A brandLingual game
Coffee Workshop Claims.
Test your marketing knowledge across marketing strategy, brand strategy, and creative strategy. Sort 12 claims as evidence-backed or myth, collect points, and solve a puzzle: one person at the table is secretly working against the brand.
Coffee Wars — a fictional category
Meet Orbit Coffee.
The workshop table
Four people. One mole.
How to play
Before you start.
You will hear 12 claims across four rounds. For each one, decide whether the evidence supports it or whether it is a myth. If you are unsure, you can ask Hazel for a hint — she will nudge you in the right direction, but using her reduces the points you earn for that claim.
After the final round, you will be asked to identify the mole. Getting it right earns bonus points — but the bulk of your score comes from sorting claims correctly. Good strategic thinking is what matters most.
Mole identified: +5 bonus · Maximum: 41 pts
End of workshop
The workshop is over.
Someone wasn't working for Orbit.
Four people talked. Here is what you heard.
NightShift does not need Orbit to fail loudly. They need Orbit to stay small, quietly. Who was working for them?
STP vs. MBA: Mastering Both Schools of Thought
Draw a clear distinction between the intuitive way of thinking about marketing, brand, and advertising (STP) and the evidence-based approach (MBA), in order to become a better practitioner.
Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning vs. Market-Based Asset theory
How intuitive STP thinking is formed, how the evidence-based MBA approach works, and why mastering both is critical for success today.
Brand Strategy: Inside-Out, Outside-In, Bothism
Core models from Aaker, Keller & Romaniuk, and Burmann. Principles, critiques, and practical application.
Creative Strategy: Persuasion vs. Salience
Why the focus on persuasion in advertising is misleading, and how repetition and salience actually build memory.
Practical Application — Live
Memory-First Creative Brief, 4C model, Get/Who/To/By — shifted from intuitive to evidence-based. Tools you can use the next day.
Christopher Owens
Head of Brand Strategy at TRG for ~25 years, educator at Miami Ad School for ~20 years. Co-founder of brandLingual. Combines real-world client experience with evidence-based marketing, brand, and advertising principles.
Baiba Matisone
Strategist with ~15 years of experience across brands, agencies, research, and higher education. Co-founder of brandLingual. Turns complex theory into practical tools teams can actually use.
All theory is practiced using Coffee Wars — three fictional brands, three different problems.
brandLingual believes real growth happens through collective learning. Our community is a safe-brave space where you don't have to pretend to have all the answers.