How to brand anything | Youri Sawerschel | TEDxEHLLausanne

[Music] this is a pen with no name no story and no identity to tell you the truth this is just a random pen that i bought during my last holidays and right now this pen has no power whatsoever to relate to you to your lives or to your aspirations but i think i can change that i'm not really a magician but i know something very powerful the way we value things depends on how we perceive them the way we value things depends on how we perceive them the art and science of changing perception is called

branding branding is a bit like a magical power and today i would love to show you this power by transforming this random pen into a meaningful brand for this to happen we'll have to get a bit creative we will have to imagine that i am the founder of a pen company presenting to you a new pen brand all right let's do this hey guys do you still recognize the handwriting of your colleagues of your friends or even of your parents the sad truth is that we spend so much time on our screens that we almost

don't write by hands anymore we use emojis to communicate our emotions we rely on autocorrect to take responsibility for our mistakes and we let predictive text right on our behalf what does this say of our ability to think thinking is what makes us human it's how we grow it's how we learn it's how we create relationships with each other but if our devices are telling us what to write next are we still thinking if we stop thinking advertising tells us what to buy our car tells us where to go our smart watch tells us how

many steps we should work every day our social media feed tells us who to vote for we can be better than that we can challenge the algorithm we can rediscover our inner voice and most importantly we can reclaim our freedom of thinking this is why we created we the thinkers pan in hand our mission is simple to give the power of thinking back to the people we the thinkers was born to inspire you you and you to think and write your own path and there's no better way to think than to write writing is thinking

and the weirdest thinkers span is the ultimate thinking tool when you are writing your thinking occurs at the same time there's no lag no notification no pop-up window no distraction whether you're writing a shopping list a love letter or manifesto we the thinkers inspires you to think even when you're not thinking about thinking and talking about thinking there's some serious thinking that went behind the crafting of this pen it is made using a single piece of recycled aluminum and it features a one-of-a-kind swiss renaissance red this way it stands out it stands out on your

desk it stands out on your kitchen counter it stands out in your bag making it a sign of recognition among free thinkers the cartridge holds enough sustainable ink for you to write 60 000 words that's by the way enough for all of you to finish this long overdue novel finally the reader thinkers pen comes in a beautiful case with a set of thinking cards each card features a philosophical question to stimulate your thinking and if your ideas are worth spreading just put a stamp on the card and send it to your loved ones so if

you're ready to think again get yourself a weedy thinkers spend today on we the thinkers dot world end of story what did we just see our random pen now has a reason for being how did we achieve that first we created a story a story that is both relatable and meaningful a story in which the pen is the hero second we give our hero a name a name that communicates a community feel and a sense of belonging third we give our hero a face in the form of a visual identity a distinct visual identity that

is both sophisticated and bold as a result the pen is not just a product it's the symbol of a movement a movement with a powerful yet simple anchoring points inspiring people to think and now comes the beauty of it we can use these anchoring points to create an entire new range of products and services all centered around the idea of inspiring people to think in addition to the pen we could have a we the thinkers notebook to write down your thoughts and from here we could have a weed thinkers cafe to exchange ideas why not

opening a wider thinkers hotel and spa to unplug and free your minds and i think from here by not having a weird thinker's perfume to stimulate your thoughts at the center the reader thinkers brand stands on its own because it goes beyond products and services at this stage we must ask ourselves one question one last question what if what if we the thinker was to shut down closing its cafes and hotels withdrawing from the shelf the notebook and the perfume even stopping the production of the pen would we the thinkers still exist of course it

would it would still exist but this time in your mind in a way the branding magic has occurred because this pen has a name a story and an identity this is no longer a pen this is now a brand [Applause] you