Brand inspiration

Dispite the aftermath of a 48 hour migraine, I was determined to attend today's seminar with Mary Jo Hatch, professor emerita in organization theory who has worked as a consultant within branding in the US, Europe and Brazil for brands such as LEGO, Intel, Nissan, Johnson & Johnson and others. The seminar was arranged by Business and Design Lab at The School of Business here in Gothenburg, and it was worth the effort.

For those of you remotely interested in the connection between branding, design methods, identity and orgaizational culture, she is a person of real interest. Her two topics for the afternoon were the research she has conducted within branding and organizational culture together with Majken Schultz, resulting in the book Taking Brand Initiative - How Companies Can Align Strategy, Culture, and Identity Through Corporate Branding. Her description of her and Schulz's theories in general, and the Lego case study in particular, illustrated her theoretic models about identity, image, culture and vision nicely.

Hatch's other topic covered German artist Joseph Beuys' thoughts on social scuplture, and Hatch's theories of the connection between that and organizational culture. The bottom line was that organizations are a work in progress, and that the moment they stop evolving they become obsolete.

Hatch's seminar was a great inspiration. Her words about marketing consultants' and companies' fascination with core values will stick with me: "We live values. We don't state them."

On the way home I had to stop by my favourite burger place brand 7:ans to get myself a coffee milkshake.

I have no pics from the seminar, but here's one of her book (you find it in most online book shops).