During my internship I
had the good fortune to sit in on a meeting that was to
decide the blueprint of one of the company's brand. My company is a cosmetics and
jewellery company and is undergoing some big changes to its branding.
Our
Vice President of Jewellery, Perfumes And Cosmetics was leading these
changes and had experience leading brand blueprint workshops, so she
facilitated the process as the PR, communications and creative people
contributed. The objective was to make a comprehensive brand
blueprint document that would inform PR activities, but also
marketing, creative design, product design, even how it would be
sold.
We
started with more standard business terms such as what the vision,
values and positioning of the product were. But then we started
knuckling down to discuss the belief behind the product, or what it's
essence or promise was.
It
all sounds a little silly, thinking about how a brand sounds, what it
says, what its soul is.
What
surprised me was how useful such a process was. I had a much better
idea of how to write and communicate the brand once I had a better
understanding of what it was.
But
this was high level stuff. Planning a brand and how to communicate is
something I likely wouldn't touch until much later in my career.
Strategic PR as opposed to the technical daily grind of media
releases and social media writing.
It was also a shared process, with key people involved in the communication of the product working together. I think part of the problem with promoting a business or a product is that people have very different ideas about what it is and how it should be done. Sitting down from day one and planning this out will likely help lots with this problem.
Ultimately,
walking out from that meeting I had a much better understanding of
what the new spa range was and what it meant for the business. This would
let me communicate the product to people better in future and plan PR
activities around the product. I think this will result in a much stronger communications strategy overall.
2 comments:
Hi Sara,
So great to be able to read your blog and see how you are going over the past years since we graduated from Rossmoyne Senior High School.
I'd first like to say that I've really enjoyed reading your blogs and have found them very useful and with lots of great additional resources.
You are very lucky to have gotten the opportunity to sit on in such an important meeting! I'm very jealous. It sounds like a massive learning curve and really helped cement what the company and it's vision was which of course helps you in your PR position.
I really like that you have mentioned the importance of communication and 'being on the same page' as one another. Within a business with so many different people this can be a large issue regardless of how great all the ideas collectively are. It not only helps the brand but the inter-communication of staff who will need to work together to succeed.
Thanks again for sharing.
Hope you are well.
Cass
Hi Sara,
How are you? It sounds like you obtained some very hands on skills through your placement. I would imagine there was a lot of pressure in coming up with a brand that encompassed all of the companies’ vision and values. In my experience working with a group is a great way to obtain new perspectives and inspiration but it also can be extremely challenging for everyone to agree upon the same idea. It sounds like you only experienced positive communication with everyone☺
Good luck with you assignment!!
Kait
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