Brand Briefing | Complete Guide

Effective communication with the client is crucial for creation. An accurate briefing is crucial for creation and serves as your first impression with the client in a professional environment. Consider the initial briefing as your first presentation.

Many people don't attach enough importance to a briefing because they think it's only necessary to understand the client's objectives. This function is one of your roles, although it is the main one, it is not the only one. As well as familiarizing yourself with the client and their mission, you also establish communication with them. It is at the time of the briefing that the client assesses your professionalism.

The briefing also helps us to classify the client. When responding to our requests for information, the client often talks about their own experiences. The client who responds to your requests for information makes numerous suggestions on how to collaborate and relate to you.

Before the call, we strive to gather as much information as possible about the customer, so that we can get more detailed answers when we ask questions about their activity during the call. Most of the time, we have prepared answers to these questions, which we add to as necessary. The client likes to discuss their own work and ideas, which is a perfect opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of your company. By using this approach, it's always simpler to generate questions that we can ask the client to demonstrate their proficiency and direction in your company.

The course of events depends on the level of information provided by the client before the call. If they have their summary, they can analyze it during the call and address any controversial points. The main aim of this call is to gather all the information available in order to provide the fullest details. Usually, at first glance, it seems that the customer brief only describes the structure of the product. However, the estimate is greatly influenced by the volume of content and the complexity of the functionalities. The customer, on the other hand, may not always realize how complex the structure of your product is. And often, in their short time, they may not realize it.

Understand the objective: Optimise the client's objective for the project.

Establish a connection: Providing a briefing allows you to demonstrate your skills and determine whether we will collaborate with the client.

Classifying the client: Provisionally, we can classify clients into three groups: win-win, lose-win, win-lose, lose-lose.

• It's a win-win when all parties involved benefit, with the performer delivering high quality work to the portfolio and the client receiving a great product;
• In a win-win scenario, the client takes a back seat to your product, while the performer channels all their creativity into the portfolio;
• The win-lose scenario is effective when the client is directly involved in the product creation process with the designer, makes constant adjustments and ignores the opinions of experts;
• Opting for a lose-lose situation is a bad choice. During the meeting, it's important to establish which tasks the client and customer will not collaborate on, such as when their ideas for the product are different or when the client's intended work requires resources that the company doesn't have. And many other options.

Two additional issues related to the brand briefing are not readily apparent.

It's important to consider it as a draft

The man is seeing your questions for the first time, some of which may never have been considered before. We revisit this draft several times to further clarify the details.

Understanding your client's identity is crucial

Designers often fail to recognise that they are not communicating with the person who makes the final decisions. And this individual is crucial to the ultimate success of the project. Ideally, it would be best to talk about the project with the person who holds the decision-making power.

A well-crafted brand brief can help avoid communication problems with the client and speed up the work process. However, the additional question is: how can you ensure that it becomes a benefit rather than an obstacle? There are some guidelines for writing a brief.

Information structure

The arrangement of the information present is logical. Present the necessary data coherently and clearly to avoid additional questions arising.

Limit yourself to presenting only the necessary data

A person who truly loves their project, like any salesman, can talk about it endlessly. It's essential to eliminate unnecessary details and provide only the most important information to the executor.

Pay close attention to detail

Attention to detail is fundamental to achieving success. It's important to realise that branding can lift a company like a balloon or weigh it down like an anchor. Initially, we receive brief answers to the list of questions after a discussion with the client. During the e-meeting, we ask specific questions and can schedule additional calls to explain any unclear information. When we work with a client, we follow these factors:

• We establish the criteria as exhaustively as possible;
• We inspect them, orientations, fonts or dirt patterns;
• The criteria are used in our design process;
• We use the client's language in the presentation.

Establish goals and objectives precisely

The goals and objectives may be aligned, but not in the methodology. What are we trying to say? Understanding a person's motivation is crucial to setting a goal that aligns with them. This helps to understand the stages of engagement with the customer. In other words, if the customer's focus is on the financial and security aspects of the business, we should avoid discussing image and innovation with them.

• How urgent is the design right now?

Why do you need an urgent brand design? This language is crucial, as the client begins to answer the question and explain the company's situation. There is no sudden need for a design or model. If the client gives vague answers, it's advisable to ask for more specific details.

• What is the reason behind the name of your project?

This question is used when the client has difficulty answering positioning questions.

• Where is the ‘Logo location’ of the logo?

The phrase ‘logo location’ refers to the place where the logo will most often be visible. In the case of an electronic object, this is probably an institutional website. Perhaps the company is focussed on social networks, so it's important to think about how the logo will appear on the interface of a specific social network. The ideal place for the logo is known as Logo Location.

• Have you tried creating a design for this project?

You may come across a client who has already visited several agencies and for some reason didn't like your ideas. It's important to analyse the results of other organisations' efforts to ensure that your design strategy doesn't align with one that has already proved ineffective.

The briefing marks the first commercial interaction between a client and a service provider. The company is expected to receive additional information after the brief meeting, as it is essential to ask clarifying questions and it is crucial not to forget any details in this situation. This is why the briefing should be extended. When developing a brand briefing, it's important to understand its main objective. For example, should we simply introduce a product to the market to familiarise ourselves with it, or should we already create a perception of the company? And, of course, it's important not to ignore the suggestions provided above for drawing up a brief. If you would like professional help, please contact us.