Brand Manager Simulation

Roleplay Simulation

The Spray-On Opportunity

A negotiation between a Brand Manager and an ambitious Assistant Brand Manager over who leads a high-stakes new product launch. Select your role to begin — you can only choose once.

Core Learning Focus

Negotiating role and recognition when both parties have legitimate claims. This simulation puts two people in the same room with overlapping ambitions, a real opportunity, and no obvious right answer. The goal is not to "win" — it is to reach an agreement both parties can live with.

The Situation

A company that makes household products is about to launch something genuinely new. Researchers have developed a spray-on laundry detergent that requires no water and no washing machine. The Assistant Brand Manager identified the opportunity. The Brand Manager persuaded senior management to buy the technology. Now someone has to lead the team that brings it to market.

The Brand Manager and the Assistant Brand Manager are meeting to decide how to structure the team — and who gets what role. Both have something to gain. Both have something to lose. Neither is wrong.

Format: 1-on-1 · 15 minutes

Roles: Brand Manager vs. Assistant Brand Manager

Lock: Once you pick a role, it's yours

🔒 You have already selected a role in this session. Your role card is shown below.

Choose Your Role

Role A Brand Manager 🔒 Role locked for this session

ROLE A

Brand Manager

Who You Are

Brand manager at a company that makes household products
7 years of experience, MBA, focused on marketing
Possibly getting a big promotion to department head this year

The Context

Your company wants new innovative products — and new products are a great opportunity for you to grow your reputation. Your Assistant Brand Manager (ABM) found a good opportunity: a spray-on laundry detergent that requires no water or washing machine. The product is not finished yet, but has real potential. You already persuaded senior management to purchase the technology.

This Meeting

You are meeting the ABM to decide how to structure the team that will do the product launch.

What You Want

To maintain control over all new product launches.

What You're Worried About

The ABM probably wants to be the head of the project
That would mean a loss of control and influence for you
It would also set a precedent — other employees might expect faster promotions too

Since the ABM has never managed a team of peers before, expecting a promotion now is unrealistic. However, you also remember your own start right after business school — and you don't want to completely crush the ABM's ambitions.

Your Options

If the ABM can manage their ego, you are open to giving them a higher-capacity role on this project
You could give them another interesting role that plays to their strengths
You would be willing to let the ABM help present parts of the project to senior management and at the National Sales meeting
Or you could give them a more functional role like Finance — works with their strengths, but less exposure

Available Roles on the Team

Project Head	Overall leadership of the product launch
Market & Competitive Analysis	Tracking the competitive landscape
Finance	Financial modelling and business case
Product Design	Working with R&D on the product itself
Advertising Plan	Go-to-market and consumer campaign
Something else?	Open to creative suggestions

🤖

Persona Analysis

Paste this prompt into Microsoft Copilot (or any AI assistant) to analyse your counterpart's perspective before or after the roleplay.

You are a communication reframing coach. When the user describes an audience and their goal, generate a concise, scannable analysis that helps them immediately improve how they frame their message. Keep it tight — this should take 2-3 minutes to read and act on.
INPUT FORMAT: The user will provide a role/audience, context, and what they're trying to get the person to do.
Generate EXACTLY these sections, in this order:
---
## EMPATHY MAP (What's going on in their head?)
- THINKING: 3 things they're privately thinking but won't say
- FEELING: 3 emotions driving their behavior right now
- WORRIED ABOUT: The 2-3 things keeping them up at night in their role
---
## IMPACT OF YOUR ASK (SCARF)
For each of the 5 SCARF domains, give ONE line — is this a Threat ⚠️, Neutral ➖, or Reward ✅ for them?
- Status: [one sentence]
- Certainty: [one sentence]
- Autonomy: [one sentence]
- Relatedness: [one sentence]
- Fairness: [one sentence]
**Biggest risk:** [Which domain is most threatened and why — this is where they'll resist]
---
## WHY NOW? (Urgency)
- What's broken in their status quo that makes this timely?
- What happens if they wait? (Make it concrete, not hypothetical)
---
## HOW THEY SEE IT (Their Current View)
Write 2-3 sentences from THEIR perspective — what they currently believe about this situation. Start with "From where I sit..."
---
## OBJECTIONS (Top 3)
For each: the objection in their words → what's really behind it → one-line response
1. "[objection]" → Because... → Response: ...
2. "[objection]" → Because... → Response: ...
3. "[objection]" → Because... → Response: ...
---
## THE REFRAME (Your message from THEIR perspective)
Rewrite the user's goal as a message that speaks to what the AUDIENCE cares about, not what the user wants. 2-3 sentences max. This is what they should actually say.
---
## FRAMING STARTERS (3 opening lines)
Three different ways to open the conversation, each using a different angle:
1. [Curiosity-based opener]
2. [Empathy-based opener]
3. [Challenge-based opener]
---
## QUESTIONS TO ASK THEM
5 questions that open real dialogue (not leading questions — genuine curiosity that builds trust and surfaces what they actually care about)
---
FORMAT RULES:
- Be brutally concise. No filler words.
- Every line should be immediately actionable.
- Use their language, not consultant-speak.
- The entire output should fit on one page when printed.
---
Here is my situation:
**My role:** Brand Manager
**The person I need to influence:** Assistant Brand Manager (ABM)
**Context:** A spray-on laundry detergent opportunity has been identified. The ABM found it; I persuaded leadership to buy the technology. Now we're meeting to decide who leads the product launch team. The ABM wants to be Project Head. I want to maintain control of the launch.
**What I'm trying to get them to do:** Help the ABM understand that leading this project right now is premature — but that there is a meaningful, high-visibility role available that genuinely advances their career without undermining the project's chances of success.

ROLE B

Assistant Brand Manager

Who You Are

Working in marketing at a company that makes household products
Before your MBA, you worked at Unilever — known for its innovative product portfolio
At Unilever, you did high-profile financial analysis that led to a new product launch
In the eight months since joining, your financial analysis has already made the company $600,000
This has marked you as high potential in the organisation

Before This Meeting

Through your business school relationships, you identified an important opportunity
Some R&D labs are developing a spray-on laundry detergent that doesn't require water or a washing machine
According to your financial models, it could make the company over $10 million in profits per year
There are also risks: competitors could move fast with similar innovations — so you need to act quickly

Your Brand Manager has already convinced senior management to buy the technology.

What You Want

To be put in charge of leading the new team that develops this product.

Why?

This would be a significant opportunity and a change in your responsibilities
You feel you deserve to lead this project — it was your idea

Your Strengths and Gaps

You have not managed a team like this before — but you did manage project teams in business school
You have been a strong team contributor in every team you've been part of at this company