Why use ‘The Discovery Process’?
One of the core items in the creative agencies’ toolkit is asking great questions. Furthermore, this helps focus the design brief and gives useful information on how to differentiate a brand. The discovery process is valuable to the brand owner and brand designer alike. In addition, it can be used for a product or a business identity.
First steps
Before any branding begins we provide our clients with a discovery questionnaire. Naturally, this is subtly tailored for each client to ensure the questions are specific and appropriate to the job. But, as a good start point, we recommend using the following questions as the basis for creating a successful brand.
The win-win
Our clients have literally said, “You’ve asked me some great questions I should have asked myself a long time ago”. Great questions focus the mind and create the vision for the brand. Without a clear brief, designers will struggle to capture the heart of the brand. Read on to find out how the discovery process underpins a great and memorable brand.
Questions to consider when developing a new brand
Question 1 (Background)
What journey has led to creating this company, product/s or service/s?
This doesn’t need to be a life story, the relevant highlights are what should be written down. The story behind ‘why’ may be particularly important to your brand messaging. It’s useful to jot down the milestones that led to this point in time which can provide a great backstory. Include any relevant production process. From sourcing, production, and distribution, to delivery.
This information will often help with making a brand more relevant and authentic. It’s useful to understand the experience that went into making the brand. What was the passion that led to creating it? A couple of paragraphs is a good volume of content.
Question 2 (Values)
How should consumers feel about the brand/product?
Write a list of 3-5 adjectives that echo your brand values. Use adjectives that describe how you would like the brand image to be portrayed. E.g. Luxurious, Friendly, Professional, Adaptable, Cultured, Creative etc. Check that these qualities fit together well.
Question 3 (Benefits)
What does your brand offer people?
This is a chance to build your elevator pitch. If you are not familiar with the term, imagine getting in a lift with your ideal customer. You have the time the lift takes to reach their floor to tell them about your brand and why they should buy into it. A 40-second speech. What is in it for your customer? What are the key benefits of your product/brand? Take time to perfect the statement until you sense it is correct and succinct.
Question 4 (Target Audience)
Who is your target audience?
Who is your product for? Do you have a niche market or a certain age bracket? Can anyone buy this product? Who is likely to buy more? Create a profile of your likely audience and ideal customer. Use the idea of marketing to one person, that would be a perfect fit for your product or brand. Add as much detail as you can even if you feel like you are making some of it up. Why? Because knowing the ideal makes any brand and marketing laser-focused.
Question 5 (Tone of voice)
What communication style will you use to speak to your audience?
This follows your target market. Think about what appeals to your ideal customer. Identify your tone of voice e.g friendly, formal, optimistic. Apply this to both visual and verbal messaging. If you are not consciously using a tone of voice for your marketing, how would you like your tone to be perceived in the future? Creating a tone of voice adds additional style to your brand and joins up written content with visuals. Think about the language and words you will use in your communication.
Question 6 (Direction)
Where will your brand be in 1-5 years’ time?
It’s important to set goals and have a strong sense of where your brand is heading. A timeline with key milestones is a useful tool to set a trajectory for your brand. What achievements do you wish to accomplish and by when? It also allows you to future-proof the brand so that the brand design has longevity.
Question 8 (Point of difference)
What is unique about the product/service?
Brands that compete need to differentiate themselves from their competitors. It’s important to devise a unique selling proposition (USP). In crowded marketplaces, advertisers and marketers are looking for a point of difference to help a brand stand out. Focus on what is unique to create something that will separate the brand from its competitors. List everything that’s specific to your product.
Question 9 (Identity)
What is your brand’s mission statement?”
A mission statement reflects why you do what you do and how you do it. It serves as a constant reminder of your aspirations and the positive impact you aim to make on the world. See the useful article here on how to write a mission statement.
Question 7 (Services/Products)
What specific services or products does your business offer?
List all the key services or products that you currently provide for your customers. Create a hierarchy listing if there are relevant groupings. Also, list any product you wish to consider in the future.
And, that's the Discovery Process....
It’s never carved in stone and the process can evolve and change over time, but this is a good start.
Discovery is an apt name as what often happens is that our clients find out through answering these questions that, what they had in mind beforehand, needs reassessing. Subsequently, a brand name is changed as a result.
<h3 class=”primary”>Summing up</h3>
The discovery process will give a Creative Agency a concrete brief to work from and the design will be better as a result. You’ll also gain lots of marketing gems and keyphrases to use by taking the time to examine these points.