How To Build A Brand—Strategy Development 101
Whether you are a designer who wants to become a strategist or an entrepreneur interested in brand building process — this is the most practical guide to brand strategy in 2020.
In this article I will show you how to develop a brand strategy like a pro.
This is a step-by-step guide to brand strategy with absolute minimum theory and maximum practicality.
Learn how to run strategy workshops and build successful brands, the strategic way.
And I have to admit that some of my colleagues think I’m crazy for sharing my secret sauce.
They worry that I may cannibalize my business by showing “amateurs” how to do what I get paid money for.
While I don’t think this guide will put me out of the branding game, I do hope it will put you on.
So if you’re looking to learn how to build strategic brands — you’re in the right place.
The worksheets are filled in with dummy text, so that you know where the answers go.
Brand Strategy Worksheet
This is the main strategy worksheet.
A one-pager that consist the final outcome of each of the 9 branding exercises.
I’ve also prepared GIF animations that will help you understand the sequence of each exercise.
In this article, I talk to you as if you were my client, in order to maximize its practicality (from intro to outro).
So that you can just read it out loud and run your first strategy session with ease.
Hope you’ll enjoy the actionable tips in this guide.
The Brand Strategy Framework*
*There are 9 branding exercises grouped into 3 sections.
Why Brand Strategy Is Important?
As a designer, you may wonder why you need strategy.
Let’s distinguish two scenarios of approaching a new branding project — with and without strategy.
Meet Arek and John:
- Arek is a good designer, but he’s also a strategist and his clients think he’s a genius.
- John is a good designer, but he struggles with his clients who often tell him what to do.
Clients usually come to us, graphics designers, asking for a logo, brand identity or other brand design elements.
But as you can see in my animation, projects often fall flat without proper strategy.
This is because you need to take a step back and lay the foundation for your creative work to come.
If you follow my steps for creating brand strategy, you’ll nail your design project at first or with minimum revisions.
The goal of this workshop is to engage your client in the process and define key brand strategy elements.
So that you can turn these findings into insights that will help you design something that is “on brand”.
Your clients will love you, because they’ll feel like the ideas come from them.
And you will get clarity for the creative phase — designing brand identity.
So that ultimately you’ll be able to run your projects smoothly and build successful brands, the strategic way.
How To Run a Strategy Workshop
There are basically three ways in which you can run this workshop:
- Run a whiteboard session
- Fill out the worksheets with pen
- Fill out the worksheets on computer
I’d strongly encourage you to run a whiteboard session — that’s certainly the best option.
Who develops brand strategy? — You, the strategic designer, consultant, or facilitator.
It can be anyone, as long as you follow the 9-step brand building process.
How long does it take? — You should book at least 3hrs.
This will give you about 20 minutes for each of the 9 exercises.
Who should be in the room? — You can have multiple stakeholders or just one CEO / Founder as participants.
Where to run the strategy session? — I usually rent a Breather office with at least 2 whiteboards and a TV.
On TV I display the facilitator’s guide with tips and resources.
Then I hand out the worksheets to all participants so that they can take notes for themselves.
However, you can optionally meet your client in basically any quiet environment.
Just print out the worksheets and fill them out together over a cup of coffee.
Brand Strategy Worksheets.
If meeting your client in person is not an option, then you can run this workshop online using Skype or Zoom.
I’ve also done a combination of both, where I run a whiteboard session and my client fills out the worksheets with a pen over a video call.
And finally, you can just use my fillable PDF templates on computer with your clients online, or in person.
As you can see, the options are limitless, so you can’t really have any excuses to not do it.
So without further ado, let’s get right into it.
Tips For Facilitator & Participants
First, get consensus from leadership.
Brief the CEO or primary stakeholders on what is going to happen during the workshop.
Enroll them on being a “partner” in the process and explain what you are going to do and why it is important.
Give them a short overview of the brand strategy framework (see Intro) and what you’re going to be able to accomplish together.
Here are the three principals that provide the foundation for what makes the workshop powerful.
- Live — Get all decisions makers in the room or on a video conference call
- Visual — Document everything in a visual way where everyone can see it.
- Fun — Make them feel comfortable to share ideas without reservation.
It’s also important to ask participants to not veto, contradict or counter any suggestion a team member makes.
And as a facilitator, you need to:
- Control the agenda and set timer
- Remain empathetic & personable
- Be encouraging & positive
Note: From now on, use this article as your script — this is what you say as a facilitator.
This is how you talk to your client, just repeat after me, memorize it, or at least try to remember key concepts, so that you can run your strategy sessions with ease.
Let’s get started.
Check out the full guide on my blog for free — Click here.
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