MRS Brand Research Conference

Co-creating a brand positioning in diverse markets

Saul Parker and Esther Garland, Face

research/MRS conference 09.06.11

Tackling a mundane category to make it exciting and relevant

Disrupting a category where everyone says the same thing…

Across markets with markedly

different attitudes to the problem…

With a brand at diverse stages of its evolution

Why not leave it to the experts?

Brands are social entities, and meaning and value are in constant negotiation

The myths of

co-creation

Myth 1: co-creation just reflects cultural norms

Myth 2: consumers can’t ‘do’ revolutionary thinking

Myth 3: consumers are not experts

Myth 4: consumers can ‘do’ purpose but not meaning

Myth 5: co-creation sidelines the creative experts

Our approach

Capitalise on folk

narrative and

symbolism

Keep things non-linear and abstract

Incorporate creative tasks, game playing

and story telling

Inspire disruption and be explicit about rule-breaking

Build in divergence

Collaborate with agency and client experts, local and global

What we learnt

Consumers can teach us that things aren’t black and white

Creative thinking can be taught, and learnt

Disruption isn’t difficult if you build it into the

process

Brand communication is about story-telling

and myth-making

Thanks

saul@facegroup.co.uktwitter.com/sorl

esther@facegroup.co.uktwitter.com/ethep