The Brand Bowl Tour, themed "Fluid Brands: How Much Change Does a Brand Need?", took participants from Hamburg and Zurich to Vienna. With a guest list packed with brand experts and engaging topics, the Brand Club kicked off the colder months. The speakers shared their own experiences and challenges with transformation and brand change. The subsequent bowls provided the perfect setting for fruitful discussions and lively exchange.
What is the Brand Bowl?
In the Fish Bowl method, a small group of participants in the inner circle (in the „goldfish bowl“) discusses the topic, while the remaining participants in an outer circle observe the discussion.
The moderator, together with the speakers, opens the discussion in the inner circle. One chair remains empty and can be occupied by participants from the outer circle if they wish to contribute to the discussion. Once participants have contributed, they return to the outer circle, freeing up their seat for others.
Hamburg, October 5, 2022 – Christian Prill (Board Member Germany) reports
Brands are constantly evolving, as we all know. That's why it's so important to continuously exchange ideas with branding professionals. To this end, I launched the Brand Bowl format with the Brand Club. The second edition took place in Hamburg on the evening of October 5th, following our premiere in March.
My wonderful speakers, Marion Sygun Eilers (Head of Marketing, celver AG) and Jörg Hausendorf (Head of Strategy and Communication, CDU Hamburg), kicked off the event with presentations on their very different branding systems. Eilers addressed how a medium-sized service company can cultivate employee loyalty in volatile labor markets. In politics, one of the challenges is building a personal brand to increase the likelihood of loyalty. Despite the differences between the sectors, the underlying principle is always the same: building and managing trust. This isn't meant in a moral sense, but rather as a mechanism for reducing complexity.
My 25 guests engaged in a very open discussion, first in the Brand Bowl and later at a set table, about suitable paths and pitfalls in building and managing such relationships of trust. As you can see, the Brand Club is worthwhile!
Zurich, October 6, 2022 – Bastian Schneider (Board Member Switzerland) reports
Strong brands are always evolving. They use change to further develop themselves—and to catapult their business into new realms of opportunity. It's beneficial to have regular opportunities to exchange ideas with brand experts. We can learn a great deal from each other when we come together and talk… Like, for example, on October 6th at Genesis Studio Zurich for the second of three events in the Brand Bowl Tour.
Yes, shaping Experience Excellence within an agile framework is "riding the tiger"... Yes, the brand possesses a great deal of organizational and orienting power for turbulent times... And yes, the metaverse is still light-years away for most brands, and yet somehow already here...
Thanks to the inspiring speakers Sonja Brolle from Swisscom, Christoph Inhelder from Luminator Technology Group, and Paul Wiedmeier from Meta for their input. A special thank you to Piergiorgio Cecco and the team at Genesis Motor Europe for their once again perfect hospitality. We feel very welcome! Thanks also to Peter Lux, Onur Erdogan, and Dominik Streich for their support. And… „We need to implement brand management and change management much more consistently as an integrated unit.“ … thank you to Jessica Bormann from ETH Zurich for the quote of the evening!
Vienna, October 12, 2022 – Oliver Schmitt (Brand Club Managing Director) reports
Brand movements and transformation are also pressing issues in the gastronomy and hotel industry. How traditional brands maintain a balance between conventional practices and the modern world, which demands further development, was discussed and debated at the Brand Bowl in Vienna. The discrepancy between strategic brand management and family-run businesses was also addressed. How much brand change is necessary, and simultaneously possible, to maintain tradition and appeal to modern consumer segments?
The final event of the Brand Bowl Tour Autumn 2022 took place on October 12th at Gasthaus Napoleon in Vienna. Among those present were keynote speakers Anita Paic, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Sacher Hotels, and Irmgard Querfeld, a member of the Brand Club, who generously provided her new restaurant as the venue. It was inspiring to gain insight into her brand management processes.
Following the presentations, lively discussions took place in a bowl format – new perspectives were raised, and old ones revisited. The evening concluded with a convivial gathering over drinks and snacks, sponsored by the Gasthaus Napoleon – a truly successful evening.
