Aligning the Brands
 

 

Venue choice often says more about a company and its brand than the event itself. 

 

 

Since the birth of our industry, planners have tried to create symbiosis between location, event and client – the modern technology client in the newly built glass and metal conference centre; the traditional law firm in the grand hotel; or the CSR focused company at the green and sustainable conference centre.

 

Events are the physical embodiment of a business, brand and core company values.  Attendees will perceive many different things during the course of a face to face experience, which is why it is so vital to carefully plan every element in line with brand and goals.

 

Given the effect an event can have on a company’s brand, organisers must consider the power of the venues they choose.  On the one hand they can reinforce brand values already in place, on the other they can create brand relationships and perceptions that previously didn’t exist.  This works well for those who wish to add more value to their brand or change their public image: a reformed polluter might for example start using a centre renowned for its environmental credentials and build trust by association.  However, event managers beware, such brand alignments can easily backfire and earn the company a special mention in the likes of Private Eye – examples include well known stories of charities using five star hotels.

 

Assuming you have picked the right venue for the event and brand, you still need to avoid the little but very public mistakes.  At the high tech conference, make sure the technology and presentations are up to date, exciting and above all working!  At the green conference don’t put plastic water bottles on the tables or serve vegetables air-freighted from halfway around the world at mealtimes.  Ultimately, venue choice and the right suppliers should alleviate these problems - but they are essential to success.  The venue is the most memorable and long lasting element to any event, so it's important to spend the time necessary to get the choice right.

 

For us at Sheepdrove, the key areas of brand alignment are clearly sustainability, care for the environment and corporate social responsibility - all of which have become a huge challenge for those looking to organise events - everything from venue choice to transport, advertising and catering affect these areas.  But they are no longer optional; instead they must be built into events from the outset affecting all the different elements, from planning to delivery. In fact, to really succeed they should already exist within the company, management and brand if they are to be successfully disseminated at events.

 

Since our launch five years ago, the Eco Conference Centre has seen a wealth of different companies pass through our doors. Whilst many come for the simple peace of our 2,500 acre organic farm, others have clear CSR policies that make the venue a logical choice – Organix, Veolia, E-on, Infinis, Innocent and Friends of the Earth are obvious examples.  As world renowned activists in the environmental sector it makes perfect sense that they hold their events somewhere that has been designed with sustainability in mind.  Amongst our sustainable features, the centre uses solar and wind power, and a totally independent water system where all water used on site is recycled via a revolutionary a system of reed beds and settling ponds. Water for the conference centre isi drawn from a well 300 feet below the farm, bottled on site usinf re-usable glass bottles.

 

But the real brand challenges are the likes of Land Rover.  Seen by many as creators of 4x4 behemoths with little environmental benefit, they are in fact huge supporters of the environmental movement.  As a company they have very credible CSR policies but, as far as I am concerned they do something far more important - provide a range of vehicles, without which conservationists and farmers worldwide couldn’t survive.  Some would see their use of Sheepdrove as hypocrisy – I see it as perfect brand alignment.