Interrogate
Stakeholder interviews, customer conversations, category audit and a hard look at what your sales team actually says when nobody is listening.
In short
Most brand problems are decision problems wearing a design costume. We start by finding the decision nobody has made — the positioning, the audience, the thing you will refuse to do — because no amount of art direction survives an unmade decision underneath it.
What you get
Deliverables.
- Positioning statement and the reasoning behind it
- Audience definition, with who you are choosing not to serve
- Messaging hierarchy and tone principles
- Naming or renaming, where the evidence supports it
- A written strategy document your team can argue with
How it runs
Four phases, in order.
Locate
We map where the category is crowded and where it is genuinely empty, then test which empty space you can credibly own.
Commit
One position, written plainly, with the trade-offs it implies spelled out. A strategy that costs you nothing to adopt is not a strategy.
Arm
Messaging, proof points and the internal document that lets your team apply the decision without calling us.
Proof
Where it has been used.
Asked every time
The first-call questions.
Can you do strategy without doing the design?
Yes, and we often do. Roughly a third of strategy engagements end with a document and a recommendation to keep your existing identity.
Do we need research we don't already have?
Usually less than you expect. Most companies are sitting on unread sales-call notes and support tickets that answer the question faster than new research would.
Start a project
Need brand strategy?
A 45-minute call with the people who would do the work. If we are not right for it, we will say so and suggest who is.