Facilitating Brand Strategy Workshops: Begin with Insights, Ideology, Intention

Insights. Ideology. Intention. These are three crucial components of a successful brand strategy. Set yourself up for success by making sure all of these components are part of your next brand strategy workshop.

Insights: What is that penetrating, discerning understanding about consumer motivations that will unlock opportunity for this brand?  If you don’t know the answer to this question, you need to seek it out prior to having your brand strategy discussions.  Identifying and understanding the key consumer insight that motivates your primary target audience  will ensure that you create a relevant brand promise. Without an insight, your promise is simply a guess as to what will motivate your audience to purchase your brand.

Ideology: Your company’s or division’s core ideology describes why you exist (core purpose), how you operate (core values) and what you are striving for (long-term goal and envisioned future).  Core ideology directly impacts your brand strategy. If your brand does not reflect your core ideology your company will be perceived as disconnected from the brand and in conflict with it (think of companies that don’t deliver on their brand promises . . . for example, some airlines & some cable companies). In fact, you may be percieved as trying to defraud your consumer. If not that severe, you will likely disenfranchise them.  With a clearly delineated and embodied core ideology, your brand strategy will reflect your purpose and values and help you to reach your goal.

Intention:  With your insights and ideology in place, you are ready to begin your work on the brand strategy. This work must be conducted with clarity and intention.  Getting to clarity and intention requires sacrifice. Your team must be aware from the beginning that a strong brand strategy is the best choice between many options — it’s essential to make choices to maintain focus and clarity. Remember that clear focus on your primary target audience will help you create a brand strategy that hits the bulls-eye and is meaningful and relevant.  Without sacrifice and intention your strategy will become diluted and will likely not be meaningful to anyone!

Your brand strategy influences and, in some cases, directs your communications strategy, product strategy and customer experience strategy.  A well thought out brand strategy that ties into your target audience insights and builds on your core ideology will be enduring, relevant and motivating both internally and externally!

Cindy Diamond — President, Chief Strategist and Facilitator

IGNiTE . . . fueling creativity and innovation

Life Lessons . . try these in the boardroom!

I just can’t resist . . . I found this list of “Life Lesson” written by my daughter when she was 11 years old. I’m inspired by how relevant (and adoreable) they are!  Try some of these as “rules of engagement” at your next meeting or team building session!

 

Life Lessons

By Michaela Diamond, 11 years old

1. I’ve learned that it’s good to get your work done on time.

2. I’ve learned that every little thing you do changes your life.

3. I’ve learned that it feels good to be nice.

4. Be nice to your friends or you won’t have any friends.

5. Make sure you save something you need to save!!!

6. Listen to the teacher when she’s talking.

7. Never cut your own hair.

8. Don’t step back off a large step when a dog scares you.

9. Have fun when you play.

10. Don’t let your sister or brother bother you.

11. Pets are good friends.

12. Listen the first time your parents tell you to do something.

13. Don’t hurt your back carrying your backpack.

14. Be careful when playing.

15. You can learn from your mistakes.

Hope this made you smile !

Cindy Diamond

Taking the “no” out of Innovation

Individual credibility or position can have a real influence on the tenor of an idea generation session. When I’m facilitating, I am acutely aware of managing the energy in the group — particularly when it comes to managing group members reactions to ideas. I employ a few process rules that help:

1. No back story – no stories on how an idea evolved, just the idea
2. Every idea has merit — treat every idea with respect
3. Look for what’s good in every idea and build on that to come up with a new idea

These process rules help in separating an idea from the person delivering the idea. However, it’s not unusual for certain people in the group to carry more credibility than others. Their ideas often get more consideration than the ideas of participants who lack credibility due to seniority, negative attitude, or past performance.  These participants are often shut down by the group or have their ideas dismissed without consideration.

Here are 3 useful tips to avoid having our ideas discarded because of how they are delivered. As facilitators, we can share these tips with our groups as another way to create a positive setting for idea generation, discussion and debate.  (I’m going to ignore #2 in order to acknowledge my source!  These ideas come from Mike Brown of Brainzooming):

1. Don’t Telegraph Your Comments – People often begin a challenge by clearly signaling through their body language (confrontational), tone (frustrated or agitated), or words (but, don’t, can’t, instead, etc.) they’re about to challenge something. Here’s an alternative – stop doing those things! Think hopefully about the conversation, looking for points of agreement; this will help modify your body language and tone. Then simply start building on the other person’s idea, even modifying it, without allowing your words and attitude to suggest you disagree.
2. Conceal Your Sources – People are also often very sincere in saying where an idea comes from, even when it really doesn’t matter. This happens frequently with new hires who trot out ideas prefaced by, “Here’s what we did at my old company.” The typical reaction? “If your old company is so great, why aren’t you still there?” In contrast, introduce a potentially challenging idea without any attribution, foregoing even claiming your own ideas. By allowing an idea to be introduced on its own, you can start getting consideration for it without any negative baggage its original source may create.
3. Give Your Ideas Away – What might be viewed as a challenging point of view from you may be seen as completely innocuous when coming from someone else in the group. The key here is to be comfortable with sharing an idea with a receptive party, letting them build and modify the idea, and then confidently allowing them to introduce the idea if it means a higher likelihood of successful adoption.

Try these three, and you’ll be a lot less likely to get shut down, have your ideas shut out or be labeled as “negative.”

 

Cindy Diamond, President and Chief Strategist

IGNiTE . .. fueling creativity and innovation

Facilitating Consumer Insights Workshops

One of the most difficult tasks for marketing teams to do without a facilitator is develop consumer insights.  I’ve seen “insights” that range from purely self-serving (”Mom wants a more healthy popcorn for herself”) to insights that are simply a finding from the research (”Teens want salty snacks to satisfy afterschool hunger”).  Getting to real insights is difficult because brand teams are so close to their brands and find it difficult to take a more holistic perspective of the target audience.   One thing, however, is certain: a penetrating insight into consumer motivations can help successfully seed a product or brand in the minds of target consumers and successfully motivate purchase.

In my insights workshops I often steer clients away from two common mistakes in developing insights: the first mistake is articulating a “consumer insight” that is simply an observation easily addressed or solved by the product or service offered by your company.  Most often, these self-serving statements are not insightful or relevant to the target audience.  The second mistake is looking at consumer research as a place to gather insights. Research findings are not insights. They are information that can be used by marketers to develop a deeper consumer understanding which can lead to insights when combined with other relevant pieces of information.

So what constitutes a consumer insight and how do you get to them through the facilitative process? A consumer insight can be defined as:

 ”A penetrating, discerning understanding about consumer motivations that unlocks opportunity”

A true insight is actually well, insightful! The discovery of a new insight triggers an “ah ha!” moment.  It requires using multiple windows into the consumer, including observation, product trials, creative techniques, and trend studies along with more traditional qualitative and quantitative methods. Together this information allows marketers to view consumer behavior from multiple angles and look for and make new connections to the brand. It’s an active process that makes for a great facilitated workshop. 

The facilitated process follows these three steps (I will lay out the facilitated process in more detail in another post as this is getting rather long!):

1. Identify the specific question about the consumer that needs to be answered – such as “What would motivate teenagers to consume  more Coke?”
2. Seek out and review as a team relevant information from your research, observations, trends, competitive data etc. that address the key question.
3. Dig deep and work to develop the penetrating discovery or “insight” from this information.

Examples of powerful insights that have led to successful business building initiatives:

• “Today information is the key to power and freedom”    –  Microsoft
• “My pets deserve my love more than people because they are more devoted to me.” — Sheba Pet Food
• “In a world that is hectic and stressful, consumers need an opportunity to relax and have a break.” — Starbucks

Insights should be checked against the following list of criteria:

• Is it relevant to the target audience?
• Is it enduring (does it have the power to remain relevant over time)?
• Is it inspiring (is the team excited by the insight? does it inspire different applications)?

Marketing teams need good facilitators to steer them from information and findings to insight. It is difficult for marketers who are close to their brands to see the consumer and how your brand fits into her/his life from a broader, more holistic perspective.  A facilitator can help teams to get to insights by asking “WHY is that important?”  when looking at key findings (keep asking “WHY?” until insights emerge).

True discovery comes from looking at what everyone else looks at but seeing what no one else sees (even if it’s right in front of them)!

Cindy Diamond, Founder and President IGNiTe

Facilitator and Chief Marketing Strategist

What can corporate America learn from the Special Olympics?

This weekend I had the good fortune to be in the audience cheering on the figure skaters at a Special Olympics ice skating competition. My 15-year old daughter, Melissa, is a volunteer assistant coach for the team and I went to watch the competition to support her work. It was a very emotional experience for me to watch these skaters — young and old — with autism or down syndrome or other special needs — bravely take the ice to compete.  What I witnessed at this event is so relevant to all of our lives — if only we could take  a few of these lessons with us into our jobs and our everyday lives.

Lesson #1: Let me win but if I can not win let me be brave in the attempt (this is the Special Olympics motto).

These skaters struggle with coordination and other issues out there on the ice. They are not always steady or sure of themselves, yet they bravely get out and do the best job they can. Win or lose, they are proud of the work they do and are proud of the all the competition winners amongst them. How can we not see the corallary here to our jobs? Our co-workers are our teammates and often our competitors. We can cheer them on and watch them win and still bravely do the best job we can do — with a smile and good will.

Lesson #2: Look for and appreciate the talents in others and seek places where their strengths can benefit the whole.

Too often we look for and highlight the faults in people. We watch a presentation only to seek out the flaws and faults. We hear a new idea and quickly find a reason why it won’t work.  We gossip about what’s wrong with others. Think how different the world would be if we all responded first to what’s good about a person, their work and their ideas.

Lesson #3: Act with compassion

I think if every one of us was raising a special needs child, the world would be a better place! The parents of these skaters have all become a close knit family sewn together in their quest for support in providing a good life for their children.  They are the most compassionate, grateful and optimistic group of people. They have been taught to be truly compassionate by their own children. Compassion requires seeing the whole person and seeking to understand their position and their needs and finding a way to fulfill them.  Compassion is something that, as a facilitator, I always try to bring into my meetings because by seeking to understand others and fulfill their needs we find win/win solutions.

I know this isn’t my usual blog post but I felt compelled to share this amazing experience with my readers and hope that you, too, can benefit from it!

Cindy Diamond

IGNiTE . . . fueling creativity and innovation!

My daugther, Melissa with her Special Skater, David

Core Values: An essential part of core ideology or not?

The most misunderstood, misguided and misrepresented part of an organization’s core ideology is often the core values. These values, which often give lip service to such things as: “We respect each other as equals,” “We seek diversity and diverse points of view,” etc. rarely manifest themselves within the organization they are written for. Why? For one, exactly because they are “written for” an organization and not with the input of the employees but, equally important, it’s because the management team is not equipped with the tools, the coaching and the know-how to help all members of the organization live these values day in and day out.

Why do core values matter anyway? If they permeate an organization, core values can help with recruiting employees, retaining employees, attracting and retaining new customers and creating customer loyalty. It’s impossible to ignore the importance of these values. It must be said that every company HAS core values — they just may not be the ones the senior leadership team created!

There is no better example of a company living it’s core values than Starbucks.  For anyone, facilitator or leader, attempting to create a set of core values and infuse them into the organization, I recommend reading the little book called  How Starbucks Saved My Life, by Michael Gates Gill.  This book provides a rare glimpse into a company that is actually living it’s values. I was amazed (and I think you will be to!) at how successfully Starbucks has created a culture of respect for each other, listening, and attention to the customer by bringing their core values to life in each and every store.

So, how does a facilitator or company/organization leader help leadership teams live their core values?  Here’s a short list of tips I have learned along the way:

1) Gather input from the organization. Use an anonymous survey tool to find out where things are really at and how far away you are from the values you would like your organization to embody.

2) For each of the values, determine how committed the leadership team is to actually “living” that value day in and day out. Articulate what it means to “live” the value.  Set aside those values that not everyone is willing to commit to.

3) Articulate what the organization will look like when all the values are being actively “lived” by all in the organization. Create a vivid description using picture and words to communicate your vision to the organization

4) Create and implement a communications plan so that every single person within the organization knows how they should live each of the values and what that means for their everyday interactions with co-workers, leadership and customers.

5) Set up a consistent reward and staffing structure.  Reward ALL employees based on how effectively they convey the organization’s values. Hire only those people whose own values are congruent with the organizations.

This little book, How Starbucks Saved My Life, is a powerful depiction of the impact an organizations values can have on both the success of the overall entity and, even more importantly, the happiness of the employees who are out on the line serving customers.

Click on this link to see the core values of another successful company:  Zappos

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/21/news/companies/obrien_zappos10.fortune/index.htm

Cindy Diamond

IGNiTE . . . fueling creativity and innovation

Facilitating Team Building in a Time of Uncertainty

Most of today’s organizations function in a team setting. These may be cross functional or functional internal teams, client service teams made from internal and external service providers, or other member compositions.  Stability is an essential component to the success of these teams. Why? Because teams go through many stages before they become high performing — namely:  forming, storming, norming and finally, performing.  Stabilty makes teams more efficient and effective at doing their jobs.

In today’s recessionary, lay-off laden environment, stability is simply not a reality. Does this mean organizations are going to suffer from less efficient and less effective teams? Most likely. Now, more than ever, organizational leadership must prioritize team building amongst it’s highest goals or risk suffering an even greater setback from the loss of team members and the environment of uncertainty we are in.

Why team building? Because trust has suffered a great blow in organizations and this hinders cooperation amongst teams that have been newly formed or have lost or changed members. Organized team building sessions, with the assistance and direction of an objective, outside facilitator,  helps team members build trust with each other. Specific trust building activities, such as sharing personal histories, viewingthe situation from each others perspectives and understanding motivations leads to an increase in cooperation, admiration, and, ultimately, trust. Once this trust has been established, teams can develop shared goals based on the passions of individual team members.  Cooperative, trusting team members will then be able to work together to meet the team goals and help each other embrace their passions and contribute their best to the team.

Teams that spend a lot of time “forming” and/or “storming” typically don’t move the needle on accomplishments as quickly as teams that are high performing. The essential difference between these stages is trust and, as a by product, cooperation and shared goals.  The relatively small investment of time and money it takes to bring in a facilitator and set aside a few days a quarter for team building will pay back multiple times in the efficiency realized by teams that work well together and have developed a team perspective on where they want to go and how to get there. And, after all, in the end it’s all about the people!

Cindy Diamond, Founder and CEO

IGNiTE, facilitating strategy and innovation

Developing a Vision for Your Organization: A Great Team Building Experience

building-your-companys-vision-overview-of-key-concepts3 (link to a Powerpoint presentation)

Of all the workshops and ideations sessions I facilitate,  I believe the best team building experiences are created through my vision workshops. Both new and existing teams benefit immensely from this experience. The most essential piece for the success of the workshop is the participation of senior leadership. If the senior leaders and present and are openly and honestly seeking the input of the team these sessions are wonderful bonding experiences for all involved.

I based my vision workshops off of the the HBR article on vision written by James Collins and Jerry Porras titled “Building Your Company’s Vision.”   They introduce the idea that vision is made up of “core ideology” and an ”envisioned future.” When developing “core ideology,” which consists of core values and core purpose, it’s essential that the group that does the actual work in the organization has input into the ideology. Core values must reflect the values of the people who come to do the work every day; if they do not, the values are irrelevant! The core purpose articulates the reason the organization exists. The people  who come to work at your organization everyday should have a passion for doing that work. 

The “envisioned future,” which consists of a BIG goal and a vivid description of that goal help the group paint a picture of what the future looks like. It creates alignment within the group and has everyone marching toward the same goal.  Simply put, if you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter how you get there! The envisioned future gets everyone onto the same path so that efforts are synergystic and effective in moving the organization forward.

 I have attached a short Powerpoint presentation that summarizes the key concepts from the HBR article. I have added some additional examples for non-profits. I have found this way of thinking about vision to be just as effective for non-profit organizations as it is for corporations.

Please feel free to send any questions!

Cindy Diamond

President and CEO Diamond Marketing Solutions / IGNiTE

A strategy, innovation and creativity consulting firm

Brainstorming: Finding the Next Big Idea

Finding the Next Big Idea (link to presentation)

Last week I went to Palm Beach, FL to present at the CASRO conference for market research professionals. I presented on . . . you guessed it! . . . “Brainstorming: Finding the Next Big Idea.” My goal was to provide some structure and process tools to assist these professionals in facilitating innvoation sessions with their internal teams or client teams. I’ve attached the presentation so you can view it if you’re interested. Feel free to post questions or comments and I will respond. I received some great questions from the audience at CASRO and I’m looking forward to your questions too! I hope you find the presentation useful (the link is at the top of this post).

Cindy Diamond

Diamond Marketing Solutions / IGNiTE

Principal, Strategist & Facilitator

Fueling Creativity and Innovation

Facilitating Team Building for New Teams

Facilitating team building sessions is a hot topic right now!  In the age of tele-commuting, video conferencing, webinars and e-mail, teams are often decentralized and getting less face-to-face time. That, of course, makes the time spent together more valuable than ever before. If the team is not yet in a high performing mode, it’s essential that a portion of that face-to-face time is spent building the foundational elements of the team — trust being the most essential, followed by shared processes to resolve conflict, clear accountability and shared commitment to the team and the team’s objectives.  

 

I recently facilitated a team building session with a large group that shares accountability for increasing the reading standards in the state of Minnesota.  This is a new team that will meet most often in sub-groups and only infrequently as a large team. The team building exercises I’ll discuss in this post can be adapted to a variety of group sizes and team situations.

Because this was a large group, we began by dividing up into smaller teams. We grouped participants by regions as they will most often be interacting with their regional team members. Regional teams were grouped at round tables and given the following simple warm up as the opening trust building exercise:

Go around the table and share the following with your group. You have 2 minutes to talk about yourself!

• Name
• What is your role with the organization?
• What were you doing before you became active with this organization?
• How so you view your role on the regional team?
• What are you most excited about for the upcoming year (anything at all!)

During this opening exercise, team members had the opportunity to see each other as individuals. The next two exercises set the stage for team members to see how they as individuals come together to form a team. For this next exercise, each table of participants was given a picture of a bunch of jigsaw puzzle pieces. They were asked to create a list of all the ways in which the jigsaw puzzle is similar to the composition and operation of a high-performance organization (this exercise was adapted from an exercise in the book “Even More Games Trainers Play by Scannell and Newstrom).  Once all the teams had completed their lists (set a time limit!) we went around and collected the ideas from each table in a round robin style (each table contributes one idea and then on to the next table).  Here are the types of responses we got:

• There are boundaries
• Each pieces has a role in the solution
• Pieces are highly interconnected
• The whole is greater than the sum of the parts
• etc. (these teams came up with over 30 unique responses!)

This opened up the floor for a great discussion of how to work together more effectively.

The final exercise was created to help team members understand their individual role on the team and the roles of other team members. Role confusion is one of the largest sources of conflict for all teams – but particularly for new teams. For this exercise, we created in advance a number of scenarios in which role confusion is likely to occur (these were based on prior experiences). The regional teams went through each of the scenarios and discussed how they would resolve each of the scenarios. Any scenarios that the teams could not resolve in their small teams were discussed during the debrief with the larger group. After the debrief, each sub-team drafted role definitions for each of their team members.

The team building session I describe here was a 2 hour session. It had the right amount of energy and movement to keep participants engaged and energetic. By the end of the 2 hours participants understood the benefits of working together with their team, felt a higher degree of comfort with their role on the team, and had begun to build trust with their new team members.

Cindy Diamond, Principal and Founder

Diamond Marketing Solutions / Ignite

Fueling Creativity and Innovation