Serious Play Forum

[Alina Pirvu]

Hello everyone,

I’ve had the chance to organize a short workshop that used the Lego Serious Play method several weeks ago with Per’s help and since then I’m highly interested in LSP.

I am currently researching the impact of co-creation upon branding, and particularly social enterprise branding, and I am investigating the potential tools that can be used in the co-creation process.

Therefore I would like to kindly ask your opinion upon the following issues:
1. Can LSP be used for building a brand?
2. Which would be the main parts in running a workshop on building a brand strategy?
3. Who should participate in such workshop: designers, brand owners, end consumer, etc?
4. Are there any good examples of using LSP for branding strategy?

Looking forward to your answers!
Thank you,
Alina

[Eli De Friend]

Hi Alina,
I can’t think of a client, off the top of the hat, who has completely developed a brand using LSP. At the University of Lugano (or Università della Svizzera Italiana) LSP has been a used in the Masters in Corporate Communications programme as an example of a projective method for developing a corporate identity or corporate brand. My guess is that you would need some other tools beyond the metaphors, stories and SGPs before coming up with a brand.
One of the first LSP applications was Identity, so you can imagine that many clients have incorporated the output of their identity workshops in their branding. But LSP A-Z? I doubt it. We also used an LSP-enabled module in a corporate change programme for Swisscom’s Brand Experience division. Here we were helping Product Managers to understand how to become Custom Experience Designers. This was clearly a programme whose objective was to change the Swisscom brand from being Techno-centric to Human-centric. But again, this process incorporated many other techniques, approaches, methodologies, including Blue Ocean, Deep Dive, De Bono’s hats, graphic design for new logos, a complete remodelling of one of Swisscom’s most central buildings, etc.

Good luck with your research.

Eli

[Alina Pirvu]

Hi Eli,

Thank you for your answer. Indeed, I agree that to LSP is a very strong tool to a brand in gaining blue sky ideas, prototyping services, brand architecture and so on, but it needs other tools and processes.

From your experience, what are the criteria to determine which tools would best suit the collaborative process for a brand in reshaping and reviving it? Does it start with a better understanding of the core issue to be solved and builds up on that?

Regards,
Alina

[Eli De Friend]

Hmmm. I’m not a Mar/Comm/PR consultant, so I would never profess to advise on specific criteria for that vertical segment. As a management consultant, I would be looking at:
– the “real” motivation of the key stakeholders and the potential influence of other stakeholders
– the degree of complexity of the issues
– the organisational culture
– existing decision-making processes
– existing branding approaches that are already accepted within the organisation
– the attitude of the PR consultants who are mandated to assist the client in the process
– approaches used by the competition
– market trends…. etc.

One component of Swisscom’s strategy has been to provide free technological strategy consulting to it’s corporate clients, thereby acquiring very valuable information about the clients’ business strategies, which gives the firm a head start in developing the products/services and perhaps its own brand image to satisfy the clients in the future.

Another Swiss firm, that manufactures aromas, goes a step further and uses a process of mega-trend identification and realisation, basically making the future real today, pre-empting and proactively defining market trends, giving itself a five-year window to develop the products and branding of the future.

These are just a couple of examples of companies going beyond internal collaboraton and reaching out to external actors in the complex process of innovation.

However, if your client has a very autocratic VP of marketing, who believes he/she knows best, in my opinion, there is really no point in trying anything collaborative at all.

Sorry this was not a great answer, but I believe it is important to share whatever concerns and insights we all have within the community.

All the best,

Eli

[Author]

Posts