Some say that “Brief” comes from the military language used to define directions in a war strategy in which the main objective was to defeat the enemy. Now, in Branding, it is not that you want to defeat the enemy, right? What you must do is to create a strategy that addresses the relevant points of a campaign, but above all that identifies what a brand and its communication really needs. Likewise, it is erroneously taught that Brief is something that the service provider has to fill out. However, it is never the most advisable, why? Just because through this document it is possible to know the aspects of the brand that most need attention.
At the same time, everything must be seen from the customer’s perspective; since the gaps left by filling the document without being the brand itself, could mean failing. Thus, in order to create this document, it must be consider how and where the brand is in the market, so the Brief will define how well positioned it is, since the questions that should go by default point to a summary of brand self-knowledge. The main questions to be answered when preparing a Brief are:
- Brief about the business: In this space, what defines and makes the brand unique should be stated. Additionally, its history, mission, vision (short and long term), it is important to determine what it does as a brand: how does it do it, for whom does it do it? It is also important to define main and secondary objectives that will allow the client to describe its product and its type, recognizing the market opportunity that was identified at the beginning and the user experience it wants to generate.
- Strategies implemented: Every brand must have challenges for which it is working to meet its goals, identifying them will help to recognize which have been the problems or barriers that have stopped it from growing as a brand. Likewise, it is important to distinguish the strategies that have been used to overcome problems, and those that have been effective.
- Value proposition: Value proposition refers to what the brand offers and how it can leave a good experience in the consumer. In turn, they are those attributes that make the brand different and nice-looking for users, making a strategic approach to convince customers to interact with your products.
- Brand building: It is the set of emotional characteristics connected to a company that shape the way people feel and interact with the brand. It is frequent that the brand personality reflects the profile of target customers. That is to say, it allows to recognize many factors that help with the construction of the brand, such as purchase motivators, which images or shapes seem inappropriate, which colors should not be used, which references can enrich the design process and slogans or phrases that describe the brand.
- Sales Pitch: This is the sales pitch where the brand explains why it is different from competitors, and the resulting advantages of being chosen. That is to say, a launch of the strategies used as a brand to potential clients that impacts and attracts attention.
- SWOT analysis: It is essential to develop a strategic diagnosis of a company, that is why the SWOT contains a list of positive and negative external and internal factors that allow to discover what is the current situation of a brand to, based on the diagnosis, propose the strategy to follow: (Difficulties, Opportunities, Strengths, Threats).
- Buyer persona: Is a fundamental to move forward with your brand and everything you learn about will form the basis of all communications of your branding plan. Who is? What does he/she like? What are his/her hobbies? What are his/her favorite social networks? Does he/she shop online? Why would he/she be interested in the product sold by the brand?
- Selling experiences: The brand andproduct establish a communication style according to its character and it is applied in all its communications: fun, humorous, educational, formative, with a tone that can be friendly, cheerful or solemn and serious. It is there, when the experience at the point of sale is important to define if purchase will occur. However, besides specific actions, it is essential that entire brand is prepared to stimulate the customer.
- Competition: It is important to investigate those who do exactly the same as the brand, and those who have similarities, even if they are not the same. To do this, you should create a list of direct competitors and another with indirect competitors, this will identify more factors to consider, such as social media, website, current or future public relations strategy, and marketing emails used by competitors. In this way, it will help to explore what opportunities exist against the competition and how they can be overcome.
The Brief will serve as a starting point to correctly develop any type of branding based on the requirements and needs conveyed by your account. It is a roadmap document and, as such, it is of vital importance to move forward in the right direction.
me say that “Brief” comes from the military language used to define the instructions in a war strategy in which the main objective was to defeat the enemy. Now, in Branding, it is not that you want to defeat the enemy, right? what you have to do is to create a strategy that addresses the relevant points of a campaign, but above all that identifies what a brand and its communication really needs. Likewise, it is erroneously taught that the Brief is something that the service provider has to fill out. However, it is never the most advisable, why? Simply because through this document it is possible to know the aspects of the brand that most need attention.
At the same time, everything must be seen from the customer’s perspective; since the gaps left by filling the document without being the brand itself, could cause the strategy to fail. Thus, in order to create this document, it must be taken into account how and where the brand is in the market, so the Brief will define how well positioned it is, since the questions that should go by default point to a summary of brand self-knowledge. The main questions to be answered when preparing a Brief are:
1. Brief about the company: In this space, what characterizes and makes the brand unique should be stated. Additionally, its history, mission, vision (short and long term), it is important to determine what it does as a brand: how does it do it, for whom does it do it? It is also important to define some main and secondary objectives that will allow the client to describe its product and its type, recognizing the market opportunity that was identified at the beginning and the user experience it wants to generate.
2. Strategies implemented: Every brand must have challenges for which it is working to meet its goals, identifying them will help to recognize which have been the problems or barriers that have prevented it from growing as a brand. Likewise, it is important to distinguish the strategies that have been used to overcome problems, and those that have been effective.
3. Value proposition: Value proposition refers to what the brand offers and how it can leave a positive experience in the consumer. In turn, they are those attributes that make the brand different and attractive in the eyes of users, making a strategic approach to convince customers to interact with your products.
4. Brand building: It is the set of emotional characteristics connected to a company that shape the way people feel and interact with the brand. It is frequent that the brand personality reflects the profile of target customers. That is to say, it allows to recognize many factors that help with the construction of the brand, such as purchase motivators, which images or shapes seem inappropriate, which colors should not be used, which references can enrich the design process and slogans or phrases that describe the brand.
5. Sales Pitch: This is the sales pitch where the brand explains why it is different from other existing brands, and the resulting advantages of being chosen. That is to say, a presentation of the strategies used as a brand to potential clients that impacts and attracts attention.
6. SWOT analysis: It is essential to develop a strategic diagnosis of a company, that is why the SWOT contains a list of positive and negative external and internal factors that allow to discover what is the current situation of a brand to, based on the diagnosis, propose the strategy to follow: (Difficulties, Opportunities, Strengths, Threats).
7. Ideal customer: An ideal customer is a fundamental component to move forward with your brand and everything you learn about him will form the basis of all communications of your branding plan. Who is he? What does he like?, What are his hobbies?, What are his favorite social networks?. Does he shop online? Why would he be interested in the product sold by the brand?
8. Selling experiences: The brand and the product establish a communication style according to its character and it is applied in all its communications: fun, humorous, educational, formative, with a tone that can be friendly, cheerful or solemn and serious. It is there, when the experience at the point of sale is important to define if the purchase will occur. However, besides specific actions, it is essential that the entire brand is prepared to stimulate the customer.
9. Competition: It is important to investigate those who do exactly the same as the brand, and those who have similarities, even if they are not the same. To do this, you should create a list of direct competition and another with indirect competition, this will identify more factors to consider, such as social networks, website, current or future public relations strategy, and marketing emails used by the competition. In this way, it will help to explore what opportunities exist against the competition and how they can be overcome.
The Brief will serve as a starting point to correctly develop any type of branding based on the requirements and needs conveyed by the client. It is a roadmap document and, as such, it is of vital importance to move forward in the right direction.
5 Tips to develop a good Brief
- Describe the project to be carried out: Know what you are going to work on, in order to collect the necessary information and be able to go from the general to the particular and define point by point the importance of the project.
- Objectives: Both general and specific, it is one of the backbones of the brief and of any strategy to follow, to know in depth what are the results you want to achieve as a brand.
- Target definition: A fundamental principle of branding is to know who the brand is working towards, in order to know their tastes, preferences, etc. Segmentation makes the difference, in order to create a high impact strategy with a positive result.
- Competitive advantages: You must know the brand in depth to know what are its (SWOT) and have control of the differentiation factor. In other words, what the brand is strong in and how it can achieve a better positioning in the market.
- Expected results: “Everything that can be measured tends to be improved”. After having created the work plan, it is necessary to project what is expected with the whole project and strategy to be carried out.
A brief is such a complete document that it turns out to be a kind of deck of possibilities for the best market strategies, which, although they propose a very detailed guide, must be complemented with other types of studies to increase their effectiveness. However, not all briefs should contain the same questions and information, since it adapts according to the objective needed (branding, web design, advertising …) but it is important to take the brand by the hand to define itself, which is not only useful for those who build the strategy, but for the client itself, as it will realize its successes and failures.
