what we offer
We help our clients to achieve success in various ways. Where we start depends on your specific situation and the brand’s areas of opportunity – which we’ll assess together.
strategic planning & brand positioning
What we do to identify a purpose and differentiate your brand to make it more relevant.
If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. And unfortunately, far too many organizations inadvertently take the wrong path by simply following what other brands are doing, whether it’s in alignment with their own values or not. The successful brands, however, understand where they want to go and they use some form of a branding blueprint as a ‘North Star’ to guide them. We call ours the Brand Platform.
Arguably, the most important component of any marketing plan or initiative, the Brand Platform is the collective outcome of a BRANDSPANK strategic session. Developed through a collaborative planning process – with your own leadership team – the Brand Platform includes the identification and creation of your brand’s:
A) Position: how people think of you – as compared to the competition
B) Promise: what people can consistently expect from you
C) Purpose: why you exist beyond making money (Your ‘Why’)
In this highly disrupted era, having a clearly defined Brand Position, Promise, and Purpose is especially key to any organization’s success – whether for ongoing brand direction, recruitment, or even technology selection. It also enables you to effectively articulate your unique value proposition (UVP) to both your external AND internal audiences, alike. And it’s why it’s the first step in our journey for building a brand from the inside out.
internal brand engagement training
What we do to inspire buy-in AND cultivate a culture of collaboration throughout the organization.
As organizations transition in today’s disrupted environment it’s more important than ever to be able to effectively communicate and establish meaningful connections with your internal audience – all the way up to the C-Suite. Because what makes a great brand great is its ability to deliver on the experience at every channel, at all times. And that requires a fully engaged internal team.
Another challenge faced by retail organizations, today, is that some departments (i.e. eCommerce vs. Bricks & Mortar) are inadvertently positioned as competitors to each other, aggressively competing for the same customer. When this happens, companies may find themselves operating more like a dysfunctional family rather than the well-oiled machine they once were.
As strategic retail marketing consultants, we help you to (re)establish a culture of collaboration throughout your organization.
We create more internal engagement for the brand – for both individuals and departments – through a series of collaborative, interactive workshops that incorporate brand-specific strategies and recommendations. The process includes training how to develop AND tell the brand’s story – through in-person experiences and online engagement. Ultimately, it’s how we enable you to inspire buy-in (for the brand’s vision) AND empower your team with the belief of knowing they are the embodiment of your brand.
In addition to creating more internal buy-in for the brand, another positive side-effect of the brand engagement training is that it inspires more innovative thinking throughout the organization.
brand promise activation
What we do to bring your brand’s promise to life through every channel and at every touchpoint.
When it comes to their Brand Promise, Positioning Statement or Tag Line, far too many organizations simply ‘love those words’ and don’t necessarily ‘live those words’. You could say they talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. But the authentic, modern brands, that we all admire and enjoy interacting with, do an exceptional job of both creating a relevant promise AND delivering on it at all consumer touchpoints.
Today, the way a customer interacts with a brand has changed. To retain these customers you need to maintain your relevance AND their trust. Both of which get undermined when a retail organization makes a promise but does not deliver on it… at least not on a consistent or brand-aligned manner.
We help ensure that every user experience – whether in-person, on-site, or through mobile – is in alignment with your brand’s promise AND your customer’s expectation.
It begins with determining which of your current marketing tactics & initiatives are in alignment with the brand’s vision, mission, or purpose… and which aren’t. With this insight we move forward, only, with the existing tactics that support your brand’s promise. For the other areas left vacant due to us choosing to not move forward with them, we – either on our own or in collaboration with your team – develop more brand-relevant versions of those same tactics.
The Innovation & Ideation Workshop
In addition to determining which of the existing tactics are to be deployed, this program also includes a design-thinking session called the The Innovation & Ideation Workshop. Developed specifically for the leadership team, it is a facilitated session that:
- encourages forward-thinking ideas,
- cultivates innovative solution-finding & problem solving, and
- explores ways for integrating future-focused services and products into the brand’s ecosystem.
As an option, BRANDSPANK is able to create prototypes and build-out the ideas that have been co-created within the Innovation & Ideation Workshop. This includes an Into-Action Plan for putting these newly created tactics into play. It’s all part of transforming your organization into a modern brand.
e-commerce 2.0
What we do, using AI technology, to create a more compelling online shopping experience that emulates your brand’s in-store experience.
Regardless of how dynamic or compelling the in-store experience, rarely is it possible for a retailer to capture that unique experience on their website, much less their eCommerce site. While it may feature the same images and adhere to the brand’s graphic standards, the traditional eCommerce platforms are simply incapable of reflecting the brand’s special vibe – that has been cultivated and curated within your store over the years and even decades.
The traditional eCommerce set-up is, in essence, simply an online version of a shopping catalogue–as it offers minimal interactivity or brand-specific experiences… until now, that is. With the advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (Mach), the industry is on the cusp of a new retail era: eCommerce 2.0… or as we prefer to call it Experiential eCommerce. As the name implies, it’s about providing an online shopping experience that mirrors much of what one would come to expect from visiting the physical store version of that brand.
As a leader in experiential retail and consumer behaviour, being on the forefront of the Experiential eCommerce movement is simply a natural progression for us.
Experiential eCommerce
Depending on how committed you are to recreating your brand’s brick & mortar shopping experience in an online format, the Experiential eCommerce site could be built to include any or all of the following:
1) Virtual Flagship
Instead of building more physical stores, leverage the architectural designs of the physical store by creating an interactive VR or 3D rendering/model that the shopper can enter
2) Brand Experience
Emulating the in-store experience online by incorporating a digitized or widgetized version of key activities and interactions from the physical store experience
3) Merchandising & Product Display
Incorporating more compelling product display AND impressive product interaction – via 3D product review
4) Customer Support/Relations & Sales Assistance
Matching the tone and style of the ‘human’ interaction within the store by implementing a next-gen version of chat bot – powered via AI component
A memorable, brand-specific shopping experience has long been considered the future of retail… but now that philosophy has evolved to include the online shopping component as well. Welcome to the evolution of eCommerce.
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