior client.

"The same old people, thinking of the same old issue, in the same old manner are likely to come up with the same old outcomes. I am glad we were bold enough to try a new process. So the results were refreshingly different. The same old people were able to think differently. It helped that we had some fresh minds too."