before you start determining what it looks like, what color it should be, or what you should call it, first figure out why it matters.
—Anonymous
Our agency’s flagship offering is our Brand Exploration program, a process which typically precedes any consequential brand development engagement. While each Brand Exploration offering looks a bit different for every client (it could last 6 days or 6 months), the end goal is the same for each: to establish a foundation of meaning, differentiation, and soul for the client’s brand.
A brand, like a building, needs pillars—strong elements that provide support. Even though a building’s pillars are seldom seen, spoken of, or profiled in architectural magazines, you know they’re both present and essential.
We can think about a brand’s pillars in a similar way. But instead of concrete and steel, they’re comprised of other fibrous elements like:
mission
vision
core values
brand promise
company purpose
cultural norms
The Brand Exploration process is a partnership with each client to lead to a codified brand position that gives the brand a firm foundation. Using the Formulaic methodology, we guide clients through a hand-selected collection of introspective conversations, work sessions, and exercises geared toward arriving at a place of foundational and aspirational brand truth. Activities included in the Brand Exploration process may include a selection of the following:
- Leadership Work Sessions
- employee surveys
- Customer interviews
- External brand audit
- Mystery shopping
- Social media reviews
- Brand Personality exercise
Once completed, the Brand Exploration phase of our work leads the creation (or re-creation) of a brand’s identity elements (cool stuff like logos, color palettes, brand voice, and other brand expressions). A brand’s identity becomes rooted in truth and values—not arbitrary aesthetics. A confident link between the two positions all stakeholders to feel affirmed and assured about the brand and their relationship to it.