Can we skip to the good part?
In this blog post, What to Expect During Your Brand Strategy Workshop with Azori’. We will be covering:
00. What is a brand strategy workshop?
01. Phase One – What’s your story?
02. Phase Two – Where are you heading?
03. Phase Three – What’s important to you?
04. Phase Four – Who do you want to impress?
05. Phase Five – Who are you competing with?
07. Phase Seven – How do you want to sound to others?
Click on any of the above links to direct you to the exact section you’re looking for!
Are you all booked in for your Brand Strategy Workshop with Azori, but you’re not exactly sure what to expect?
Let’s talk about it!
If you read our other blog post all about brand strategy, you will already know that ‘a brand strategy is the foundation of your brand. It’s a tool to help you run your business in a way that reflects your values.’
Have you ever come across a business whose message, values and advertising are clear and distinctive? Who comes to mind? Apple, Microsoft, Google? Each brand has built millions of loyal followers, you can recognise who they are and what they do without even having to think twice. How do they do it?
That, my friend, is all down to a killer brand strategy!
Want to know more about the benefits of brand strategy? Read our blog now HERE.
What is a brand strategy workshop?
Now, a brand strategy workshop is how we are going to build YOUR brand strategy. We’ll spend some time going through fun exercises to truly get to know your business inside out – you might even be surprised by what you uncover! Diving deep into the core of your business will help us to build a solid brand foundation for you and your business to grow from.
We can’t promise your brand strategy workshop will flow exactly as expected, it’s likely your workshop will involve a lot of nattering and firing off ideas – get the snacks and coffee ready! What we cover may also vary depending on your industry, niche and goals but what we CAN promise is that by the end of our workshop, we will have uncovered the information we need to be able to:
- Define your niche
- Uncover your ideal client
- Refine your brand message
- Map out your business goals
Are you ready? Let’s start phase one.
Phase One – What’s your story?
Firstly, we’re going to unfold the purpose behind what you do. Your brand story!
Do you remember the day you decided to go solo and start your business? What was your why? What spurred you on to make this decision?
By reflecting on the reason you first started your business (besides making a profit) we can determine why your business exists and why your target audience should choose you. Brands with a ton of loyal followers always have a great story that their followers can relate to. It doesn’t need to be extravagant – just something your audience can connect to.
During your brand strategy workshop, we are going to find your unique brand story using three words.
What, how and why?
- What you do – the services you offer, the products you sell.
- How you do it – how are you different? What’s your value? How have you made an impact? How will your consumers lives change once they’ve interacted with your brand?
- Why you do it – why does your company exist? What’s your purpose or belief?
By considering the answers to these questions from your consumers perspective – we can determine WHAT your brand purpose really is. WHY you exist and HOW people will end up wanting the services or product you’re offering.
Phase Two – Where are you heading?
Now it’s time for us to look into the future. Not literally, we aren’t physic! However, discussing your goals is going to help us paint a picture of how your future is going to look for both your brand and you personally!
What do you see for the future of your business? What’s the ideal outcome? During our workshop we will try and help you get to the bottom of your brands future by discussing questions such as:
Which outcome is going to make you truly happy? In an ideal world, where would you like your brand to be in 5… 10 or even 15 years’ time?
Now is the time to dream BIG!
Like any schedule, mapping out your business journey will help you stay on track and on brand too!
We’re going to think about how your business can impact the industry you’re in and what the world would look like if you could solve your consumers problems. Spectacular – obviously!
Phase Three – What’s important to you?
Has anyone ever asked you what your values are? You might say – kindness, loyalty, or ambition. Our values effect our behaviour, what’s important to us and how we act with others. People recognise us by our values.
The same way our values define us as people, your company values should define your brand and how your audience perceive you. If you are unclear on your values, we won’t be able to build a brand that truly reflects them.
Imagine if one of your company values was trust, and you discovered one of your marketing campaigns was bending the truth or exaggerating the facts. Would that be reflecting your company values? Of course not!
By clearly defining what your key values as a business are, we can build a brand that aligns perfectly with each-and-every one.
Customers are more likely to remember—and purchase—products and services that make them feel good
If your customer asked you what your company values were – would they be surprised? It’s our job to make sure they aren’t.
Phase Four – Who do you want to impress?
Now we’re getting a better idea of who we are and what we stand for. Who do we want to bring on board?
Imagine your closest friend, how well would you say you know them? You know their likes and dislikes; you know what they get excited about and what makes them upset.
By the end of our brand strategy workshop, you’re going to know your customer as well as you know your closest friend.
How?
We’re going to create your general customer profile.
To create your general customer profile, we need to understand more about our customers lives by getting to know them better.
We’ll consider what your customer does day-to-day, how they behave, what they like, their lifestyle.
Let’s say you run a vegan food store, we’ve determined that a high percentage of your customers are likely to either be trendy millennials, those who value fresh, healthy foods or parents with young children who value healthy home-cooked meals.
How can we impress those customers?
For this target audience, we could use what we already know about them to our advantage by creating marketing campaigns that highlight that our food is – nutritious, convenient, vibrant, and delicious.
You see, by creating a customer profile, we can focus your brand’s marketing on the people that are already likely to love your products or services just as much as you do!
Now let’s suss out the competition.
Phase Five – Who are you competing with?
The key to a great brand strategy is figuring out who your competitors are and what you have that they don’t.
How are you going to stand out?
We are going to give your brand something to make it memorable.
During this phase, we shall become actors! Before you run a mile, we aren’t going to make you put on a performance, what we ARE going to do is put ourselves in your audiences’ shoes – think about things from their point of view, what options do they already have in the market and where is the gap? What might they want that is missing from the industry?
Now is the time to uncover what your brand can give them that no one else can! Although your competitors may be offering a similar service or product, how can we make the experience they have with your brand unique – an experience they won’t get anywhere else.
Your audience want to know how your brand is going to make them feel – what the outcome is going to be. It’s our job to show them how we can make them feel something your competitors can’t.
Phase Six – Who are you?
If your brand was a person, who would it be?
To build relationships with your audience, we need to give your brand a personality.
To give your brand a personality, we use the archetype framework, which identifies 12 potential personalities grouped into four areas based on common human desires.
The great thing about archetypes is that they show a human side of your brand which helps to create a deeper connection with your audience.
We’ll dive into more detail during our strategy workshop – we can’t give everything away just yet! You can see below the archetype wheel which will give you an idea.
To get to the bottom of who your brand really is, we’ll ask questions such as:
What features does your brand strongly associate with?
Does your brand motivate your audience?
What is the kind of connection people feel with your brand?
What do you want your business to make people do?
Why do people relate to your business?
Using the archetype wheel means we can pinpoint the CORE desire of your audience – this helps us to think about what role your brand plays in their lives and how we can ensure your brand personality relates to them.
Phase Seven – How do you want to sound to others?
Have you ever spoken to someone on the phone and instantly liked them? It’s crazy, isn’t it? How is it possible when we’ve never met them? Well, your tone of voice is an extension of your personality – the way you speak and conversate is a huge part of what draws people to you.
We’ve given your brand a personality, so of course it needs a voice – and a consistent one.
To give your brand’s personality a voice we’ll consider questions such as:
Is your brand loud and bombastic or quiet and reserved?
Does your brand speak slowly or get straight to the point?
Funny or Serious?
Sassy or Respectful?
Enthusiastic or Matter-of-fact?
The key is to ensure that your brand’s tone of voice feels familiar to them, so we’ll create a voice that reflects someone they’d get along with. If your branding is fun, vibrant, and funky – it’s unlikely your target audience will resonate with a slow, formal brand voice and vice versa.
So now your brand has a voice, it’s time to put everything together!
What’s next?
Now it’s our time to flex our creative muscles and show you what we can do! Once we have all the information we need from the brand strategy workshop, we can take our notes away, put our thinking caps on and expand even further through extensive research and development for your brand.
This often tends to be where all the weird and wonderful ideas begin to take shape, this can be a longer process so it’s better for you that we do this bit behind the scenes! We’ll then build on those ideas further by creating mood boards, colours, and imagery to begin your brand identity process. Once complete, the Azori team will present you with options for your new brand identity that we know you’ll adore!
Are you ready for a whole new image?
We can’t wait to see you!
