How soon do you forget the things you learned in that oh-so-expensive workshop or seminar you just attended? Weeks or months perhaps? Maybe even days or hours?
And how much of the content did you forget? 10%, 20%, 90%, all of it?
Personally I don’t think it’s fair to the paying customer. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s cheating customers out of their hard earned cash and time. This is why for my last branding/re-branding workshop at the xxxx Institute I wanted to 1) teach them what a brand is quickly and easily, and 2) get them to remember it.
I explored all the usual methods, expensive print outs, follow-up consultations, videos, and then realized I was going about it all wrong. After all what is branding if not the ability to cut through the noise of all other media and thoughts out there with a definite purchase choice that is easily retained – to the point where it’s a default, unconscious, go-to response.
It’s a combination of mnemonics and cognitive shortcuts that propagandists like myself like to use – but in a form I’d never used before: an alter-ego. Here’s how I introduced him.
“Hi, I’m Brandon B’stard. In six months time when you’re all talking about ‘that branding session’, you won’t remember Frank Coles, but you will remember that branding bastard, me. You’ll say:
‘What was his name again?’
‘Brandon B’stard, I think.’
“You’ll ask yourselves, ‘what did he actually teach us about branding?’. And you’ll remember:
‘Something to do with the name, right?’
‘Yeah, that’s right. It had to be short. To the point.’
‘Memorable.’
‘It had to create an emotional reaction.’
Geddit? To the point, memorable and it must have an emotional connection. Just like Brandon. That’s the top-line essence of a brand. There’s a lot more to it than that of course, but if my students remember only that I’ll have done far more than most in helping them understand what the often intangible brand really is.
Not only that. Brandon is slightly cheesier, sleazier and brasher than me and if I go into his character in a session I can say the often unpalatable truths that organisations need to hear but in a way that allows them to like me Frank Coles and love/loathe Brandon.
Brandon makes Branding a hell of a lot of fun. It’s handy that he looks a little like me too.
You can view the top-line elements of the workshop in the Prezi at the top of the page. I used it for the first time for this workshop. It’s an online Powerpoint alternative, and it was really rather good.
It’s the straight-dope folks, as Brandon would probably say.
by 
Writer, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Father.
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