Brand Discovery
The critical first step
If you’re only able to complete one of the four steps in our branding process, this is the one to do. It lays the foundation for everything that comes after it. Review each step in the Brand Discovery process and give us a call if you have any questions.
Discovery workshop
The first step is to hold a discovery workshop with your CEO, senior managers and key internal stakeholders to determine the current state of your brand and what you want it to be. Obtaining buy-in from your company’s leaders is critical to this process – it simply cannot be done without having everyone on board. The discovery workshop is as educational as it is informative, and is an opportunity for the entire management team to learn from each other, agree on the company’s business vision and make a commitment to the branding process.
Internal & external interviews
We’ll conduct interviews with your customers, suppliers and a selection of employees to get an accurate assessment of how you are currently perceived by each group. Through these interviews we will discover the current perception of your brand and what prompts a customer to choose your brand or your competitors’, as well as the obstacles and opportunities your employees are facing. The results are often an eye-opener and will identify areas that need improvement or changes.
Competitive analysis
Analyzing the competition is an important step in the branding process. We will determine how your competitors are positioning themselves and establish which, if any, have made a strong promise that cannot be duplicated. Your brand’s promise should be unique – you want to be a leader, not a follower.
Communications audit
We will conduct a review of all your existing internal and external communications materials to determine the various messages that are being disseminated from your company. Review materials can include:
- Sales presentations
- Trade show materials
- Advertising
- Websites
- Collateral (brochures, sales sheets)
- Documentation and proposals
- Stationary
- Employee newsletters
Brand architecture
Deciding what strategy to pursue in structuring the company brand portfolio depends on the answers to a number of strategic issues: audience diversity, product/service offerings, competitive context and brand equities, to name just a few. Based on our findings, we will present a brand structure strategy that offers the greatest potential moving forward and could include an umbrella or family brand, individual product brands or endorsed sub-brands.
Research findings & the brand promise
At the end of the brand discovery process, we will create a summary of everything we’ve learned. We will identify the branding opportunity that holds the greatest potential for your business and present the unique brand promise that your company should be making to your customers. This promise will clearly and simply state the reason why you’re different and why they should choose your brand over your competition’s. This will become the foundation for all future communications with your customers.
