A brand development workshop to help grow brands that create value in peoples lives...

Story telling is one of our most powerful inventions.

It’s the way we absorb and understand the world around us. We use story telling to learn and capture past experiences, and to project and plan the future.

Stories are everywhere in culture from music, through to sport and computer games

Brands are stories told through every interaction people have with a company. Some are rich, meaningful and compelling while others can be dry, seem irrelevant or fail to capture people’s attention.

Brands are STORIES

Brand stories come to life through the behaviour of companies in everything that they do.

Some of today’s most exciting and innovative brands are substance brands; companies that have a positive role to play in society or the environment.

But there’s a risk that by focusing on the GOOD things they do in creating social value or reducing environmental impact, they lose sight of being the BEST brand in their category

Substance brands will only be truly successful when they put the needs, attitudes and behaviours of people who aren’t all “ethical consumers” at the heart of their business and focus on creating personal value for people, as well as for the world at large.

…bringing a niche product mainstream i.e. ‘health food’ for the masses.

Innocently one of the UK’s fastest growing companies

The outcome of the workshop are ways to create positive impacts in the lives of your customers – as well as the world at large.

To become recognised not just as a ‘good’ company but as a ‘great’ brand, your customers have to be hardwired into your brand story.

This brand story will guide future actions while making current customer interaction more compelling.

In other words, you’ve got substance in your brand, now its about turning this into greaster commercial success.

...is one day workshop designed to help good companies grow by putting customers at the

heart of your brand

part 1 - writing your story (Morning session)

part 2 – expressing your story (Afternoon session)

A simple two-part structure 2

The workshop is based on the idea that a brand story is no more

complicated than one you could tell in a face to face conversation

ME

MY WORLD

THE WORLD

Part 1 - writing your story

ME To bring the convenience that people expect from fast food with personal service, quality and healthiness, that they would not.

MY WORLD In N out Burger never wants to stop being a neighbourhood restaurant. We seek to make a positive contribution to the communities where we do business and have a special place in the hearts of local people.

THE WORLD Our personal approach means that we favour natural, local and hand-made produce whereever we can. We think keeping it simple can contribute to a better world.

Any compelling story needs to think about who it is being written for. Our starting point for this workshop is creating a well defined customer portrait.

The morning session will focus on writing a brand story against the customer portrait.

The story needs to begin with how you meet people’s everyday needs but then reaches beyond this into creating broader, impacts in peoples lives, their communities and the world at large.

A story that delivers on all of these levels makes for brands that outshine expectations

Example brand story for In-N-Out Burger, a Californian fast food restaurant

Part 2 – expressing your story

Suppliers

Innovation

Employees

Products /Services

Operations

Communications

The afternoon session is about exploring ways that this story can be told through projects, programs and initiatives that touch upon all of the key parts of your business ecosystem.

A story with substance will come to life in a meaningful authentic way when it is told creatively and imaginatively in all areas of your business.

Inside your business Outside your business From London’s greenest taxi company

To London’s BEST taxi company

Example brand behaviour greentomatocars…

The twook - the first taxi company to take bookings by twitter

Time is money – customer get money off their journey if the car is late.

Green hello – not only will they take women in labour to the hospital, they will also plant a tree to celebrate the birth

Who should attend this workshop?

This workshop should be attended by the following people in substance brands:

•  Company management with responsibility for sustainable business growth

•  Executives in charge of brand development and marketing communications

•  Employees with responsibility for CSR or social/environmental initiatives

•  Other employees involved in the operations of the business, such as sales, customer service and HR

What will you get to take away?

You will get a digital story book, just like this, containing the outputs of the workshop. Your very own brand substance handbook.

This will include further thinking and implications of the key ideas that emerge during the session.

It will also include the working up of creative ideas developed on the day or subsequent to the workshop.

Benefits

A strong framework with executable ideas for growing your brand

BRAND BUILDING & CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT ✓ Makes your brand story and sustainability initiatives more relevant to customers ✓ Gives a strategic platform for substance-based initiatives in the future both internally and externally ✓ Creates new tactical opportunities to engage customers in meaningful yet cost effective ways ✓ Helps you compete with larger competitors on the things that customers care about the most.

INTERNAL COHESION ✓ Brings key people together to listen to a number of different perspectives and align to pull in the same direction ✓ Helps align sustainability initiatives with brand initiatives ✓ Provides a basis for engaging employees across the organization in more meaningful ways, growing a passionate and committed team of people to support you as you grow

Email: David@givenlondon.com or Becky@givenlondon.com Call: +44 207 7017 3990 Visit: 34-35 Great Sutton Street, London, EC1V 0DX

To get in touch.