I'm writing to give you the thinking behind the design of the Vision Ideation session.

Specifically, I'll be addressing the rationale behind each technique we used during the day. But I also want to give you my Eureka! Insight vis- s the overall session approach/philosophy.

As you know, we all wanted the day's exercises to be both "outside the box" enough to engender new ways of thinking, while at the same time (paradoxically) be enough "in the box" to focus on creative challenge at hand. My "Eureka" on how to accomplish these seemingly paradoxical objectives was to create exercises that encouraged participants to think of the brand as a person. By anthropomorphizing the brand, I intuitively felt that participants could identify with the brand in a powerful new way - and gain insights, ideas, and perspectives that they wouldn't arrive at otherwise. The fact that the brand itself also has such a rich heritage of feeling, and empathy was all the more reason to take this approach.

So "Brand as person" was the overarching principle (the vision of the vision, if you will) of the session design. Let me now address the rationale(s) behind each of the day's techniques.

Into/Icebreaker: "Tell us something that has inspired you in your life." Rationale: Since a vision, above all, should be inspiring, this seemed like a natural icebreaker. It fulfilled what I think are the two criteria for a successful icebreaker: 1) that it allow each participant to reveal something personal about themselves to the group as a whole, and 2) that it is somehow relative to the day's task.

Group Ideation

Characteristics of a Vision: As you know, your team had already identified many, if not all, of the qualities/characteristics of a successful vision. It was important, however, I felt to have the group as a whole create/identify the qualities/characteristics of a successful vision in order to promote ownership of the day's outcomes.

Modified (Anthropomorphic) Brainwalking: I started with a modified brainwalk (see how-to's of brainwalking from the accompanying technique sheet) because I wanted everyone to: 1) participate from the get-go, and 2) have a chance to build on other's ideas. I anthropomorphized the brainwalk with the following five questions: 1) What does the brand want to say about itself to the world? 2) What would the brand say it has a genius for? 3) What does the brand wish for? 4) How does the brand want to change the world? 5) What is the brand's vision for itself?

If you like, I can speak with you in greater depth about why I chose these five questions in particular (and the order in which I had the group do them) but suffice it to say, I felt they were all characteristic of - and would ultimately lead to - an effective brand vision.

Day in the Life Exercise: of 1) the Brand, and 2) the Consumer: (See attached rationale for generic Day in the Life exercise). Typically we do "day in the life of a consumer" as a way to generate relevant and important consumer-oriented ideas. It made sense to me to also do a "day in the life of the brand" to expand on the brand-as-person proposition. I placed this exercise in the late morning (as opposed to say the afternoon) because I wanted the participants fairly fresh when they worked through the day in the life.

Brand Personality Profile/Brand Essence: Who are brand's friends? What is Brand afraid of? What is brand's favorite ice cream? Where does brand work? What does brand drive?, etc. I used this technique to get at key words that could be elements of the brand vision - as well as help to define the brand essence. Inherent in this approach, there is a subtle, yet critically important distinction between this and a "conventional" brand essence exercise we use. (i.e. If the brand were: a car, a piece of music, a color, a place, a food, etc.) The key difference, of course, is that in the approach we took, participants were encouraged to think of the brand as a person. (i.e. What car would the brand drive?) versus thinking about "If the brand were a car, what kind of car would brand be?"

Magazine Rip & Rap: It occurred to me that one of the ironies of vision work is that traditionally, there are no visuals associated with a vision. I had us do the magazine rip and rap for three reasons: 1) t add some "visualness" to the vision, 2) to generate some out-of-the-box key world and brand essences and 3) to add stimulation and energy to a typically low-energy part of the day.

Sculpting a Vision: We didn't have time for this exercise, but as a way to get the kinesthetic-inclined participants involved, I brought with me five sets of red, white, blue and yellow Play Doh. I was going to ask teams of four to sculpt a vision for "BRAND" using the Play Doh.

That's about it. As a final piece of background, I'm also faxing you the original mindmap/cluster diagram I created to help me plan the session. As you look at the mindmap, the following quote from Michael Dell of Dell Computer (when talking about his own strategic plan) somehow seems appropriate: "Knowing what to do is easy. It's knowing what not to do that's hard."

Best regards,

Bryan W. Mattimore
President,
The Mattimore Group