This area is entirely distinct from ‘brand discoveries’; it focuses on those aspects of the client’s own culture which will affect how the brand and its communications are developed and managed. These aspects could include:
Clearly, this exercise requires clients to expose some rather ‘personal’ characteristics to their agency partners, and therefore requires that a large degree of trust and mutual respect has already been built up among the team. But it’s obviously easier for everyone if these cultural issues are acknowledged before the process of communications development begins in earnest. (For what it’s worth, the agencies should be equally willing to take the client through any relevant aspects of their own culture, as this can have just as profound an impact on the process and end result.)
Having spent some time trying to find out as much as you can about your customers and your competition, you now need to try and organise and convert this information into a practical, actionable template for your brand. Remember that the twin principles of ‘creativity’ and ‘co-creation’ are as vital to this stage as any other.
The JWT Brand Funnel is designed to help ensure that your brand positioning is as strong and differentiated as possible. In common with various other positioning tools, it starts with the brand’s physical qualities, and gradually progresses to the brand’s more emotive/personality-driven aspects. There are, in fact, six different levels.
However, in strong contrast to other positioning tools, the JWT Brand Funnel requires that the list of attributes be limited to three, and that each successive layer be directly related to the one before, thus ensuring a maximum of three entries at each level. It also requires that the Brand Vision be limited to two words – ideally, creating a combination which is inherently provocative.
This process is about defining your dream and then working out the map that will help you successfully to navigate your chosen path. The significance of the Brand Vision is immense; it is the most distilled version of your message, acting as a prism for what you want to say about yourself. Although it is only two words long, it is arguably the most important thing you will write throughout the entire process. It will represent the distillation and direction for the development of all communications.
Defining the essence of the brand and expressing it in just two words is the product of rigorous and inspired thinking. The Brand Vision can take various forms, but it always explains the relationship between the brand’s offering and the consumer’s desires. And it is often most successful when it puts two apparently conflicting thoughts together.
Developing the Brand Vision should be a collective process: it is a vital stage of development and acts as the spark between the ‘information in’ and ‘ideas out’. Without a clear (and collectively agreed) Brand Vision, your chances of success are drastically reduced. The Brand Vision should not only make rational sense, but should also feel instinctively right to the team.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Dean K. Marlowe at 03242010
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