Here at CWS we are keen to partner with you to help you better understand branding and to help identify and define key values and goals of your own organisation that will help build your brand.
In order to assist you, we have developed a set of exercises which provide you with the tools to do this effectively and efficiently.
By exploring your brand together we can helpfully encourage you to step out of viewing your company from the view of a stakeholder or manager, and into seeing it from your customer's point of view, looking at what needs you are aiming to meet with your services. This helps you to start from a fresh perspective, getting rid of old assumptions and looking at new pathways or options, for your organisation or business.
Firstly, we would start by introducing ourselves and getting to know your business a bit more. We would explain the structure of the workshop and briefly outline what we are hoping to accomplish.
We would start by looking at some of the more abstract attributes your brand incorporates. Designed to be a quick-fire exercise we will explore all the attributes which combine to make your brand. From how your team perceives your organisation to what your customers take from interactions from you, we will pull out the key attributes which really define you.
Following the brand attribute exercise we will have a clear set of defining characteristics and aims which we can combine to create what we call a statement of intent.
The final tool we want to equip you with in the workshop is the ability to really empathise with your customers or clients. We will spend some time working on an exercise that helps us build realistic and comprehensive client profiles which we can use to test the validity of our designs against. It stops designs or decisions becoming focused around the stakeholders or designers experience and instead focuses on the users experience. This exercise is invaluable in preempting snags or trouble spots which can be obvious to service users but overlooked in the design and creation process. It stops us designing for ourselves and our own knowledge and experiences instead of asking the vital questions which create a more tailored experience that will attract clients who want a product designed for them and with their needs in mind.
After creating a number of profiles we will take stock of all the valuable outcomes we have collated. By this stage you will have a really strong grasp of all aspects of your business and a good idea of how you might be able to improve or strengthen your brand in the eyes of your customers.
You may have found that obvious new avenues have opened up to you whilst considering how a client may interact with you, or may have realised that your visual identity is at odds with your aims.
This is where our design team can step in and help come up with creative and practical ways forward. We can take any problems or inconsistencies which may have been uncovered and work to create a plan of what practical steps you should take next.
To those who wish to immediately employ what they have learnt and work with us further we offer the option to look at our prioritised revenue goals exercise. These cover the three main business areas of revenue, awareness, and efficiency and help you to identify long, mid and short term goals based on a simple formula of achievability and desirability. This can then allow you to start improvements or changes straight away, seeing the benefits quickly and creating a long term plan of action in line with your brand.
1. Research
Every project requires a solid foundation. We don’t want to assume anything, so at this stage we ask as many questions as possible to get a full understanding of what our client wants to accomplish.
Focusing on their business goals, mission, values and brand equity; competing brands; and their intended audience, we want to build a detailed picture of the problem before developing a solution.
2. Outline
Once we have clarified the problem and have a detailed understanding of the range of factors affecting it, we define a statement of intent. This provides clear direction for the project and lays out the expectations of each party involved in the project.
The outline also acts as a gauge against which we can measure progress during the project as well as the success of the project’s final outcomes. Where elements have not been defined it is very difficult to measure success.
3. Create
With our comprehensive research completed and a clear outline of what we are looking to achieve defined, we get down to the creative work of developing a solution.
This involves an iterative approach of creating solutions and gaining helpful feedback to refine and hone them towards a final outcome, using our statement of intent to keep the work focused and on track.
4. Deliver
Depending on the type of service we are providing and the client we are working with, the delivery can vary from project to project. In all instances we make sure that the outcomes are measured against our initial statement of intent and client expectations.
A project is signed off once its objectives have been accomplished and agreed expectations have been met. This is always the exciting part of our work - to see it come to a successful conclusion and know that are clients are delighted with the result.
5. Support
We love to partner with our clients on a continual basis where this is possible to help them overcome challenges as they grow and develop. Our ongoing support involves strategic thinking beyond the end result of a project.
We actively identify the ways in which we can help our clients achieve their long-term business goals; keeping them informed of new developments in our industry that can help them to accomplish this.
