Brand Strategy

The second stage is straight forward and built entirely from the first. 0:00 It's simply correcting and aggregating all of the information at first stage and 0:04 compiling it into a unique document. 0:08 We call this the brand strategy document. 0:11 A brand strategy document is broken up into two halves like chapters. 0:13 The first half is called discovery. 0:18 That's all the information that we've collected. 0:20 It's not a bad idea to rename or 0:22 reword some of these thoughts to let your client know that you are listening and 0:24 can reconfigure the message without losing any key points. 0:27 Our outline of this first half covers a Summary, Perceptions of the current brand. 0:30 Brand architecture, Etymology of the name, Values, 0:35 Word mapping, Audience, and Competitive research. 0:40 Each section is self-explanatory and is optional. 0:43 If you find content that should fit in your document, by all means, include it. 0:47 Be sure it reflects either yourself, the project, or the client. 0:51 In the second half of the brand strategy document, 0:56 we take all the information distill it, and create what we call the direction. 0:58 This half is a little shorter, and 1:03 contains a creative brief, tagline proposals if necessary, and a mood board. 1:04 The creative brief is the keystone to the direction of the project. 1:09 The creative brief will combine thoughts from word mapping with research about 1:13 the audience, and competitors. 1:17 The creative brief should include a summary of the client, 1:19 a summary of yourself or your agency, an overview of the project, and 1:22 an estimation of how to successfully complete the project. 1:26 Let this be specific enough to understand, but 1:30 vague enough that you aren't putting up unnecessary design walls. 1:32 One paragraph can be fine if you see fit. 1:36 Three paragraphs is also fine as long as the message is clear and digestible. 1:38 I include the creative brief as one of the first few slides of our presentation 1:43 to continue to reiterate the importance of its message. 1:47 Once this document looks pretty and 1:52 it's been proof read several times it's time to send it off. 1:54 Some things deserve to be presented, and some things can fit in a simple email. 1:58 the brain strategy document will probably be pretty wordy. 2:02 So email is best. 2:05 If you can talk to your client on regular basis, you can give them a few days 2:07 to read over it before getting their feedback and starting. 2:10 As a side note on presentation, presentation is everything. 2:14 If you work tirelessly and endlessly on a project and 2:18 only present a small amount of work, your client is going to think you 2:21 only spent a small amount of time on it, and not understand the value of your time. 2:24 Create presentations that matter. 2:29 Presentations that explains thoughts and engaged in concepts. 2:31 These presentations will show that depth of your thinking and value of your time. 2:34 And allow you to charge more. 2:39