That saying may have worked in the days when branding was synonymous with marketing communications, but now, when a brand makes a promise, people expect it to be kept. Therefore, the brand has become a critical tool for focusing organizational behavior on keeping the promise. To compete effectively in this context, organizations need to view brand experience as an ongoing cycle, as a feedback loop that helps them keep their promise across the touch points.

The opening remarks from MC Will Novosedlik outline a simple mental model for doing just that, a model you can use as a reference throughout the day, and to expand your view of the brand as a business tool.

Your co-MCs for the day are Will Novosedlik and Susan McGibbon. Will and Susan co-founded Chemistry in 2004, a management consultancy that helps companies link brand strategy to organizational performance and customer experience. Will's previous remit was senior consultant to the brand experience/strategy team at Oskar Mobil (now Vodafone), based in Prague, involved with repositioning, internal branding and customer experience, and while there developed a suite of tools and methodologies for internal and external brand experience management. Susan's prior post was Director of TAXI High Beam, the strategic and brand planning group of TAXI Advertising. In that role, she was involved with brand positioning, strategic & communications planning, internal branding and portfolio architecture for clients such as Molson, MINI, Reitmans, NIKE, Pottery Barn, Town Shoes and WestJet.

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Sean Durfy, EVP marketing and sales for WestJet, strategy's Marketer of the Year, shares the gutsy airline's branding success story - inside and out - and provides insight as to what fuels the winning customer-centric culture. Durfy will discuss the ongoing efforts to keep in touch with consumers - and the insights gleaned - which has informed a focus on brand experience that is so genuine, WestJet made it the focal point of the brand communications. Brave, as there's not a lot of brands that could pull off a campaign around extreme customer service and fierce pride of ownership, without the joke being on them.

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Workshop Part 1: Plotting Brand X

:15 minute Networking Break

Workshop Part 2: the Big Reveal

Your customers' requirements and your brand promise create the customers' experience. This exercise will help you evaluate your organization's value propositions from the point-of-view of your customers, by asking you to step outside your brand and collaborate on BrandX plans for categories that are part of a typical consumer's day. The workshop, led by Doug Bolger, Chief L(earn)ing Officer of L(earn)2, along with Chemistry partners Will Novosedlik and Susan McGibbon, is designed to give you the tools to define your customer experience - and what it means to your organization to operationalize your brand strategy. And ultimately, it will help you assess how well your organization is delivering on the brand promise, and what needs to change.

Doug Bolger founded L(earn)2 in 1989, and his programs have delivered results on two important levels: inspiring participants to transform their organizations, and generating a high return on investment when people return and directly apply their new skills with their companies. Doug has designed and delivered learning experiences for organizations such as American Express, CIBC, the Canadian Government, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, Ontario Hydro, Royal Bank, Sprint and USDA.

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Once a brand promise is established, the whole operation must get on board in order to make it ring true for customers. Easier said than done, especially within large operations or those in which departments tend to work in isolation. Often, the company's "brand" might just be an abstract concept for many staff. Hear from some execs who have taken steps - structurally, and strategically - to make sure the organization delivers its brand promise in collaboration with different disciplines.

Moderated by MC Will Novosedlik, Chemistry partner.

Speakers include:
Richard White, Vice President, Brand & Marketing Management, Scotiabank
Scotiabank's brand identity hinges on friendly associates helping frazzled customers "find the money". White's commitment to customer service stems from the insight that consumers often find banking a complicated, unpleasant "necessary evil." This idea led to the decision to position Scotiabank as the simple, helpful choice. After ensuring the organization was aligned around the positioning, the next step was to let people know. The result was the "You're richer than you think. Let us show you how,", push that resonated well with consumers.

But prior to the campaign, White initiated a complete overhaul of the bank's internal incentives program to reward better customer service practices like spending more time with clients. The program, called Applause, saw the annual seven-figure incentives budget entrusted to branch managers to reward their own staff. Previously, the incentives were handled by the head office based strictly on sales. This move also helped improve marketing's relationship with branch staff. The program also includes "Peer-to-Peer" certificates that employees can use to acknowledge each other. Half a million certificates were presented last year alone.

Another initiative spearheaded by White is an internal online service that allows bankers to customize their own marketing materials while maintaining the brand identity. The service helps bankers feel like they have more control.

Keith Moulton, Director of Marketing Communications for Via Rail
Via - "The Human Way to Travel"- has benefited from strongly entrenched management support for customer satisfaction, and Via now has cross-functional teams that bring together execs from finance, procurement and customer service, all geared to building a better customer experience. A reorganization that speaks to the brand experience - not to departments - was undertaken in order to create customer-focused streams, wherein folks from HR to maintenance form a team geared to customer satisfaction accountability. Moulton discusses the strategy and methodology earmarked for making this run smoothly.

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Everything your customer sees and touches reflects on your organization, either positively or negatively. Hear how to use customer research and insight to exploit and optimally manage all aspects of your brand, by mapping the touch points, and conducting a brand experience forensic accounting of any customer interface.

Moderated by change management consultant Alan Kay of The Glasgow Group, who works with companies such as RBC and IBM to help their managers gain insights from the customer perspective and transform the organization’s behaviour towards them.

Speakers include:
Andrew Bridge, Director of Brand and Communications, Virgin Mobile Canada
Virgin came to Canada with mobile plans, asked consumers what they wanted, then came up with a biz model that delivered on that. From the innovative contract-on-packaging approach and youth and convenience-centric retail distribution, to its website and advertising, Virgin Mobile always conducts itself in a slightly wicked manner conducive to delivering the desired brand experience. Bridge is the guy who keeps tabs on how well they're doing, so has a few thoughts to share on the matter.

Scott Allison VP Sales & Marketing, Marriott Hotel
What began as a family-run root beer stand in 1927 is now Marriott International, with over 150,000 associates, 2,600 hotels worldwide and revenue of $10 billion a year. The brand experience is segmented across franchised full-service, select-service, extended-stay and timeshare options. Experiencing rapid growth over the past two decades, amassing new franchisees and loyal customers alike, Marriott Canada is one of the top players in the hotel biz, recognized for exceptional service, and has 600,000 Marriott Reward Members in Canada. This takes a lot of communication and a focus on superior HR resources to keep things consistent, and Allison is the one who knows how to make it so.

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Getting the internal departments on message is only part of the story. Making sure your outside partners are fully aligned with delivering the experience you promised is just as important. How can you optimally choose and manage your ongoing relationships with suppliers - agencies, retail partners, as well as co-promotion tie-in partners - to ensure they are fully engaged with delivering the best brand experience, and a consistent one?

Moderated by Noel O'Dea, President, Director of Strategic & Creative Planning, Target Marketing & Communications, a Newfoundland-based ad agency and brand architecture firm. Target works with clients (and their outside suppliers) - in a true 360° immersion - on everything which touches the customer and shapes perceptions of the brand, from the strategic compass and brand positioning to designing the brand visual cues, communications, and the customer experience itself.

Speakers Include:
Jason Anderson, head of marketing for Xbox Canada
Anderson has forged a new way to work with partners. Prior to the 360 launch, each week all his agency partners met around one table, to ensure everyone was on the same page and all efforts were fully integrated to orchestrate the desired brand experience. In addition to advertising and promotion suppliers, key media, retail and promotional partners also worked seamlessly together to create and deliver the ideal launch. Anderson will share some learning, and inspiration, from his sold-out 360 experience.

Mark Wakefield, Unilever, Marketing Director, Skincare and Deodorants
Dove has carved out a unique brand in the beauty world, one based on building self esteem. It's been so successful that it's spawned more great ideas than there are resources to act upon. Ensuring a consistent Real Beauty experience entails working with partners as diverse as call centres, agencies and associations, such as the National Eating Disorder Centre. Wakefield's other successful franchises, Axe and Degree, have also carved out distinctive brand experiences beyond the shelf. Wakefield will discuss the steps Unilever takes to ensure external partners contribute to delivering a cohesive experience.

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Without buy-in from senior management, the best-laid brand plans can come to naught. How can you get the resources and support you need to bring your brand alive? This session will provide the ammunition you need to get your boss to see branding as a real business tool. Marketing execs who have recently made a case for allocating resources towards improving the brand experience, will share their winning pitch strategy.

Moderated by MC Susan McGibbon.

Speakers include:
Brian Woodland, Director of Communications and strategic partnership support services, Peel School Board
What if you deliver a great experience, but your brand isn't leveraging it? The Peel School Board had a brand identity developed 36 years ago, and while there was some diehard attachment to it, it was time to reevaluate whether a 1970s era "P" was the best the brand could be. Woodland faced a challenge in his mission to build internal momentum to rebrand the system, and create a more unified experience for the public. Schools don't tend to love the center telling them what to do, and spending is also low on school board agendas, so since whole-hearted endorsement was not forthcoming, Woodland took a piece-at-a-time approach to winning buy-in. Woodland will share his learned ways for building consensus across the board.

Tim Guen, Senior Brand Manager, Irving Oil Ltd.
In addition to being a key energy company, Irving has over 500 convenience stores in Eastern Canada and New England, recently rebranded as Bluecanoe. Guen's remit for the last three and a half years has been developing and working on Irving's brand experience in Canada and the U.S., and he's also been the one responsible for championing change through the system, launching its first corporate campaign in 30 years - centred on being a company fuelled by people rather than petroleum - and getting senior level buy-in at a family-run company, where the name is still on the door.

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Parting thoughts on next steps from co-MCs Will Novosedlik & Susan McGibbon.

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