Group brand visioning exercise and team-building retreat experience

¶ … Learning

Our group consisted of 5 members. The exercise that was given to us was about brand visioning. We understood that brand vision had to do with the image of property in the eyes of other. We also learned that the characteristic of a successful brand requires the presence of a strong leader with a clear vision such as Bill Gates of Microsoft and Virgin Atlantic owner Richard Branson.

The discussions about the issues revealed that to create a brand vision we should develop a sense of direction and dream of a brand. The benefit that a brand can provide to the stakeholders over a long period of time is everything about brand visioning.

We worked out that the three main components of brand vision were values, the desired future environment and how the world will be a better place as a consequence of the brand and drawing out the reason of existence of the brand.

A brand also helps to provide a stronger culture bond and creates a sense of commitment for the staff. Brand visioning also helps to create new ideas. In this line we were asked to imagine that we were responsible for the concept of a private travel service for HNWI, celebrities and sports personalities who required ultimate discretion.

We were asked to think of at least 3 emotional qualities that help to communicate our brand to the intended audience and the possible customers. To help us with our endeavor we decided to prepare a visual moodboard. We decided to create a brand name for our brand vision and we named Columbus Luxury Travel Concierge. To give a luxurious color to our brand we decided on a color combination of black and brown and we chose a clear and neat typography.

To prepare the moodboard we cut some images from magazines. The moodbboard represented an exclusive mood for the customers and those who would avail our services. There would be exclusiveness in the travel packages as is evident from the pictures of the celebrities who we intended to serve. Another quality that we wanted to establish was that of secluded holidays. Our aim was to be creative in the creation of the mood board. These aspects represented the character of the brand. The moodboard was later presented pt the rest of the group.

Week 2

In the second week we went to the Bramley Lakes and stayed the weekend there. The aim of the trip was to develop teams and teamwork. The ultimate aim was to help improve performance and become more productive. To this effect we worked hard during the stay. Our days were spent in working together the entire day. Since there were no other people around and since our team stayed the entire days and nights together we developed a strong bond between us. This helped us and our team to know each other better and to overcome conflicts and build trust among the team members. This helped us to increase focus on our work and increase productivity and efficiency. We realized that in a team the most common dysfunctions are absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results. The workshop at Bramley Lakes helped us to overcome these deficiencies in our tem.

Another aspect that we worked upon during our stay was to develop leadership attributes so that at least one of the five of us could take charge and lead the team to success. During our stay and working together we learned that abilities to inspire, encourage, challenge and enable the team members is an apt leader. We discussed this issue also among ourselves to understand which one of us possessed these qualities. The five module program at the Bramley Lakes helped to realize the qualities that are required for a leader and focused upon the individual so that we could develop our own leadership style consistent with our own personal values.

However it was difficult physically as we had to get up early for our daily routine and work through the day. There were a lot of activities that we undertook as is evident from the pictures of our stay at the Bramley Lakes. There were certain activities that replicate real life situations and challenges which this allows teams to explore the team health during times of crisis. Though enjoyable and full of information and experience, it was somewhat tiring as we were faced with tight deadlines. Though such situations were simulated and we knew that they did not have real life bearings, we did our best in order to take maximum advantage from the weekend program. . However the weekend experience helped us to do our project better.

Week 3

The first two-week helped us to know the team better and develop a strong sense of tem and teamwork. In the third week we were asked to decide on a topic that we will work on. Initially we deliberated working with 'Luxury Gadgets'.

After a team brain storming session about the luxury gadget that we wanted to work on for the entire semester, we decided that we should focus on and improve our project and came up with names such as - Apple Watch, iPad, Fitness bracelet, Lighters (zippo), Bosch design, Google Glass, Vertu, Jawbone, Fitbit etc.

However none of the ideas seemed lucrative and we decided to work on the topic of Luxury Experience. After another hard session of brain storming we came up with the idea of working with the topic of Luxurious Weddings because we all thought that it is the most luxurious event that happens in the life of a person and often it only happens once.

Having decided on the topic we started to think about our brand DNA and about how it should be. What qualities should be included in the DNA to create a differentiation for our brand with respect to other wedding planners?

The question that we discussed about service was: "What is it about your service that is distinctive?"

The vision of the brand was also discussed as it communicates the business we are in and what may be possible from undertaking the business. The future aspirations for the company are defined by this aspect of Brand DNA.

Questions were discussed about Brand Essence which essentially communicates the brand's DNA as quickly as possible and helps create an immediate 'gut feel' about the company drawn from their brand values.

Every brand formation has to have some objective for the long-term and that is what we described as Brand Mission. We understood that these are the strategic aims of the company and what we as a company seek to accomplish.

We also discussed the concept of brand value. We understood that it referred to a statement that the company strives to achieve, in terms of performance, values, innovation etc.

After the discussion we deiced the following for our brand DNA.

Brand essence -- love, purity, serenity, flawlessness, magical

Brand Values -- we are creative, innovative and value excellence. We value cultivating on entrepreneur spirit, trust and our passion to be matchable.

Brand Mission -- we are dedicated to preserving exceptional service and extraordinary affairs for our clients. We aim to showcase our professionalism and forwarded approach to special event planning.

Brand Vision -- To nurture a global network of partners and professional relationships, to be a highly reliable firm that raises the standards of the traditional wedding experience

We also discussed about the development of a brand name that would be memorable and we thought about how we can use the name so that it defines the brand. This was also another brain storming session where we discussed names for our brand based on shape such as Chanel, Absolut and Porsche and based on sounds like Bang and Olufsen phone sound, Apple startup chime, Spas and Stores as well as colors like Harrods, Hermes. Ferrari, Veuve, Cliquot, Touch, BMW door, B & O remote, Vertu phones and icons like Chanel C's, Mont Blanc and the Prada triangle.

Ultimately we decided to develop our brand as a luxury wedding planner with a brand name of L'affaire Prive. We also chalked out the unique offering of our brand which we decided to be everything from pre-dinner to post total wedding experience.

We also chalked out competitors in the field and decided on the location of the brand as well as decided that we would work all around the globe to plan and arrange weddings. We also had to decide on the target audience of our brand and after discussion we deiced as a team that out target would be individuals with high net worth and want only the best without worrying about the budget of the event. We also decided that we would hold an event in London to launch the brand in the market.

During this week we attended a seminar as an exercise. In that seminar we needed to choose a brand and answer the questions below for the brand and let our classmates find out what our brand is.

The questions placed were:

If the brand was a colour what colour would it be?

If it was a person -- who would it be?

What house would this brand live in?

If it was a piece of furniture what would it be?

What car would it drive?

If it was a food or drink what would it be like?

If it was an art piece, what would it be?

To answer the questions we choose

Cartier as a luxury brand briver platform

And thus the answers were Color -- Red, Person - Nicole Kidman, Drink -- champagne, Car -- Bentley, Animal -- leopard and House - place Vendome in Paris

All these were put together in the form of a picture which we compiled together. We tried to deliver the essence of our brand through the answers and the pictures. As we had decided we tried to choose the answer that best described class, exclusiveness, quality, resonance and elite.

This exercise let us to work out the best representation in other field for our brands and those that would best define the qualities, values and essence of our brand and what our brand stood for.

Week 4

In this week we attended a lecture where we learned about the relationship between heritage and luxury. We learned that anything that is a heritage has an element of luxury. This we learnt was applicable for places and venues for weddings as well as the settings and the accessories used in a wedding.

Following the seminar we went to the Belstaff store in Bond Street in London for our assignment and learn the relationship of luxury and heritage. We got a good idea about how heritage is linked to luxury.

At the end of the session we, as a group, brainstormed ideas for storytelling for our luxury wedding business and started creating a story for wedding planner.

Week 5

We continued with understanding the relation between heritage and luxury this week.

We did a short brand extension exercise and we also worked within ourselves in the group about our brand name, story and logo.

During this brand extension exercise we decided on choosing Cartier brand which was opening a furniture store. We worked on the idea and brainstormed ideas of how it would be.

We decided that the Color would be red, black and leopard. The big lounge sofas would have leopard face arms while the style of the store and the contents would be classic with red carpets. The store would have high ceiling. We would also have the Cartier love logo (two rings) on the accessories.

We again brain stormed to come with a few names for our wedding business. These were Chloe saal, CharloLe saap, Catherine Saap, L'affaire prive, Tom's weddings, Blanc prive, blanche prive, Alice's house, Alice events, Alice Entertainments etc. in the end we all agreed on coming up with one good name in the weekend and then we will choose it next week to create our story behind the name.

Week 6

In the lecture this week we were introduced to the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. We learned how an individual is motivated in life. Starting with fulfillment of the psychological needs, an individual then tries to attain safety and security, then tries to attain love and belonging followed by attainment of self-esteem and ultimately wants to achieve self-actualization. An individual tends to start meeting the psychological needs and ends with fulfilling self-actualization.

We proposed an advertising campaign for our own project through a media channel that suits our brand DNA and we started by storytelling.

The campaign started with the analysis of the market that we were working in and we did a SWOT analysis of the market. We identified the main aims of the campaign which included creation of brand awareness through the launch event.

We also identified the target audience of the campaign which we worked out. We decided that the campaign would go to private nights, private events, launches and fashion shows. We wanted to talk about private jets for holidays and private dinners with personal shopping. We also decided that the story of Alice King and her mother would be the most important thing to showcase in the campaign. We also wanted to convey our brand essence -- emotions, and Maslow's hierarchy of needs, etc. We also decided that the campaign would be based on story-telling and how Alice King, the daughter of a great designer, kept her poise and confidence herself to become of the greatest.

Week 7

We did Consumer Journey Mapping in our seminars for our luxury wedding business.

The mapping for our brand begins soon after engagement as we research on the dream wedding taking into account what the clients want. We then show them video on our website and ask for more ideas if they have any followed by a period of consultancy over emails and face-to-face meetings. During the meetings we introduce locations, the key partners, themes that are interesting etc. after confirmation of the plan, the actual wedding day preparations begin and actual wedding day events begin. We collect feedback about the service from guests and family members and post the same on social media and conduct PR activities.

Kapferer's luxury brand prism for Alice King Brand

Physique: double ring which signifies love

Personality: Nikole Kidman -- professional, imaginative, perfectionist

Culture: Exclusive and serene

Relationship: I am confident, imaginative, exclusive and available only for the best

Reflection: the rich who do not care about money but want only the best

Week 8

This week we worked on your framework for your website. In order to make the website attractive and alluring, we dwelled about how the landing page should look like, what menu options should there be and where we want your user to go first.

We also had to decide on whether to make it an ecommerce site or a general information site for our brand. We decided that the home page should have logo and pictures. The about us page should have story about Alice King and have brand personality. There would also be pages on vision and mission, contact us page, an events page, inspiration page and a page showcasing the partners of business. We also decided that a visitor should first go to the 'plan your wedding' section.

Week 9

This was the week we presented the paper. The experience for the entire assignment was excellent. The exercise that was given to us was about brand visioning. During the initial week we tried to understand that brand vision had to do with the image of property in the eyes of other. We also learned that the characteristic of a successful brand requires the presence of a strong leader with a clear vision such as Bill Gates of Microsoft and Virgin Atlantic owner Richard Branson.