Question

Topic: Branding

Rebranding Brainstorming Session - Need Input!

Posted by sheffron on 7/12/2007 at 9:54 AM ET 25 Points
This is my first time posting. What a great site! I have read some old posts and it has been very helpful. I am in marketing consulting, primarily doing strategy, creative and design. My primary client is a small college in MA.

The college is in the process of developing a strategic marketing plan (unfortunately not complete). However, they want us to begin the process of rebranding and we are having a brainstorming session with the senior management and a few admissions people. We have already conducted an online survey to the entire college (faculty, staff, students) to get their feedback on the college overall, how they would describe the college, their impressions of the existing logo, etc. I will be presenting some of the topline results that I feel are pertinent to our session.

The brainstorming will be small (9-10 ppl). We only have a short amount of time, so I need to keep things focused. Here is what I was planning

- opening/intros
- what is branding/rebranding
- goal of the meeting
- topline results of the survey
- brainstorming of colleges unique position in terms of features and benefits
- conduct several brainstorming activities
- closing/next steps

I have a good idea of how the overall meeting will go, but am looking for specific brainstorming activities that we can do. Because they are essentially a service company, and a small player with many competitors, we need to find ways to differentiate them.

Here are my thoughts: (note: I have not done a large brainstorming in a few years and feel a little rusty, so any help/advice is greatly appreciated).

- one idea was to use post-it notes and give people a few minutes to write down all of the features and benefits that the college offers. Then have them put them on the board as either a feature or benefit, then review them as a group. I thought this would be a good place to start b/c people will not have to initially speak up and participate. What do you think?

- next I wanted to do a mind-mapping activity where we have the group break out into 3 smaller groups. I was thinking of having each one do a different issue... so "in 5 years, how do we want people to describe the college in terms of 1) academics, 2) careers and 3) student poplulation. I want them to idealize how the school could be if we attain all of the goals and objectives they are creating in the strategic plan.

- then I was thinking of the 6 hats... but with the size of our group, maybe just doing 3 (red, yellow and green). I am trying to think of the best topic here. any ideas?

They want to come away with ideas for a new logo (not specifically how it will look, but what impression it will give, how it will feel. They also want to come away with messaging and slogan ideas, although I don't think we will have time in this meeting, we can certainly take some of the ideas and come up with some afterwards.

I am sorry if this is long... just trying to finish up my prep work and would really appreciate any input.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by ilan on 7/12/2007 at 10:28 AM Member
    Your overall thoughts and suggested process aren't bad.
    Just be careful in involving people who are not totally familiar with the enormous influence and meaning of branding.
    Make sure they do not think the logo will be the new brand.
    Emphasise in everything you do that the administrative assistant who answers the phone in the admission dept. is as involved in understanding the brand as the Dean, that the students who work part-time while learning there are also as involved and supportive of the new brand.
    And they all have to know what is the difference between the old brand VS. the new one!
    I feel that your working group is too small. I would make it a bit bigger, and why not go to the full 6 hats process (I'm sure you refer to DeBono...)
    As for the brainstorming session, include all stakeholders in it, staff, academia, students, and even potential students who are not "users" yet, but may consider being one day.
  • Posted by sheffron on 7/12/2007 at 11:14 AM Author
    ilan,

    Thank you for your response! Unfortunately the senior VP decided more or less who was going to attend the meeting. I do feel as though this is a preliminary meeting that is to help establish a buy-into the concept overall. They will go through with the rebranding regardless (new ppl at the helm) but I think it's important to get everyone involved. As you said, everyone from the admins to the senior staff and students.




  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/13/2007 at 11:18 AM Member
    I don't know how much time you have for your session, but in my experience keeping things focused on a single big goal makes sense.

    The people in the meeting don't need to be close to the solution - in fact, better meetings have people from various departments/backgrounds. Different worldviews produce better results.

    Remember that a logo is simply an image. The meaning behind the image is what gives it "life". Making the organization great in the eyes of people who know it is more important than making things "cool".
  • Posted on 7/13/2007 at 5:11 PM Accepted
    If you are frustrated with old brainstorming techniques, why not try some new ones. Invite some energetic, enthusiastic idea generators around a table, and I bet you can come up with 1000 ideas for your next project, if you follow theses tips.

    1. Quantity leads to quality, so don't judge your ideas while you're saying them. Wait until after the brainstorming to do that. Judgment-free spaces lead to the best brainstorms.

    2. Capture your ideas. Write them on paper when they come into your head, but for official capture use an MP3 recorder, and then have someone transcribe the brainstorm.

    3. Good questions are the generators of great ideas. If you are brainstorming for one challenge, try to come up with 10 questions that will generate ideas. For example: "What are ideas for new ways to brainstorm?" and then "What are ideas for tools we can use for brainstorming?" Start with wide or easy questions and funnel down to more specific and difficult questions. If you use this approach you should be able to come up with 100s of ideas.

    4. Go Wide. Take your ideas in different directions. What are different attributes of your question/issue? Attributes could be method, message, material, technology, design, etc. We call these different attributes buckets.

    5. Go deep. Fill those buckets with as many ideas as possible, and get as specific as possible on certain ideas.

    6. Use your surroundings for inspiration. Look at objects, pictures, words, or a combination of the 3 to come up with new ideas.

    7. Use metaphors. Some of the most successful innovations came from metaphors. For example, one of the first teeth-whiteners looked like white out for teeth. "13 going on 30" was "BIG" for girls.

    8. Think: "What would ______ say?"
    Put in organizations or persons, and see what ideas you come up with. For example, "What would Google do?" or "What would Madonna say?"

    9. Think out of this world. Think the impossible and someday it might be probable. In the meantime your impossible ideas can lead to plausible ideas by inspiring you to think outside the box.

    10. Have fun! Make it a game. Make it a competition. Take some time to be silly to be silly. It will get those creative juices flowing.

    BrainReactions is an outside innovation firm in Madison, Wisconsin. We often generate over 1000 ideas in a 2-hr session for our clients, and we always have fun doing it!
  • Posted on 7/13/2007 at 5:15 PM Member
    I like your post-it note idea.

    Also, I think that the more specific questions you can create before the brainstorm the better.

    Such as: What are words for how it feels to attend a prestigious University? What are ways to market products/services to 17 and 18 year olds? What are new technologies we can use to market this school? etc.
  • Posted by sheffron on 7/13/2007 at 9:46 PM Author
    I just want to thank all of you for your feedback and ideas. We had the meeting and it went really well. My main concern was the one very senior person who is all into ROI (rightly so) and not very much into "letting go" and thinking creatively, etc. He tried to refocus on ideas that were "practical" but luckily I was able to get him to lighten up a little and get less concerned with the "how" and thinking about the possibilities.

    The post-it note activity went really well. I asked them each to write down all of the features and benefits that they could think of on post-it notes. It gave everyone a chance to put their thoughts down without having to verbalize it. Then I had two headings on the board for "features" and "benefits" and had everyone place their post-it notes on the board. When they were dine, we read all of them and discussed them as a group. We came up with many more and tried to connect them together. They really got into this activity and got them to start free-flowing more.

    The mid-mapping activity on how they would describe each of the areas (students, academics and networking/careers) in 5 years. After about 10-15 minutes, I had a person from each group draw out their map, and explain it to the entire group and we then brainstormed each of the topics some more. This lead to some new ideas for better utilizing alumni and advisory boards, as well as a goal to make the college more unified. Many new ideas were generated.

    In the end we ran out of time (no big surprise) so we scrapped the last activity and had a broader discussion about messaging. My direct client (VP) was very pleased afterwards, so I was happy.

    I know this is really one of the initial meetings of many more to come. I really enjoy this part of marketing, it's just not that often we get to do it!

    Thank you all for your help. Sorry I didn't assign the points correctly. Guess I still have alot to learn!
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