ASSIGMENT – VISUALIZATION TOOL

Challenge

I work for a mass-market brand that needs to appeal to a broader audience. On top of that it is a low-

involvement brand, where consumers make fast decisions at the point of sale and do not show high

brand loyalty.

However, my goal is to turn the brand into a real “love brand” for consumers. I believe to be a “love

brand” one needs to create relevance for individuals. I am looking for activities that can drive “love

brand” indicators such as online engagements, brand image statements and ultimately sales.

Therefore my challenge is to create specific benefits (and therefore relevance) for consumers and

recognize them in their individual needs while still appealing to a broad audience.

Selection

I selected the Visualization tool to approach my challenge, since I believe that the topic of “love

brand” is not a topic that can be solved through traditional ways of business analysis.

Visualization is a tool to encourage visual thinking (for example through photographs, graphs, videos,

etc.). As such this tool helps you to define the challenge that you would like to solve more specifically

and reach a consolidated view within teams.

On top of that, Phong Scott’s quote in week one resonated with me: “[Visualization] allows us to

think in a nonverbal way. It allows us to access parts of our brain, parts of our creativity, that we

might not normally be using in the course of conversation.”

Especially when it comes to defining what “love brand” really means – which presumably has a lot to

do with soft factors (such as emotions, social circumstances, personal interests, etc.) – I believe that

the tool of Visualization will help us picturing our consumer more specifically in all his characteristics

and will allow the organization to align behind a consolidated view of our consumer looks like and

what a “love brand” is to him.

Application

I applied the tool of Visualization organizing two workshops – one with my team and one with

consumers.

I asked the consumers to bring pictures, graphs, etc. to the workshop that they associated with our

brand and other material that they associated with brands they considered “love brands” for

themselves. We used the material to create a visual brand world on a wall on the meeting room and

drew connections to activities that had resonated with the consumers for other love brands. At the

end of this workshop we had a wall full of visualizations of what our brand currently meant to

consumers and where it needed to go to become a love brand.

We then repeated this exercise with our internal teams and similarly asked them to bring in material

that they associated with our brand currently as well as other material of brands that they

considered love brands. Next we asked them to create the same visualizations on the opposite wall

of the meeting room (the customers’ visualization was still hidden).

Afterwards we revealed the customers’ visualizations and compared them to the internal point of

view. With differently colored text markers we drew connections between the two boards to

highlight differences and commonalities between the internal and external view.

Insight

Using the Visualization tool, helped me realize that our challenge does not only lie in defining  what

“love brand” means for different types of consumers, but also consolidating the consumers’

perception with the internal view of the brand. This was the first time we worked directly with

consumers on brand-related activities.

Therefore, the tool supported us in creating a consolidated and consumer-centric definition of “love

brand” for our brand and on top of that helped us to develop first ideas for activities that could

improve the brand perception.

Furthermore it helped to get the whole internal team behind the reworked definition of “love brand”

and the activities that were developed on the back of that.

I believe that moving forward we will be able to work with much less internal alignments and

discussions and therefore move a lot faster and pilot different activities.

In summary, for me personally Design Thinking is not only a good tool to create innovative,

consumer-centric solutions to challenges, but – maybe most importantly – a great way to align the

organization behind a common goal and therefore move faster and more efficiently into execution.

Approach

When starting this project I also considered using the Storytelling tool instead of Visualization, since

at the core I was trying to create a cause for the brand which is one of the reasons to apply

Storytelling according to Andre Martin (week two).

However, I felt that before creating a cause for the brand and aligning the organization behind it

through Storytelling, we needed to create a more concrete view of our consumer and his needs.

Therefore I chose the Visualization tool to help the internal teams realize the differences between

the internal and external brand perception and to have a specific consumer in mind when moving

forward.

Since everyone in the team was involved from the beginning, I even managed to align the

organization behind a common challenge and narrative in the end and I might use Storytelling in the

future to further flesh out the story and motivate the team in the execution phase.

This course helped me to broaden my understanding of what Design Thinking means and to get a

more specific idea of how to use the different tools to align people around a common goal and

narrative!


ASSIGMENT – VISUALIZATION TOOL Challenge I work for a mass - market brand that needs to appeal to a broader audience . On top of that it is a low- involvement brand , where consumers make fast decisions at the point of sale and do not show high brand loyalty . However , my goal is to turn the brand into a real “ love brand ” for consumers . I believe to be a “ love brand ” one needs to create relevance for individuals . I am looking for activities that can drive “ love brand ” indicators such as online engagements , brand image statements and ultimately sales . Therefore my challenge is to create specific benefits ( and therefore relevance ) for consumers and recognize them in their individual needs while still appealing to a broad audience . Selection I selected the Visualization tool to approach my challenge , since I believe that the topic of “ love brand ” is not a topic that can be solved through traditional ways of business analysis . Visualization is a tool to encourage visual thinking ( for example through photographs , graphs , videos , etc . ) . As such this tool helps you to define the challenge that you would like to solve more specifically and reach a consolidated view within teams . On top of that , Phong Scott ’s quote in week one resonated with me : “ [ Visualization ] allows us to think in a nonverbal way . It allows us to access parts of our brain , parts of our creativity , that we might not normally be using in the course of conversation . ” Especially when it comes to defining what “ love brand ” really means – which presumably has a lot to do with soft factors ( such as emotions , social circumstances , personal interests , etc . ) – I believe that the tool of Visualization will help us picturing our consumer more specifically in all his characteristics and will allow the organization to align behind a consolidated view of our consumer looks like and what a “ love brand ” is to him . Application I applied the tool of Visualization organizing two workshops – one with my team and one with consumers . I asked the consumers to bring pictures , graphs , etc . to the workshop that they associated with our brand and other material that they associated with brands they considered “ love brands ” for themselves . We used the material to create a visual brand world on a wall on the meeting room and drew connections to activities that had resonated with the consumers for other love brands . At the end of this workshop we had a wall full of visualizations of what our brand currently meant to consumers and where it needed to go to become a love brand . We then repeated this exercise with our internal teams and similarly asked them to bring in material that they associated with our brand currently as well as other material of brands that they considered love brands . Next we asked them to create the same visualizations on the opposite wall of the meeting room ( the customers ’ visualization was still hidden ) . Afterwards we revealed the customers ’ visualizations and compared them to the internal point of view . With differently colored text markers we drew connections between the two boards to highlight differences and commonalities between the internal and external view . Insight Using the Visualization tool , helped me realize that our challenge does not only lie in defining what “ love brand ” means for different types of consumers , but also consolidating the consumers ’ perception with the internal view of the brand . This was the first time we worked directly with consumers on brand - related activities . Therefore , the tool supported us in creating a consolidated and consumer - centric definition of “ love brand ” for our brand and on top of that helped us to develop first ideas for activities that could improve the brand perception . Furthermore it helped to get the whole internal team behind the reworked definition of “ love brand ” and the activities that were developed on the back of that . I believe that moving forward we will be able to work with much less internal alignments and discussions and therefore move a lot faster and pilot different activities . In summary , for me personally Design Thinking is not only a good tool to create innovative , consumer - centric solutions to challenges , but – maybe most importantly – a great way to align the organization behind a common goal and therefore move faster and more efficiently into execution . Approach When starting this project I also considered using the Storytelling tool instead of Visualization , since at the core I was trying to create a cause for the brand which is one of the reasons to apply Storytelling according to Andre Martin ( week two ) . However , I felt that before creating a cause for the brand and aligning the organization behind it through Storytelling , we needed to create a more concrete view of our consumer and his needs . Therefore I chose the Visualization tool to help the internal teams realize the differences between the internal and external brand perception and to have a specific consumer in mind when moving forward . Since everyone in the team was involved from the beginning , I even managed to align the organization behind a common challenge and narrative in the end and I might use Storytelling in the future to further flesh out the story and motivate the team in the execution phase . This course helped me to broaden my understanding of what Design Thinking means and to get a more specific idea of how to use the different tools to align people around a common goal and narrative !