Brandstorming Session

Last week in the PR writing class I participated in my first ever brainstorming/ brandstorming session. I had always wondered what it would be like to participate in one, as I always found these sessions to be rather intimidating. I was quite nervous at the beginning, as I am not one to usually participate in class discussions because I am very shy. In the past, I found myself to usually be the one to say "I don't know, or I don't have any ideas", simply because I was too afraid to share with the group. However, this time around Tim said he would like us all to contribute to the brainstorming session, and I was surprised how engaged and involved it made me.

In lecture the previous week we were introduced to the concept of branding. Tim defined branding as "a combination of qualities that a company or organization stands for, communicated through a name, symbol, or other elements, but not restricted to the visual. I found this description to be particularly useful when working on this exercise because it got myself and my group members to not only think of a creative name for our product but a certain lifestyle that is also associated with that product through the use of branding.

The product that my group and I came up with was a cider ale with authentic natural flavours named after the provinces of Canada to differentiate from the traditional apple and pear. We came up with this idea because a few of us have studied abroad or been on vacation over seas and noticed that cider ale's are very trendy in parts of Europe as well as in Australia and New Zealand. We figured Canada could use some more ciders, and that it would be likely that the trend would catch on. The brand we came up with would represent the diversity of Canadian culture through the design of the packaging, the unique names of the flavours, the lifestyle it represents, as well as the name of the company.

While participating in this exercise I found myself really excited to share my ideas with the group after I heard a few people start sharing first. I discovered I have more creative qualities than I have been willing to give myself credit for in the past, due to by shyness getting in the way. When it was my turn to share with the group I couldn't wait to explain my ideas and pitches and enjoyed the feedback and discussions that stemmed from each brand idea that came up. I am beginning to think I might be more suited for a career in marketing and advertising than in Public Relations.