Workshop
Brand Envisioning & Brand Launch
Project Overview
Columbia Lighting manufactures a comprehensive lineup of lighting fixtures featuring commodity, specification and custom products for commercial, institutional and industrial markets. Its century of producing commodity grade products left the internal and external perception of the brand a little stale. Additionally, Columbia’s recent acquisition by Hubbell and relocation from Spokane, WA to Greenville, SC left the company with the appearance of a problem-riddled reputation.
Columbia Lighting
Commercial Indoor Lighting
Re-Branding
Found Awesome
Brand Envisioning Session
We conducted primary and secondary research about Columbia to arrive at the internal and external impressions of the brand and market opportunities. To give the brand a true picture of who they were and who they wanted to be, we assembled a team representative of all the roles within the Columbia brand for a brand envisioning session.
To clearly articulate what sets a brand apart from the competition, and build a story around that in all the deliverables, we conduct a brand envisioning session. These qualitative and quantitative activities are designed to uncover the unique traits of a company. To loosen participants up and tear down some hierarchy, I like to hold these work sessions at a fun offsite location and for Columbia we did it at a minor league baseball field.
The Structure of Envisioning
I have found the best way to break the ice and gently lay down some lofty expectations is to review a few other brands and how they got to their solutions.
Understanding what "value" actually means - to the group of people who represent the lifeblood of a company - makes a huge difference in how you propose they go to market. You can also spot discrepancies in their proposition, and getting everyone rowing the same direction is critical.
Its pretty easy to have eyes glaze over when you are working through a SWOT analysis so I like to introduce the concept then take a break and have a light lunch. The lunch discussion always helps is surprising ways.
Here is where you struggle with an engineers mindset. Artistic people handle qualitative questions very well but the quantitative people can really struggle. I have been surprised many times by their insight when the lightbulb does go off.
Identifying who they were...
During the exercise I always ask what person do you think the company is the most similar to. This group really liked the question and there was a long debate and discussion. The discussion is always more important than the answer. One person mentioned how the old company was like Nolan Ryan and the the group unanimously agreed, each person adding reasons why this was such a good answer.
And who they want to be
There was slightly less consensus – to start with – on who they wanted to be, but after participants got past the “it needs to be an athlete” sticking point, everyone was on the same page. This part of the session played a pivotable role in our design decisions and really helped us arrive at the best solutions for the future of Columbia Lighting.
We are creating change.
Keep your shades. You’ll need them. The future’s still bright. It just won’t cost as much. Even better, it won’t parch the planet. Keen and green, our most energy efficient lighting will give back savings and give back to the planet. You’ll get more than pocket change. You’ll get folding money. This is lighting a direction we are proud to go.
