Strategy

Our approach to strategy begins at digital. Because more and more, people’s primary interaction with your brand takes place here. We work with you to uncover how you should behave in this evolving landscape — through a process that’s as open and collaborative as the medium is.

Insights + Trends

Research is more than collecting data. It’s taking that information and translating it into insights you can act on. It’s uncovering undeniable truths about your brand, your market and your consumers.

LISTENING & OBSERVING

We throw ourselves into your industry with an outsider’s curiosity, looking closely at your market, your competitors and larger trends. We talk to your consumers and observe them in the field to better understand their behaviors. And we gather insider knowledge through stakeholder interviews.

DECIPHERING THE CHATTER

There are conversations about your brand taking place on blogs, forums and all across the social media landscape. We put our ear to this deluge of dialogue and opinion, separating the signal from the noise.

FINDING THE GEMS

We pull these disparate bits of information together to identify unexpected connections and clear trends. Finally, we organize it in a way that surfaces precious insights.

Positioning + Guidelines

Before you can chart a course for your brand, you need to know who you are and what makes you unique. We work with you to discover the piece of territory you can own, then build a strategy to stake your claim.

DISCOVERING THE WHITE SPACE

We immerse ourselves in your brand’s heritage. We look at trends and anticipate where your competition is headed. We develop personas that help you understand your audience in finer detail.

Armed with this knowledge, we identify the white spaces: fertile soil where your brand can live, grow and thrive.

LIVING THE BRAND IDEA

This culminates in the brand idea – a single direction that defines your brand, guiding and informing how you should act. Because it’s not what you say. It’s what you do.

From here, we develop the pitch-perfect language to bring the brand idea to life. This includes the usual building blocks like core attributes, logo, visual language, copy and tone.

DIGITAL BEHAVIORS

And we go beyond these, to define your brand’s digital behaviors. Because when digital is the biggest point of connection with your audience (and, more and more, it is) the way people interact with your brand says as much about you as your logo does.

Identifying Opportunities

The rules of engagement have changed. Interruption is dead. Now, the audience decides. And in order to get their attention, you have to be relevant. Helpful. Interesting. You have to offer them something they want or need.

KNOWING WHAT THEY WANT

To know what your audience needs, you have to know who they are, where they spend their time, and what they’re doing there. Only then can you find the openings where your brand can start a conversation.

MAKING FRIENDS

With a good understanding of those potential points of connection, we can make recommendations for two-way engagement:

  • What messaging is most relevant
  • What utility and services your brand might provide
  • The sort of content you should create
  • The places your brand has permission to tread