BRAND STRATEGY / WORKSHOP DESIGN
Brand Strategy Workshop
Challenge
After introducing the term brand strategy to the Houzz design team (marketing, brand, and product), I noticed that being the first time they heard this term, there was no clear understanding of how it could benefit our work.
To help teams understand the importance of having a brand strategy, I designed and conducted an interactive online workshop that allowed the team to see how other companies translate their strategies into design solutions.
Workshop Design
Rather than creating a presentation session, I designed a hands-on learning workshop named "Dating Brands" inspired by dating apps.
The workshop consisted of two sessions in which the design team was split into multidisciplinary groups (marketing, brand, and product) and assigned a competitors' brand.
The first session would focus on the verbal identity of the brands (purpose, value prop, audience, personality, etc.) and the second session on how the verbal identity is translated into visuals.
Part 1:
The Perfect Match
During the first session, the groups did secondary research to complete a dating profile that would represent the brand they were assigned to.
The purpose of this exercise was to imagine the brand as a person and focus on the written strategy that describes its motivations and objectives as a business.
Part 2:
The First Date
On the second session of the workshop, after finalizing the brand dating profiles, the groups were assigned to explore different touchpoints of their assigned brands and identify how they relate to the brand's verbal identity.
The purpose of this exercise was to collect real examples of how the brands talk, look, and act. From product features and marketing pages to social media and advertising campaigns.
Outcome
After the workshop, the design team was able to identify how brands adapt their content, user experience, and design according to their users, touch points, and personality.
In the following weeks, the design team conducted an audit of the current experience and branding of our brands to identify areas of opportunity based on our new brand strategy.