The Brand Discovery Session Formula
[The Brand Strategy Groundwork]
Before you build a brand, you need to understand the conditions within that brand will live and that is the function of the Brand Strategy Session.
If you were to sit in a dentists chair and he began revving his drill like a Honda 50 before even looking inside your mouth, you’d be out of that chair quicker than he could say “open wide”.
Off the shelf solutions work for many industries, but for others an understanding of the problem is paramount for a positive solution.
When it comes to branding, that understanding is achieved through an effective discovery session and in this article you’ll learn all you need to know about how to run one.
Before you build a brand, you need to understand the conditions within that brand will live and that is the function of the Brand Strategy Session.
If you were to sit in a dentists chair and he began revving his drill like a Honda 50 before even looking inside your mouth, you’d be out of that chair quicker than he could say “open wide”.
Off the shelf solutions work for many industries, but for others an understanding of the problem is paramount for a positive solution.
When it comes to branding, that understanding is achieved through an effective discovery session and in this article you’ll learn all you need to know about how to run one.
What Is A Brand Discovery Session?
On a basic level, a session is just a fancy word for meeting; therefore a discovery session is simply a meeting between the key players.
Building a brand has very little to do with logos, fonts and colours, and everything to do with strategically bringing a business and the group of people it aims to serve, together.
A discovery session lays bare the critical information about the business, the group of people its attempting to appeal to and the environment where this new relationship with blossom.
In essence, this session provides the initial ingredients for the foundation of the brand to be built.
Brand Discovery Session Definition
A brand discovery session is a meeting between the business leaders and brand builders to uncover the critical information required to build a strategic brand.
Discovery Session Participants
(Who Are They?)
A discovery session can be conducted in a room of 20+ people or over the phone between two.
This is determined by many factors including the size of the business and project as well as the processes of the branding agency or consultant.
At a minimum, the decision maker within the business and the brand strategist would be required to attend.
With smaller businesses, there is usually a single decision-maker while larger organisations often have multiple decision-makers all with a vested interest in the direction of the brand.
Although no decisions are actually made within the discovery session, it’s important that the decision makers are involved from the beginning to avoid any oversight.
How you conduct your discovery sessions will be largely down to the businesses you’re helping and the structure of your brand development processes.
The Goal Of A Discovery Session
The goal of the discovery session is to ensure the brand-building team have a clear understanding of the business, the intended audience and the market landscape before strategizing an approach.
The information gathered from the discovery session provides the details from which critical decisions are made.
If this information is incomplete, inaccurate or has been overlooked, the brand from which it’s built has little chance of appealing to the intended audience.
The goal of the discovery session, therefore, is to gather as much accurate information as possible about the business, the audience, and the landscape, to enable a sound strategy.
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How To Run A Brand Discovery Session
Traditionally, the discovery session is divided into two phases, which are
Preliminary Discovery Phase
Advanced Discovery Phase
Together, the two phases provide the necessary ingredients and both are critically important to uncovering an accurate understanding of the conditions of the brand’s environment.