One of the most critical tasks for any marketer is understanding how your target audience views your brand and your competitors. However, it can be difficult to get us out of our insular viewpoint.

Try this exercise with your team to help you see your brand from different perspectives.

Preparation:

Gather 2 sets of your collateral material, printouts of your advertising and web site homepage, picture of your storefront (if you have one)
Gather 2 sets of whatever materials you can compile of your competitors

Exercise:

1. Gather a group of your staff. Cross-functional is usually best so that you can collect a range of perspectives.

2. Take out post-it notes for each person in the group, half blue, half red. (e.g. A group of 10 – 5 blue post-its and 5 red post-its).

3. Distribute the post-its randomly (or have them pick for themselves).

4. Tell them: Imagine that each of you have been given a blue pill or a red pill. Each pill makes you see the world through the eyes of someone else. If you received the blue pill, you see the world through the eyes of our brand’s biggest fans. If you received the red pill, you see the world through the eyes of people who have never heard of us before.

5. Have them break into their respective groups.

6. Distribute the sets of your marketing materials to each group.

7. Have them review it and make comments (remind them the pills help them to see the world through different eyes) on:

What they like
What they don’t like
How they think it could be improved

8. Have each group present their thoughts.

9. Do the same with your competitors’ materials.

10. Summarize your findings and discuss what action steps you can take to improve your marketing communications.