Strategist María Spitaleri has been pioneering the Brand The Change tools and workshop methodology in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the past three years. She also helped me to pilot our online trainers’ programme. As a pioneer, you need a long breath, a good dose of patience, and the willingness to do a lot of hard work. Luckily, María has all of those qualities and then some. After a tough uphill push, we’re now seeing Maria gain the momentum she’s worked so hard for. She’s worked with over 120(!) people/organisations to create strong brand strategies and the feedback on her workshops has been overwhelmingly positive.


I first got to know María when she wrote me a passionate email about her commitment to using her skills for a greater cause, back when I was prototyping our toolkit in 2016. The email was heartfelt, intelligent, and her search for a career of purpose struck a chord with me. We’ve been on a journey together to see how she could bring our methodology into her own process, and to bring the co-created brand process to Argentina. I caught up with her this fall to hear where she stands today.

WHAT DID YOUR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE LOOKED LIKE BEFORE YOU DISCOVERED THE TOOLS AND JOINED THE TRAINERS’ PROGRAMME?

For many years, I played the role of the “expert consultant” who listened to the client, helped him define the problem, did the research, and after some time of creation in solitude (or in teams, but not with the client), delivered a design result. This last phase included a painstaking presentation where I had to lead the client through a whole thinking process that would have taken me weeks or months, expecting his understanding and approval in just a few hours.

One day -almost 10 years ago-, I hesitantly started to explore new ways of thinking and creating and learned new stuff, such as design thinking, creative leadership, entrepreneurship, social innovation, even human connection. I started to develop my own way of doing the work, which included the approach to people I didn’t know but whose work was inspiring for me. I found The Brandling during that exploration process. 

Joining the trainers’ programme was a step towards a major transformation in my professional experience. I must say I’ve learned A LOT during my years as the “expert consultant”. They laid the foundation for what I am as a professional today and I’ll be eternally grateful for them.

But I’m glad I’ve explored new ways of doing the work. And I still do.

The method is not something I apply in a strict way. It is more like a toolbox for me. Some tools help me share the thinking process with the client, making it easier to team up with him (like the canvas). Others, are essential to provoke reflection and uncover deeply rooted ideas about the client’s cause or business (what’s your insight, the ladder, the mission composer, reframing!- that’s a difficult one). Sometimes I use the tools just to arrange the next steps (like the action planner or action ranking). They are the ingredients of a new recipe every time I use them.  

WHAT DOES YOUR PRACTICE LOOK LIKE THESE DAYS?

My process today is a combination of expertise, tools, and thirst to partner and learn, which is unique and different for each project and client. I team up with the client as we go through the process of co-creating. It’s a process where everybody learns from each other.

I deliberately try to promote a space where there are no experts or authorities during the creative process but genuine confidence in everyone’s strengths and backgrounds. Every time is different. More than once, I was told I was like a brand therapist. I’m an advocate for therapy so I think I’m ok with that... :)

CAN YOU SHARE A GREAT WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE?

There are sessions that end up with results that no one had expected. I love when that happens. It’s daring and exciting at the same time. A few months ago, an entrepreneur arrived at a session quite sure that her brand’s primary audience was the vegan community and that the reason she was in business had to do with cruelty in animals. During our session, a wholly different vision was discovered which guided us towards a new brand core, and new audiences.

She was so excited I got 5 emails from her the day after our meeting. And I didn’t complain! It’s quite difficult to see these shifts happen within large organisations. But I’ve seen an entire board of directors celebrate a brand new strategy we came up with as a team, after a deep co-creation process, and I’ve heard someone say (in Spanish):

Siento que nos ordenaron las tripas

In English, this means something like: “I feel my guts have been organized - you’ve brought clarity and order to my deepest emotions and thoughts on our brand”. Having heard that was all the fuel I needed to keep up with the work.  

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE TOOL FROM BTC AND WHY?

The first Brand Thinking Canvas, “Who are you?”. In practice, I use it for different purposes. When explaining the basics of branding at the beginning of workshops, the canvas acts as a snapshot of the brand that presents its component parts as well as the relation between them. During the sessions, it is the route map that guides us through the creation process. Also a board full of empty boxes, in which we organize our thoughts and ideas about our causes and businesses. At the final stages, the canvas is the visualization of that bigger story we have co-created. In a much deeper sense, I find in the canvas a reminder of the search for meaning and coherence within my own work and story.

HOW HAVE YOU MADE THE TOOLS YOUR OWN, OR, WHICH SPECIAL FLAVUR DO YOU ADD TO A WORKSHOP THAT MAKES IT YOURS?

When I found the Brand The Change method, I was seeking a way of provoking reflection about how we influence our world with the businesses we run and the messages we spread with them, in particular within large organizations that I was already working with. Somehow, I found it in the method as I use the tools mostly to provoke that reflection.

Using the tools can be easy when you work with social entrepreneurs or nonprofit organizations that have a cause guiding everything they do.

But it can be tough when you cannot unveil a vision different than ‘maximize shareholders value’. When I brainstorm with clients and generate ideas on their brand cores, that reflection arises and the tools help me spark and frame the discussion.

At times, no conclusion is reached at any point. But the mission is accomplished since we are already having that conversation.

CAN YOU SHARE ONE ‘PRO’ TIP ON TRAINING WITH THE TOOLS?

In my experience, brand thinking is all about the process. And processes require patience. As a perfectionist myself, being patient is a challenging task. I tend to focus on an expected -and of course, perfect- result and forget that it is the journey that is the true builder of our brand stories. There’s no magic without a process, as it is the process that sparks new perspectives and let ideas connect. Processes take time. I need to remind myself -and the team I am working with- about this every time: “Embrace and enjoy the journey, let ourselves explore without judging in advance and give our brand stories the time to develop”.

FIND MARIA ONLINE

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