Branding: Creating and Managing Your Corporate Brand

Defining Branding

To begin, participants will explore what a brand means and what branding is all about. Participants will also discuss some popular brands and what makes them stand out.

What Are You All About?

Next, participants will get started on the branding process by learning how to identify a product’s features, benefits, and values.

Creating a Mission

A mission statement is where you can express your big dreams for your product. In this session, participants will learn what a good mission statement looks like. They will also get some hands-on practice in creating a mission statement for a product of their choice.

Creating a Vision of the Future

Next, it’s time to outline how you want things to look for your brand in the short term. This session will give participants some tips for creating a vision statement and share some sample statements for a fictional company.

Positioning Your Brand

Positioning describes how your brand will be seen in the minds of customers. Participants will learn what a positioning statement looks like and they will take part in a positioning workout to get some hands-on practice.

Developing Your Style

The next component of your brand identity is the style statement: what attitude will your brand have? This session includes both a theory and practice component.

Developing a Brand Name and Slogan

Now it’s time for the fun stuff! To begin, this session will recap what we have covered so far. Then, participants will get practical tips on creating a brand name and a slogan.

Creating a Visual Identity

Although we can’t turn participants into professional graphic designers, this session will help them understand the basics of graphic design. Concepts include image perception, color spectrum analysis, font types, and types of visual identities. A pop culture quiz rounds out the session.

Living Your Brand

To begin the second day, participants will learn how to transform company employees into brand ambassadors and how to create a unique experience at each brand touchpoint.

Connecting with Customers

Next, we will share ten easy ways to connect with customers.

Launching Your Brand

This session will share some ideas for making internal and external brand launches a smashing success.

Taking Your Brand’s Pulse

In order for a brand to be as successful as possible, it must evolve with your company, your customers, and the marketplace. This session will introduce participants to the basics of brand evaluation.

Performing a SWOT Analysis

To begin, participants will learn about one of the most popular tools for brand analysis: the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) matrix.

Measuring Brand Health with a Balanced Scorecard

Next, participants will learn how brands can be evaluated with a balanced scorecard.

Middleton’s Brand Matrix

The final evaluation tool that we will explore is Simon Middleton’s brand matrix, which plots strength, weakness, positivity, and negativity.

Interpreting Evaluation Results

In this session, participants will learn what to do with brand evaluation results. We will also share the six most common signs of brand trouble.

Keeping the Brand Alive

Next, participants will learn about refreshing a brand, re-launching a brand, and re-branding. They will then apply their knowledge to a case study.

Going Beyond the Brand

To wrap up the day, participants will learn about various kinds of brand architecture and brand extension.