Join us for a unique insight into the world of brand building, as international brand strategist, Alex Marshall from StartsWithA, shows you the core forces at play behind consumer purchase behaviour and how you can leverage these forces to increase the value of your brand (and business).

Session Overview

In the brave new world of belief-driven buying, consumers are increasingly socially conscious, which is reflected in a shift in purchase behaviours. Brands that show human traits aligned by defined values are leading the charge.

There is a reason that big businesses invest so much time and money in their brand: brand building is a tried and tested long-term strategy that increases the perceived value of products, creates differentiation against competitors, increases the value of advertising spend and drives repeat purchase.

However brand building is not only reserved for large companies with deep pockets and huge marketing departments, anybody can lay strong brand foundations by following a few simple steps.

These are the steps we are going to share with you in this session; a combination of education, discussion and interactive exercises which will teach how to harness the full power behind your brand.

Key Takeaways:

An introduction to brand strategy
What makes a good brand and why does it matter?
How the big brands do it
Uncovering brand values
Personifying your brand
Keeping things consistent

About the Speaker

Alex is the head of creative and strategy at specialist brand consultancy, StartsWithA (www.startswitha.co).

He is a seasoned award-winning creative originally from London based in Sydney for the last 6 years, with over 15 years experience leading creative and strategy for a wide range of brands, such as: BMW, Google, Bang & Olufsen, Heineken, Burberry, Intel, Activision, ANZ Stadium, Tourism Fiji, Tourism Iceland, Visit Britain, Changi Airport Group Singapore, Japan National Tourism Organisation, TFE Hotels, Karratha City Council, Bruno Mars, Michael Buble, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Neil Young.

Over the years he’s won numerous awards for creative and strategy, presented at the iAB, been a speaker at VIVID, and a professional mentor to groups of PACE students at Macquarie University as well as a member of the judging panel assessing final year student presentations.

About StartsWithA

StartsWithA is a strategic consultancy that upgrades brands. We work with businesses of all sizes helping to bring coherence to communications and sharpening the way brands present themselves to audiences.

We deal with some of the most challenging communications problems that companies face.

Many businesses face similar challenges with their brand:

- Brand Inconsistency. “We have multiple logos, colours or fonts and they seem to be used differently in each place. We don’t know which is the current or official set we should be using. The brand looks fragmented and diluted.

- Vague/Outdated Guidelines. “We have brand guidelines but there isn’t much detail in them and it hasn’t been updated in a while. This means our marketing team don’t always know what to do and mistakes slip through.”

- Lacking Messaging Clarity. “We find it hard to convey our value proposition in a simple clear way. Each member of the team will give you a different answer if you ask them what we sell. We want to get everyone on the same page.”

- Great Product, Average Brand. “We know we have a great product but our branding just doesn’t back that up right now. If we are going to take on the big players in our sector, we need our brand to feel world-class. We know we can go higher if we focus on our brand.”

- We Don’t Know Our “Why.” “We know what we sell but as a group, we don’t talk about our motivations, company values or unifying mission statement. We need something that really inspires our staff to engage on a deeper level and show clients that we are more than simply what we do.”

- The Brand “Just Evolved.” “Our brand simply evolved out of necessity when we started the company and to date, we haven't really invested that much time or money in doing it properly. We now want to take more of a strategic approach to where it goes in the future.”

If any of these sounds like you, this session will provide valuable information and techniques you can use straight away to get your brand back on the right track.

About Fishburners

Fishburners is much more than a coworking space. We are a not for profit, passionate community of 300+ scalable tech startups that only exists thanks to our amazing sponsors - Google for Startups, UTS, Chartered Accountants, and Jobs for NSW. We are dedicated to inspiring and helping startups get started, grow and succeed. Our goal is to make the hardest thing you’ve ever done easier!

We do this through our different memberships which provide the facilities, resources, learning and development, mentoring, and connections that you need for your idea to come to life and flourish. We also open our doors and host some of the largest, regular events in the Australian startup ecosystem, including our bi-weekly lunch & learn workshops, and Shark Tank-style, Friday night pitches. Member or not, you're welcome to attend and/or get involved! Any questions about memberships or events, please feel free to email events@fishburners.org.