Brand workshops – the smart way to health check your business

Bill Wallsgrove, of Brandad UK, explains how to get the right solution for a business with serious ambitions.

In my last article I explained my journey from graphic designer, or commercial artist as some of us still prefer to say, to brand consultant and copywriter. At the heart of my personal development is a passion for helping businesses communicate better by using design and narrative more effectively. I believe this is only possible by creating a sharply focused and clearly articulated brief that defines your communication objectives and truly understands your intended audience(s) and how to reach them.

Bad brand design and storytelling comes from a poor brief. If you don’t have a clear target, you won’t get a creative sniper’s trained response – you will have a shotgun / blunderbuss solution blasted all over the shop with no clear selection criteria in place. This will leave it to a subjective whim rather than the objective filter – which is no way to find the right solution for a business with serious ambitions.

Brand development is design in its truest sense – problem solving. It is a heady mix of art and science – the combination of analytical logic and imaginative ideas. Left and right brain working harmoniously together. To do this effectively you need a clear plan, smart process, and tailored methodology.

When I was creative director of my agency Planet Design (later bought by Interpublic and absorbed into Futurebrand) clients would often ask us to help them write the brief for new product and brand development. We knew this was a great collaboration idea combining a room full of commercial and creative skills to hone the direction and development process. We created the early prototype for the brand workshops that I now still deliver for my clients.

I moved to Brighton after I sold my shares in my last London agency, Brand Voice, to work as a freelance brand consultant. I set out on a course of providing my experience to both clients and local agencies to help them provide clearly articulated brand communication, both visual and verbal, to deliver more effective commercial results. I do this through collaboration by creating tailored brand workshops based on sound and proven principles.

I have been doing this for the last 10 years with clients both large and small. I am currently working with the NHS, the Design Council, the University of Brighton, a listed PLC and Plus X innovation – the latter leading to several entrepreneurial start-up brand creation projects and some personal branding initiatives.

What is a Brand workshop?

A brand is the bridge between business strategy and creative communication – it is the fundamental building block in expressing your mission and purpose. My workshops are stakeholder and consultancy sessions designed to give companies an objective expert view of their business through the lens of their brand. Based on a proven workshop methodology, it’s a perceptive, participative, and productive way to uncover new ideas and energy for your business in a process I call constructive provocation. It all starts with truly understanding each other and defining your goals and what success means to you.

My insight led workshops act as a brand MOT before refreshing a brand identity, creating, and naming a new one or launching new services or products. Whether you are repositioning your business reviewing your brand communication or redefining your purpose I can create a bespoke workshop programme for you. The key to a strong brand is an informed business. When you have your ear to the ground, are speaking to consumers, and understand sentiment, you can adapt your brand accordingly and win loyalty. I offer practical solutions and methodologies to gain insight, thereby informing your business and strengthening your brand. I bring in additional consultants and researchers where required.

The key components of my brand workshops

1/ Brand Strategy

It is all about understanding a brand, the context in which it exists and succeeds, the diagnosis of the problems, barriers, challenges, and opportunities it faces, is essential if you’re going to make a meaningful difference.

2/ Brand First

I don’t offer strategy to sell you a creative process, product, or service. I am media neutral – not attached to any agency – and have a wide network of talented partners in all creative and digital fields that I can recommend where and when required. I offer brand strategy to help you make better decisions. I offer the original thinking, insight, and direction only an independent objective outsider can provide to help you win more effectively however you define a successful outcome.

When do you need to review or create a new brand strategy?

There are several key reasons.

1/ When there is change within your existing organisation and you want to create a new company, product, or service, not linked to any other in your portfolio of brands (or sub-brands) or you need to spit your offer to different audiences. Here you need to create a defined brand architecture and a new hierarchy of communication.

2/ There is a fundamental commercial change. You need a new business strategy with a decision to shift a current brand into a different area or you have a corporate brand that has been invisible to date and needs to become more prominent and consumer facing. 

3/ Another scenario is that something is missing. You only have part of a brand strategy or only one of the key answers to the core questions of why you exist, who you are, how you do things or what it is you do with the customer benefits clearly defined – your elevator pitch.

4/ It could simply be a state of confusion. There is just too much going on and you have content overload. You have a vision, mission, purpose statement, values, principles, belief, behaviours, a brand essence, and a brand personality but these have all been created at different times and by varied teams with no connection between them. You now lack clarity, coherence, and simplicity. 

5/ Your brand is struggling – it already exists but needs a significant overhaul to make it more coherent, more effective across media and digital first in its approach and implementation.

6/ You are a start-up launching a new business and you require a brand name, with a unique visual and verbal language derived from a clearly defined brand strategy. You are currently just a blank sheet of branded paper but showing great promise for the future.

Brand workshop deliverables

The output of my brand workshop is a completed report summarising the conclusions of the session with draft creative and communication briefs which can include brand name and strapline recommendations where required. When you require further research stimulus, I can develop targeted creative content including mood boards and AI generated creative options. 

My driving purpose is your brand success. You want to own the very best brand in your category and want to build businesses, outmanoeuvre competitors, and even disrupt industries. I am here to help you start the process. We can have great fun doing this together.

https://brandad.co.uk/