Branding Strategy

Organic growth represents the biggest challenge facing business today. International expansion, mergers, joint ventures, acquisitions and, in some cases creative accounting, have disguised the underlying challenge of core growth (source: Mercer Consulting Report 2002). The traditional tools of marketing, including differentiation, segmentation and a focus on the 4P's have been found to be inadequate. "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail".

As a consequence many of our traditional industries are being starved of the oxygen of growth as a result of applying these tools in today's changed environment. What is needed is a better understanding of how people make decisions and the role of brand in this context. Organisations need to shift the paradigm from selling to persuading. And to persuade or motivate, they need to understand much more about the contribution the social sciences can make to their brand strategies.

This unique workshop gives participants a new perspective on the role of brand in society.

The workshop brings together inputs from a wide variety of social sciences disciplines: from sociology, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, philosophy, linguistics and the behavioural sciences. Case studies will be introduced and participants will be encouraged to apply their newly acquired learning to solve growth and margin problems.

The objective of our Branding Strategy workshop is to:

1. Equip leaders and managers with new concepts and new tools with which to re-appraise their brand strategies.
2. Understand the contribution of different social science disciplines in persuasion and motivation.

The questions the workshop will address include:

1. What are the most important factors in decision-making?
2. How do you influence, persuade and motivate behaviour?
3. How do you communicate effectively?
4. How do people behave when buying and repeat buying?

The workshop addresses four different but complementary themes:

• The role context plays in decision-making. E.g. decisions are never made without considering the wider social context or their effect on other people.
• The role of metaphor, rhetoric and language in decision-making. E.g. why are some people and arguments more persuasive than others?
• The role of the familiar in the context of the new. E.g. under what circumstances are people prepared to consider and adopt new ideas?
• Behaviour in the context of brand strategy. Why do most loyalty and cross-selling strategies fail to generate the hoped for rewards.