Brand workshop and strategy workshops.
Good brands are made in the workshop.
A brand workshop is the foundation of everything you do in branding. The best ideas for a brand are usually already in the company, just scattered across the heads of management, marketing and sales. At the workshop we gather them in one place and settle who your brand is, who it speaks to and where it's heading. You get the conclusions in writing, so every next step, from strategy to the logo, has something to stand on.
01Approach
How we run a great brand workshop
The workshop is a meeting of a few hours with the key people from your team, on site or online. You get the plan for the day in advance, so everyone knows what each exercise is for.
-
Preparation
Before the workshop, we analyse your competitors and your materials. We present the findings at the meeting, so the discussion starts from facts.
-
The right people
We invite people who know the company from different sides, for example from the board, marketing and sales. For a rebrand, we also talk about how the team will use the brand day to day.
-
An orderly method
We run the workshop to a proven plan in which every exercise has a purpose. That keeps the discussion from drifting off topic.
-
Every voice heard
We make sure everyone has their say, including people who usually stay quiet in meetings.
-
The brand as a person
We describe the brand as if it were a person, meaning its character, how it speaks and what it would never say. That description then guides decisions on colours and tone.
-
Conclusions in writing
After the workshop, you get a summary with conclusions and recommendations. It becomes the basis for the strategy, the logo and the key visual.
02Types of workshop
What is your workshop for?
We plan the workshop around what needs to come out of it.
Before a new brand When a brand is built from scratch, often before it has a name
What we do
We establish what the brand does, who it talks to and what should set it apart, before there is a name or a logo. The workshop produces the groundwork for naming and the first visual directions.
What you get
- Brand mission, values and personality
- Audience groups
- Brand differentiators
- Criteria for naming and moodboards
Similar projects
Before a rebrand With marketing and sales, before changing a brand customers already know
What we do
We go through an audit of current materials, the needs of each department and how the team will use the brand day to day. We agree what stays and what changes.
What you get
- Goals of the change and success criteria
- The brand's most important applications
- A list of what stays and what changes
Similar projects
When a brand talks to several groups Patients, investors, partners or customers in different countries
What we do
We map out the audience groups and what each of them needs. We agree on a tone that works for all of them, and on the places where each group gets its own message.
What you get
- Description of audience groups
- Personas
- Brand tone of voice
- Messages for each group
Similar projects
Before a catalogue or website When you need to decide who the story is for and in what order to tell it
What we do
Before a large catalogue or website, we establish who will read it and what they're looking for. That decides the order of the content, from inspiration to technical data.
What you get
- Readers and their needs
- Content order and structure
- Brand values and personality in the material
03An exercise from the workshop
Friend or authority?
One of the exercises at the workshop: the team marks on sliders what the brand is like. Set them for your brand, and its portrait is written up in one sentence straight away.
Your brand
Your brand combines closeness with authority, respects tradition and likes new things, sometimes steps off the beaten track, knows when to stop joking and has its own following.
Everything in the middle? A brand like that won't upset anyone, but it's hard to remember.
Would the whole team set them the same way? At the workshop we check that together and turn the differences into decisions.
Let's talk about a workshop04From workshop to design
A promise is a promise
At a workshop, sentences get said that the brand then has to live up to: in the tone of the website, on the packaging, in the parcel on the doorstep. Here are a few of those sentences and what grew out of them.
-
Itodi
A buddy with expertise. The brand's role from the workshop, “a highly competent buddy”, speaks even from the parcel: “quality down to the millimetre”.
- Mily Group For the heart and for the purchasing department. Two personas from the workshops: a partner from the USA finds the story of the forest on the website, while a buyer from Europe finds certificates and quick contact.
- Made in Podlasie Two moodboards, one ornament. The first direction left fresh colours from nature, the second simple, strong folk patterns from the Podlasie region. Together they made the brand's ornament.
05What you get
A cheat sheet for the whole company
After the workshop you get a summary written so that everyone in the company can use it, from the board to a new sales rep. It's a cheat sheet you're allowed to bring to every meeting about the brand.
-
Brand essence
Mission, vision and values written so people can act on them. For each value, we describe how it shows in the company's day-to-day work.
-
People around the brand
Every group the brand talks to, from customers to employees: what they need, what worries them and where they come into contact with the company.
-
Map of strengths
Together we name your strengths and what sets you apart from competitors. We also mark the places in the market the brand can claim.
-
Direction for the brand
The brand's goals and the route to them: where the brand is heading and the steps that will get it there.
-
Report with recommendations
A summary of what was agreed in the workshop and recommended next steps. We come back to this document with every brand decision, and it is the basis for the brand strategy, the logo and the key visual.
