"Excellent strategic thinking and an action-orientated workshop"
Julie Page
Global Brand Director
William Grant
and Sons
Case study: The Balvenie
William Grant wanted to exploit the growth potential of The Balvenie, but felt the brand lacked a compelling and differentiated positioning.
We were approached to help develop a brand essence framework which could move the brand forward, possibly in a very different way. In particular, the client wanted to unlock the untapped passion that imbued the brand's history and manufacture.
The main part of the project was a brand essence workshop we ran for an extended brand team. As an input to this we conducted a 'brand audit' to unearth unique aspects of the brand in terms of its history, production process and product. We also accessed consumer and market perspectives from existing research. We combined these inputs to develop new insights, bridging consumers' needs and motivations with those unique aspects of the brand.
The workshop was used to build three alternative brand essence framework 'visions', ranging from the safe to the more radical. These were prioritised and, post the workshop, refined further before being used for concept development and testing.
The success of the project was built on the ownership of both the new insights at the heart of the brand, and of the new brand vision. The work also enabled the team to develop a really stretching brand essence framework, but one which was grounded in consumer needs and brand reality. This gave them a sound basis for positioning and communication development.
