1. Brand Development Tools For Mapping the Gap Between Current position and Future Potential Prepared for: SMULE By Jerome Conlon

2. Brand Planning’s Focus Business Transformation & Growth I have used a wide spectrum of techniques in brand planning positions at Nike, Starbucks, NBC, Internap and with multi-year or extended consulting engagements at Full Sail University, Earth Restoration Industries, and a dozen other clients. The planning tools presented are a sample from my toolkit that have proven useful and effective in generating double and triple digit growth for these clients. These tools working in concert (combined with team engagement processes) make-up a unique brand planning toolkit for unlocking business growth potential. The tools may be used individually or in combination, depending upon the nature of the issues, challenges or opportunity your business faces. The tools are named here but not explained in detail. These tools are designed to free up and channel the native instincts, intelligence, intuition, imagination and creativity of any companies creative workers by connecting them more meaningfully with consumer insights and deep marketplace or category drives.

5. Harnessing Touch Points The space between a company and its consumers is not empty. It’s full of touch points that form customer impressions and brand image. A touch point is any point of contact with a customer that influences and shapes brand experience and image. Any touch point can become critical if it turns into a differentiator or an irritant. A touch point audit assesses the hidden energy behind your brands touch points to understand how to shape them in more appealing ways.

7. Clark/Conlon - Deep Drives What feelings drive brand & product choices Resonant Positioning Themes in the category Role in Life, Consumer Language, Imagery Location of the Sticky or Mythic Threads leading to … Unique, strong & favorable Touch Points Category Context Analysis Uncovers the Interior Landscape driving the category

10. Getting Inside Your Consumers Head Traditional research very often misses the heart of the matter. It is the heart and feelings more than the logical left brain that drive human motives and behavior. The area of research most often overlooked by companies is the interior landscape of consumers – i.e. their world of perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and motives that underlie and precede shifts in behavior. Yet there are very few research companies that use empathy & imagination in concert with deep insight into the interactive field.

12. Circuit Testing Many bigger businesses spend millions annually in market research to limit the risk associated with launching new products, packaging or communications. While external validation is an important part of concept refinement and risk reduction there are fast and cheap internal confirmation approaches such as circuit testing. With Circuit Testing a script or stimulus can be used to drive a process of informal internal reviews. Fast, easy research techniques that probe emotional response should be a part of any fast moving business toolkit. It enables rapid prototyping and iteration of new products or communication ideas.

14. Unconventional SWOT Analysis AHEAD EQUAL BEHIND CRITICAL IMPORTANT NECESSARY COMMUNICATION Impact BRAND Strength PRODUCT Value WEBSITE Engagement Compared to the Best in the Category SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats Analysis Every business needs to learn how to employ a tool that can holistically assess competitiveness in areas of known & hidden drivers. This planning tool is helpful to quickly and easily evaluate how hard your marketing mix elements and hidden energy drivers are driving to differentiate your brand. The value of working with this tool is it empowers you to shift your perspective, scanning the market environment in a new way, which results in unique consumer insights to keep your business ahead of the pack .

15. Crossing the Gap There is often a gap between the current state of the business and its future potential. A clear understanding of the gap is needed to cross the chasm to achieve your potential. Brand Gap Analysis compares insights related to internal beliefs, current positioning & category potential to define the nature of the gap. We then work through concept generation processes to shape these insights to create brand initiatives that deliver on key goals & metrics.

17. For Lifestyle Brands - Where is the Energy Sourced? As information & intelligence becomes the domain of computers, society will place more value on the one human ability that cannot be automated: EMOTION. Imagination, myth, ritual, design and music – all elements in the language of emotion – affect how we work with others and what we buy. Lifestyle Brands will thrive on the basis of the product stories & myths they create. Lifestyle Brands are concerned with finding attractor energy patterns and weaving higher level harmonics around these patterns in the products, services and messages they create. The Ting, served as the source for nourishment, culture and community activities in ancient China & Greece. It was one of the first decorated artifacts of early civilizations.