Treat yourself to a brand thinking day!
This February, we launched the Branding Toolkit for Changemakers to help social entrepreneurs to build stronger brands. Now that the toolkit is published, we love to help you get started with the tools. Of course, any organisation is in a different phase, but whatever stage you are in (whether you just created a concept, found your business model, or if you are scaling), we highly recommend treating yourself (and your team) to half a day of brand thinking!
For this session, we recommend the following four core tools:
Goal Setting
Brand Thinking Canvas 1
Brand Thinking Canvas 2
Action Planning/Action Ranking
Step 1.
Clear your agenda, find a space that relaxes and focuses you, turn off phones, close laptops and doors. Clear wall space. Hang the two Brand Thinking Canvases on the wall next to each other. To the left and the right of the canvases, add an empty flip chart sheet or large writing surface. You should now have four sheets hanging next to each other.
The result of an afternoon of brand thinking.
Step 2.
Use the empty sheet to the left of the Brand Thinking Canvas Part One as the canvas for Goal Setting. Copy the design of the goal setting tool onto the empty sheet. Use the goal setting tool as described in the toolkit.
“Tip: if you are working in a group, choose a moderator to capture ideas on sticky notes. The moderator should check if the ideas are captured properly before pasting it on the canvas. Give the moderator time to write, check and paste, so no ideas get lost while he/she is taking notes.”
Step 3.
Use the Brand Thinking Canvas Part One and Two as described in the toolkit. While working on canvas number one, you will find plenty of ideas for canvas two. Feel free to jot them down as you go so you have a head start on the second canvas.
Step 4.
You've generated a ton of ideas! Make sure you capture them on an acitonable to do list. Finish with capturing your ideas in actions on the empty sheet on the right of the Brand Thinking Canvas Part Two. Copy the Action Planning or Action Ranking Tool outline onto your sheet. The Action Ranking tool helps you to see which ideas have the biggest impact for their efforts, while the action planner helps you to keep track of the actions you need to take in order to build your brand. Make sure to set deadlines for the actions, commit yourself by putting them into your agenda.
Happy branding! Do you have any questions or comments? Start a discussion thread in the facebook group for Toolkit users.
Do you also want to work with the poster sized canvasses? They are part of the limited paper edition Toolkit or the Brand Thinking Canvas Bundle for sale through our partner Stattys, the company that also produces the Business Model Canvasses, Stattys notes and the Innovation Toolbox.