Empowering Growing Businesses Through Strategic Branding and Innovation!
Starting with a deep, empathetic understanding of the unique challenges and aspirations of growing businesses, the Piggies & Pickles Virtual Workshop Series—a collaboration between Flourish by Design and Smarket Hut—leveraged a design-thinking approach to build a series to help participants navigate branding “pickles” and build impactful, cohesive brands. This series empowered entrepreneurs to innovate and tackle branding obstacles strategically and affordably.
Piggies & Pickles: Helping innovative businesses solve branding pickles without breaking the piggy bank!
6 countries
3 workshops
1 “mobaton” of real piggy-bank saving help
Workshop Highlights
Participants discovered how to articulate and align their brand strategy with their business goals (Workshop 1), translate their vision and strategy into compelling visuals and experiences (Workshop 2), and innovate and execute effectively in their product and service experiences (Workshop 3) without breaking the bank.
Pickles Addressed: The Identity Crisis, The Rework Rut, The DIY Disaster, Decision Paralysis
Business and brand strategy are better together.
Laying Brand Foundations
Workshop 1: From Insight to Action
Good brand strategy is intimately intertwined with good business strategy and can improve differentiation, recognition, trust and loyalty. When strategically managed, this combined strategy impacts every aspect of an organisation: from how marketing plans to how design is crafted and how advertising is guided; from how human resources hires and trains staff to how product and service experiences are developed, including everything from new business ventures to corporate social responsibility.
The result of strong strategic branding is improved brand equity. Reap the rewards of a stronger, more valuable, and more profitable brand.
We helped leaders articulate and align their brand strategy with their business goals.
Participants were exposed to contextualised information, models and case studies that equipped them to articulate and align their brand strategy with their business goals. They practiced applying their knowledge in individual and group activities.
Workshop 2: From Crisis to Clarity
Pickles Addressed: The DIY Disaster, Decision Paralysis, Execution Fail
Branded systems help to convey a brand’s concept in written and visual language and memorable experiences.
Building Brand Expressions
Brand expressions go way beyond logos and taglines — they capture how a brand communicates and connects through every touchpoint. When built strategically, a brand’s visual, verbal and other elements work together to create consistency, foster recognition, and deepen emotional connections with stakeholders.
Cohesive brand expressions elevate recognition, build trust, and grow brand equity. Strong brand expressions help businesses stand out, connect with customers on an emotional level, and ultimately increase a brand's long-term value and profitability.
Effective brand expressions are the bridge between a brand’s strategy and its impact. Lay the groundwork for improved brand equity by creating branded systems that are cohesive and memorable. Reap the rewards of a stronger, more valuable, more profitable brand.
We helped leaders learn how to translate their vision and strategy into compelling visuals and experiences.
Participants were exposed to contextualised information, custom tools and other resources that equipped them to understand the importance and relevance of intellectual property, design and psychology in brand expressions and up-skill for delivering visual, written and other brand expressions. They practiced applying their knowledge in individual and group activities.
Pickles Addressed: The Identity Crisis, The Rework Rut, The DIY Disaster, Decision Paralysis, Execution Fail
Brand growth and expansion go hand in hand with a business’s long-term strategic vision.
Brand Growth & Expansion
Workshop 3: From Missteps to Mastery
A strong, adaptable brand doesn’t just support growth—it can drive it. As a business scales, its brand must be positioned to grow with it. Strategically managing brand growth impacts all areas of a business, from expanding product lines or services to entering new markets and exporting, launching collaborations, and more. Every step should reflect the brand's core concept, protect its intellectual property, innovate its product/service offerings and experiences, all while maintaining consistency and adapting to new opportunities.
When brand growth and expansions are approached strategically, it can boost brand equity, increase customer retention, and open new revenue streams. Reap the rewards of a stronger, more valuable, more profitable brand.
We helped leaders learn to innovate and execute effectively, even on a tight budget.
Participants were exposed to accessible approaches to enhancing and innovating their brand’s products and service experiences, contextualised information, models, case studies and examples that equipped them to navigate brand growth, priorities, investment and planning at every stage of development and growth. They practiced applying their knowledge in individual and group activities.
We helped businesses learn to turn their big, bad, branding pickles into piggy bank wins, one workshop at a time!
The Piggies & Pickles Virtual Workshop Mini-series was designed specifically for growing businesses eager to harness their brand’s power and potential, even on a tight budget. In a landscape where branding is both a strategic asset and a significant investment, we addressed common branding challenges—our "branding pickles"—with practical solutions.
From overcoming the pitfalls of DIY branding, identity crises, and avoiding costly reworks, to navigating decision paralysis, and executing big ideas on a small budget, our series provided actionable insights, tools, resources and hands-on activities aimed at elevating growing brands and businesses.
Data, Insights & Implications
Data insights gathered from participant registrations and feedback reveal the significant, yet often untapped, value of strategic branding, design thinking, and innovation for growing businesses, particularly Caribbean entrepreneurs across diverse groups—including women, youth, silver economy participants, and men. These findings underscore opportunities for systemic change through empathetic, targeted initiatives that address entrepreneurs' most pressing needs. Aligning these efforts with broader economic and social development goals could drive growth in emerging industries, foster innovation, and increase productivity through technology adoption in business.
Empathetic and Policy-focused Insights from our data for Driving User-Centered Systemic Change for Growing Businesses
Empowering Women-Owned Businesses through Brand Alignment, Innovation and Resource Support
Piggies & Pickles data and insights indicated that many women entrepreneurs struggle to grow and manage their brands alone, especially as they navigate diverse business development phases and complex resource needs. In particular, the challenge of aligning brand and business strategies—a key factor in building and maintaining a cohesive and strong market presence—poses a substantial barrier. Without this alignment, women-owned businesses face missed opportunities, particularly when it comes to expansion and export initiatives. Misalignment in strategic branding, design thinking, innovation, and intellectual property (IP) management can lead to significant complications, such as jeopardising business growth, brand visibility and longevity. A lack of understanding in these areas may result in serious consequences, including the relinquishment of trademark and other IP rights or exposure to legal risks from unintentional IP infringement. These oversights can undermine a business’s competitive edge and its ability to leverage brand IP effectively in new markets, ultimately affecting profitability and growth opportunities.
To address this, policies could adopt a holistic approach to support women entrepreneurs, integrating tangible resource support with training that prioritises strategic brand-business alignment and innovation development. By providing access to strategic branding and design (including design thinking) expertise alongside financial, legal, and human resource support, such policies could improve the long-term viability and competitiveness of women-led businesses. Funding strategic branding consultations and services for qualifying businesses, could help fill critical resource gaps and create a foundation for women entrepreneurs to scale effectively.
Moreover, documenting these success stories through evidence-based case studies would reinforce the value of aligning brand and business strategy for policymakers and stakeholders alike. This approach could be framed around a transition design and social-change design perspective, empathetically addressing the unique challenges women entrepreneurs face at varying levels of education, experience and exposure and fostering an environment where they can thrive in both local and international markets.
Engaging the Silver Economy for Economic and Social Resilience
With 17.2% of Piggies & Pickles participants aged 56+, the workshops effectively drew interest from the silver economy, highlighting an emerging opportunity to engage mature citizens and retirees in productive and creative initiatives. Supporting older citizens to acquire design thinking, branding and business skills not only enables lifelong learning but also has the potential to contribute positively to social and economic resilience. By facilitating pathways for the silver economy to pursue their own entrepreneurial endeavours while participating in programmes with younger generations, Caribbean islands could unlock benefits such as increased intergenerational knowledge exchange, social engagement, and the economic activation of retirees.
To leverage this opportunity, policies could establish dedicated programs for older entrepreneurs, including design thinking for innovative business development, strategic branding, marketing communications, and skill-building workshops tailored to the silver economy’s needs. Supported programs that engage “Silver Citizens” could enable mature citizens to pursue passion projects and entrepreneurial ventures and participate meaningfully in the economy, thus helping to diversify income sources and foster a robust support system within communities. Silver economy engagement, such as through various Piggies & Pickles initiatives, could help mature citizens enrich their communities while reducing social isolation and enhancing quality of life.
Strategic Support Beyond Skills: A Case for Intersectional Assistance Programs to Sustain Development for Growing Businesses
An analysis of the Piggies & Pickles workshop findings indicates that 81.8% of participants struggled with two main obstacles: the "DIY Disaster"—the challenge of attempting to manage branding independently, often at a high cost—and the "Identity Crisis", in which businesses lack alignment between brand and business strategy. This data suggests that siloed training and skill-building initiatives may be too disjointed and narrow in scope for the needs of some growing businesses. Achieving sustainable, impactful change may require policies that extend beyond education and skill development, offering programmatic solutions that provide direct access to professional, intersectional expertise—strategically informed by and tailored to the local cultural context.
In this scenario, a policy approach prioritising strategic brand building support for high-potential businesses could yield benefits that resonate across both economic and social landscapes. Subsidising access to expert intersectional brand, business and innovation strategy support could empower growing businesses to achieve more cohesive, development support. Such targeted support could also cultivate resilience within the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem, as brands establish themselves with a clear and globally competitive market position, poised to engage consumers that have access to global brands.
Furthermore, programs that foster industry interrelatedness could drive growth in supporting sectors such as design, IP law, marketing, communications, software development services and information communications technologies, which are critical to a maturing economic landscape. By fostering demand for high-level, intersectional services, these policies could not only provide immediate business benefits but also contribute to building economic complexity and supporting sustainable development as related industries grow. Success stories documented through reports and case studies would also offer evidence for the efficacy of these initiatives, providing insight into ROI and refining approaches over time.
“This was a great learning experience for me. The check list was a great opportunity to break down what the session taught. Debbie's insight was a great asset.”
G. Williams
“…For me, it’s the way the information is transcended. [It is] a lot of information but in an understandable way. No one is left without. The class is also well mannered, not loud or lawless.”
S. Sandy
“What a great session! There were many useful nuggets of knowledge and information that can be applied to our own respective businesses in helping to grow and advance them. Thank you for taking the time to simplify the processes so that all may understand and use them effectively.”
S. Porte
“Excellent presentation. I can't wait to learn more.”
J. Richardson
“This was a great learning experience for me. The check list was a great opportunity to break down what the session taught. Debbie's insight was a great asset.” - G. Williams | “What a great session! There were many useful nuggets of knowledge and information that can be applied to our own respective businesses in helping to grow and advance them. Thank you for taking the time to simplify the processes so that all may understand and use them effectively.” S. Porte | “…For me, it’s the way the information is transcended. [It is] a lot of information but in an understandable way. No one is left without. The class is also well mannered, not loud or lawless.” S. Sandy | “Excellent presentation. I can't wait to learn more.” J. Richardson |
“This was a great learning experience for me. The check list was a great opportunity to break down what the session taught. Debbie's insight was a great asset.” - G. Williams | “What a great session! There were many useful nuggets of knowledge and information that can be applied to our own respective businesses in helping to grow and advance them. Thank you for taking the time to simplify the processes so that all may understand and use them effectively.” S. Porte | “…For me, it’s the way the information is transcended. [It is] a lot of information but in an understandable way. No one is left without. The class is also well mannered, not loud or lawless.” S. Sandy | “Excellent presentation. I can't wait to learn more.” J. Richardson |
By joining efforts to strengthen Caribbean entrepreneurship and the innovation ecosystem, we can foster thriving, globally competitive and innovative brands and businesses from the region.
Our full reports are exclusively available to our Platinum Partners. Talk to us about becoming a partner. By partnering with us, your organisation can play a critical role in supporting entrepreneurship, innovation, economic empowerment, and sustainable business development.
Meet the FacilitatorDebbie Estwick
A qualified Design, Brand & Innovation Strategist with multi-cultural, senior professional experience.
MA (with Distinction), Design & Branding Strategy, Brunel University, UK
BFA (First-class Honours), Graphic Design, Barbados Community College, Barbados
Former Lecturer, BFA Design Lab; MA Design Management, University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad
Former Lecturer, Essentials of Brand Positioning and Identity; Digital Marketing, University of the West Indies (UWI), Open Campus, Antigua
Special Projects Co-Chair, Caribbean Circle for Economics of Innovation
Qualifications Summary
Brand, Design & Marketing Communications Expertise Includes:
Verdun & Marina (the Substance Abuse Foundation, Barbados) | Healthy Kinks Botanicals (Barbados) | Galleria Mall (Grenada) | Fore Ladies Social Golf Club (USA) | World Match Racing Tour (UK) | University of the Southern Caribbean (Trinidad) | Barbados Investment & Development Corporation (BIDC) | Climate Launchpad Barbados (part of the EU’s Climate KIC Initiative, Netherlands) | United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) funded Bloom Cleantech Cluster | BIDC’s Innovate Barbados, Create, Accelerate, Bajans Connect, and Blue Flame Innovation Challenge Series
Piggies & Pickles is an initiative of Flourish by Design and Smarket Hut.
Thank you to our supporting partners, the Caribbean Circle for Economics of Innovation, the Caribbean Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Livelihoods, and Lex Carrington.