The Workshops
Each 3-hour workshop is targeted either to business leaders or to branding professionals. The Intro to New Branding workshop will be most useful to business leaders seeking to gain a better understanding of how to marry strategy and design to build a strong brand. The second workshop, Radical Differentiation, will be useful to experienced brand managers and creative professionals seeking to communicate a brand message to its target audience.

Each workshop is $100 and initial spaces are reserved for an “invitation-only” audience. Once these individuals have had an opportunity to respond, the remaining seats will be offered to the public. If you are interested in being on the standby list, please contact Paul Rustand immediately at info@widgetsandstone.com or 266-2221.

Intro to New Branding Workshop
In this foundational workshop, based on the bestselling book The Brand Gap, you’ll learn how to bridge business strategy and design to build a “charismatic brand”—a brand for which customers believe there’s no substitute. But first you’ll need to master the five disciplines of brand: differentiation, collaboration, innovation, validation, and cultivation. Throughout a full session of learning, lively content is punctuated with collaborative exercises to help you internalize valuable skill sets. By the end of the workshop you’ll have the knowledge and inspiration to organize your career—and your company—around a new definition of brand.

What you’ll learn
› Why brand is now critical to every business
› The relationship between brand and margin
› How big ideas cut costs and magnify drive
› The new formula for customer trust
› Why tribal identity trumps features and benefits
› What Hollywood and the Renaissance can teach
› The 3 basic models for collaboration
› The relationship between positioning and aesthetics
› How to identify good and bad extensions
› When prototyping beats strategizing
› What kinds of research feed innovation
› The advantages of icons and avatars over logos
› 7 guidelines for developing a brand name
› How to quick-test concepts before you launch
› The three main reasons websites fail
› How to work around the “fear of stupid”

What you’ll get
› Binder with full workshop content plus extras
› Copy of The Brand Gap book
› CD of the presentation to share with your team
› New perspectives on your company and career

Radical Differentiation
Drill down into the number-one discipline of high-performance brands—radical differentiation. In today’s cluttered marketplace, it’s not enough to be different. You need perpetual innovation to keep up with the speed of change.

Put your brand skills to the test as you take one of four well-known brands through the rigors of radical differentiation in this half-day lab. Under the guidance of Neutron Zagmeister Marty Neumeier and brand coach Josh Levine, you’ll work through a series of exercises based on Neutron’s “radical differentiation” process. By the end of the workshop you’ll get a head start on applying the fundamentals of brand positioning and messaging.

This half-day lab is for the seasoned marketing or brand professional and is based on Neumeier's best-selling book Zag.

Acceptance into this 3-hour workshop is by invitation only.

Who should come?
The workshops are designed for all professionals engaged in building brands, including brand managers, marketing directors, designers, strategists, communications directors, account planners, web designers, product designers, creative directors, PR specialists, marketing and design instructors, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and others. A key benefit is the chance to collaborate with professionals in other companies, other industries, and other roles to get a broad view of the brand-building process while expanding your business network.

About Neutron
Neutron is a unique firm in San Francisco that explores the intersection of business and design. The firm specializes in 1) developing and publishing powerful concepts that link business, brand, innovation, and design; and 2) coaching corporations through the full range of brand-building activities.
Neutron

ABOUT AIGA
AIGA’s mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force. AIGA is the place design professionals turn to first to exchange ideas and information, to participate in critical analysis and research, and to advance education and ethical practice. For more information on AIGA, go to AIGA. For more information on AIGA|Chattanooga, go to www.AIGA50.org.