Our Engagement Framework for Brand Creation: There are few steadfast rules to brand creation. The very nature of creation is to seek unique perspectives, express them in equally new ways, and sometimes break a few rules in the process. We recognize that the 'new' is a challenge to embrace and that individual subjectivity will be present for every engagement. Successful management of the process without losing sight of key objectives is often the primary motivation for partnering with a branding agency, which is why we provide a robust framework for our services that applies the best practices we have developed over the past two decades, and one that can easily satisfy a broad spectrum of opportunities and related requirements:
  • Transactional: A client requires a distinct deliverable, e.g., name creation, and they pay as they go for each wave of creation. The transaction framework is usually driven by a specific client consideration, e.g., timeline or budget.
  • Consultative: A client requires a formalized brand creation engagement with multiple project milestones and a guaranteed outcome, e.g., a registered trademark. The consultative framework is a collaborative effort, where we personalize the engagement to address specific client objectives.

The following flow chart illustrates a typical consulting project. While not every client needs to implement every step, our framework is a good place to start the conversation. Verbal and visual identity development tracks can be conducted in parallel or as separate engagements. Brand strategy may be integrated within the 'immersion' and ‘exploration’ steps or also be conducted as a separate engagement:

Regardless of service selection or target category, we begin with 'immersion,' the first step in what is typically a four month engagement. In mutual conversation, by auditing available information or creating new, research-driven insights, we provide a foundation for ideation and associated creation to make certain we explore every opportunity and never lose sight of our objectives.

The 'exploration' and 'optimization' steps allow our clients to be completely comfortable with the process of brand creation, providing a wealth of creative possibilities that have been pre-screened to avoid the most problematic legal, cultural, linguistic and marketing obstacles.

Our robust legal and research ’filtration' capabilities specific to verbal and visual identity assets are scalable to every budget and timeline. Innovative metrics and research methods enable our ’projection' of your future brand identity to reflect different concepts, positions, segments or regions.

The final 'conclusions' step is included within every engagement regardless of selected services and at no additional cost. Here we review each project milestone to inform the selection process, facilitate team consensus and ensure that we have addressed every outstanding question.

We promise every client the maximum return for an investment in our services at a reasonable cost, and guarantee that a consultative project is never completed until we have successfully met the expectations of our client.