For the third time, the Brand Club met last week in the beautiful Brandnertal valley in Vorarlberg. Together, we left everyday life behind to discuss the topic of "brand," which unites us all, in an inspiring atmosphere, and to get to know like-minded people, their individual understanding of branding, and many interesting new perspectives.
AI empowerment for greater content depth at the summit
As an introduction on Thursday evening, Dieter Tschemernjak, partner at in-manas and Brand Club Insight Knowledge Partner, vividly demonstrated what AI can do to support brand creators in generating value and innovation within companies. With the platform Innovation-verse Within a short time, he generated source-based input reports on our discussion questions as inspiration and preparation for the following day.
„Sailing atmosphere“ in the mountains
On Friday morning, after a hearty breakfast, we took the mountain railway up to a high altitude. At 1400 meters, with a breathtaking mountain panorama as our backdrop, we devoted ourselves to discussing the stimulating discussion points that some of our Brand Club members had prepared.
The value of the brand for a B2B company
The session began with a presentation by Anina Berger, VP of Marketing & Communications at the Swiss Steel Group, who sees great potential in using branding as a management tool to provide guidance in times of constant change. Drawing on her personal professional experience, she posed the question of how this special value and relevance of branding can be conveyed and made tangible to C-level executives. In a productive group setting, various solutions were developed. This process highlighted the need to identify the factors that currently prevent CEOs from recognizing the importance of branding. Based on this understanding, it can then be demonstrated how branding can be leveraged to address their actual challenges and achieve their goals. Furthermore, it is important to draw attention to the broad scope of branding in (customer) communication and to emphasize its function as a crucial narrative for representing and embodying values as a source of identification. It would be beneficial to make the significant contribution of branding to the company's success not only perceptible but also measurable.
„People build and destroy companies“
Following this, Steen Rasmussen, owner of New Way Consulting, illuminated the topic of employer branding from a change management perspective. He emphasized the significant, including financial, importance of investing in the strategic design of change initiatives during times of transformation, as this can retain motivated employees and thus strengthen a company's image and employer brand. Furthermore, he presented his fascinating approach of viewing employees as an energy that must first be retained and then channeled effectively to unleash its full potential.
Start with the actor group analysis
This was followed by a presentation from Kai Henning Christiansen, Chief Growth Officer at Sparrks, who explained his personal approach to using branding as a tool for organizational development. The focus here is on dialogue. To establish mutual understanding and trust among the various stakeholder groups as an important basis for discussion, Kai advocates for a preliminary stakeholder and organizational analysis. Subsequently, a phase model he developed can provide guidance for collaboratively defining a brand. His "Muscleboard," divided into four parts, serves as a tool for exploring the essence and impact of a brand through targeted reflection on factors such as emotion, quality, character, and presentation.
Yes to responsibility – but what exactly does that mean?!
The seminar day concluded with a discussion on the Brand Club's annual theme for 2024: BRAND AND RESPONSIBILITY. Moderated by Michael van Droffelaar, founder of the waveme creative hub and Brand Club Ambassador for Hamburg, the topic of "Corporate Political Responsibility" was discussed in our established bowl format, sparking lively debate. Is taking responsibility in a time of increasing populism and extremism merely an option for companies, or is it a necessity? Here, the potential of brands to offer guidance and clearly communicate values in the face of people's exhaustion during times of crisis became evident once again.
Happy ending with sunshine
Despite the initially very mixed mountain weather, we were able to conclude our community event with a sunny valley hike and a delicious dinner. We thank our speakers for their inspiring presentations and all participants for the stimulating discussions, lively exchange, and interesting contributions, and we look forward to next year!