Brand Strategy

Before the brochures, the website or the Facebook page, you need a brand. A clear articulation of where you’re coming from, who you are, what you stand for and what makes you worthy of attention. Sadly, many brands skip the brand strategy stage and jump straight into execution, wasting valuable time, money and energy.

I’d love to help you tell your brand’s story. But bigger than that, I want to help your organization know and live its brand story.

To this end, I’ve developed a strategic planning process called Narrative Strategic Planning. It’s based on the principle that people remember and are moved by stories – not flow charts, five-year plans or SWOT analyses.

Narrative Branding

According to Donald Miller, author of “Blue Like Jazz” and “A Million Miles In a Thousand Years,” every great story has the following pieces:

A character that wants something and overcomes conflict to attain it.

A brand is really nothing more than the story of your company. Narrative Branding is one way to uncover and tell that story.

Getting Started

To get started, I’d spend time getting to know your company and industry through face-to-face interviews with your key decision makers, online surveys of your internal team and qualitative surveys of your external audiences – customers, supporters, members, etc. After this initial groundwork is complete, we will come together for a one– or two-day workshop where we will review the results of the research and, more importantly, we’ll go to work articulating who you are, what you want, what challenges you’ll face along the way and how you’ll know when you’ve arrived.

If you’re interested in more information about this process, contact me today.