How We Help Our Clients See the Forest for the Trees
As an essential first step in every branding project we take on, we ask each of our clients to complete an in-depth Stakeholder’s Questionnaire.
This all-encompassing survey is our initial attempt at mining insight from our clients with open-ended provocations that require more nuanced responses beyond a simple “yes” or “no.” While each of our questionnaires are unique to each new client, we have developed a basic template of categories in order to gain an exhaustive knowledge of the company’s history, present state, desired future state, and competitive landscape.
While one or two clients have protested to receiving homework from their agency prior to the kickoff of the work, most of them are quick to realize the importance (and the immense value) of this exercise in reaching alignment, both amongst themselves, and between our respective teams.
Here are the top 6 reasons we launch every branding project with the Stakeholder’s Questionnaire.
1. We learn about the company’s history.
Before we can identify a brand’s best path forward, we have to know where it is coming from. We always begin our questionnaire by asking when and why the company was started, and by who. While the aims of the brand may have changed over time, having insight into the original founders’ mission helps us contextualize the brand’s past successes, missed opportunities, and failures, which in turn helps us to better understand how they have reached their current state.
2. We identify where the brand currently stands.
Obviously, we need to know what opportunities or challenges our clients’ brand is currently facing. Some combination of factors have culminated in their decision to partner with our agency, and we need to gain a deep understanding of their strategic intent in order to devise a strategy that will propel their brand to its highest potential.
3. We establish the desired future state of the business.
While most brands share a common desire for growth, success means something different for every single client we work with. We probe each of our clients to learn what their specific goals for the company are. Often, we find that different stakeholders have different goals, which is an issue that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.
4. We gain insight into what inspires them, as well as any “red flags” we’ll need to avoid.
If one of the stakeholders has a panic attack anytime she sees the color green, we’d like to know about that before we invest hours of work into a visual ecosystem that heavily features a stunning shade of chartreuse. Likewise, if the stakeholders have already gathered inspiration that they’d like to see reflected in their new brand, our team needs to see it in order to make that happen.
5. We identify their primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences.
Successful brands don’t exist in a vacuum. They are tailored to resonate with the audiences who are most likely to become loyal supporters. If we neglect to identify our primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences at the outset, we will be missing important context as we move forward, which can lead to bad decisions and missed opportunities. We need to understand our customers’ goals, so we can tailor our brand to fit seamlessly into their lives.
6. We pinpoint the true differentiators and value propositions that set the brand apart.
In nearly every category, consumers have an overwhelming amount of brands to choose from. To stand out in a crowded market, a brand has to know exactly who they are, what makes them unique, and what value they can offer consumers that their competitors cannot. This is arguably the most important consideration in the entire process of creating a brand, which is why we aim to identify these value propositions as early in the project as possible via the Stakeholders Questionnaire.
7. We create a priority roadmap & a plan to tackle it.
In order to make best use of our time, we use the Stakeholders Questionnaire to identify which 5–10 most essential pieces of branded collateral needed by our client. As we explore various visual concepts for the brand through these “roadmap items,” we will simultaneously be crafting the touchpoints that culminate in a cohesive brand experience that can be deployed immediately.
In closing…
We hope that this post was helpful and that we’ve convinced you to incorporate a stakeholders questionnaire on your next project. If you’d like to see an example of one of our questionnaires, reach out to us at hello@herman-scheer.com. We’d be happy to send one your way.
