10. 2. Brand Idea 1. Insight 3. Sausage Benefits and truths 4. Sizzle Personality 5. Action www.brandgym.com
11. Adam Morgan – the wrap map Source: The Pirate Inside Adam Morgan
12. Brand screenplays: The hero’s journey model Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 the call to adventure Tests allies and enemies The road back Climax Reward (seizing the sword) Ordeal Crisis Approach to inmost cave the ordinary world refusal of the call mentor arrives first threshold Resurrection Return with the elixir Christopher Vogler The writer’s journey
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17. Brand ideas: Getting into the zone Category Brand Culture Audience Inherently interesting & long term Too vague Too broad – eg emotional platform A line not an idea An Ad idea masquerading as a brand idea Too niche Clear Generative Rooted in brand & product Reframes the competition Jim Taylor
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25. Left brain right brain exercise how to do insights without Who are they What do they want? What is going to Attract their interest? Questionnaire results Think of things the brand could do for them
49. When this workshop makes a real change how will you know that it has happened?
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Editor's Notes
Here’s Christopher Vogler’s version – the one he used to rescue the Lion King script among others Notice how similar it is to the other one – just more detail
How is it done? We go to Hollywood! There are lots of books and courses written for aspiring screenplay writers. The great thing about them is that they use formulas and provide lots of examples. According to them all the best films work in exactly the same way. Whether or not this is true it is very useful for doing character development for brands! Firstly we need to recognise that there are different types of story – just as there are different markets. And within these markets the characters have a lot in common – This is the territory of genre. In the workshop format I tend to work with the epic genre where a hero triumphs against opposition to achieve or finish a journey. And because most brands are trying to win over other brands this is a useful genre to work in. You can learn a lot from switching genres to explore what your characters are capable of – I call this genre flipping. Put your character in en epic, then in a western then in a gothic horror movie. Then we start with our lead character using an existing brand character template Thirdly we assemble the cast - very basic characters for the other leading brands in the market. And overcome one of the basic problems of brand character – no reference is made to the competitive context And no reference is made to the category or market where the brand competes. This is why most brand characters/essences are identical to one another. They are generic By developing a cast and talking about genre we split out the character from the competitive environment and the category. 4. Then we recognise the character needs to develop Nobody wants to watch a character who never changes (apart from advertising audiences perhaps??) So in a story the character changes and evolves – we don’t just want to watch action – we expect to see the character change Lastly we come on to plot in stories the character sets out to achieve something or go somewhere and usually has obstacles to overcome and changes to make to get there. Even more important in most stories the character tries to achieve the goal without changing and fails and then in the process of the story they discover the new values and skills they need – with these they go on to get to the goal and end the journey. This is a classic structure
Just a reminder that co-creation is something clients do with customers/prospects ordinary participants. Intermediaries such as researchers – we may pride ourselves on our co-creation skills but we cannot replace the client in the equation.
I refer you to one of my favourite charts – Gerald Zaltman which is where he describes a market as a dialogue – a special kind of conversation – which is why it is the proper place for co-creation to take place. And because so much comes from unconscious processes why intermediaries can be so useful to the process.
Our second take is to develop propositions from the customer point of view The right brain left brain too is a starter to find out what you know or think you know about customers (left brain) and then what you think you might do to tap into the insights you have generated (right brain). Fill in the questionnaire as best you can. You won’t know all answers. It doesn’t matter. Just make them up – but then go and check your facts. Then start to write propositions which will attract their interest. Using results from questionnaire…turn your insights/understandings/assumptions into propositions
