Of the 56 sessions offered at the University of Innovative Distribution in 2020, IRCG consultants will lead eight. Senior Associate Consultant Dan Horan will be presenting as a faculty member for the first time at the 2020 University of Industrial Distribution (UID). With a background in marketing and advertising, Dan will dissect the four aspects of an effective and profitable branding strategy in his session, “B2B Branding Strategies for the 2020s.”
Dan talks about his goals for his session, in this Q&A:
Why are you excited to participate in this year’s UID?
It’s a great learning opportunity and networking event, and educational to hear different people's approaches and techniques.
Will you share a bit more about your course, “B2B Branding Strategies for the 2020s”?
One of the things I always try to tell people is that your brand is more than a logo, more than the typeface. It’s all the things that live in a customer's mind when they think about your company. But you probably only get three or four words of what you are and how you exist in a customer's mind. One of the exercises will be to write down four words you believe represent your company right now. And then, we’ll write the four words you want to represent you in the next five years.
People are starting to pay attention to branding, considering it intentionally as opposed to something that happened by accident. I hope to give students five things they can do as soon as they get back to their office that will have positive influence on their organization.
What can participants expect to take away from the course?
I’ll break it down into four primary elements. First, we’ll cover the foundations of a brand — what do you need to know, what are some assumptions? Then, we’ll hit on good and bad branding practices — taking examples from students’ own industry experience. We’ll continue with ideas on creating and building an intentional brand, as well as effectively maintaining an existing brand.
Read more about creating an intentional brand in Dan Horan’s article, 3 Steps for a More Intentional Brand.