Understand first. Then build.
Positioning, target audiences, brand story and, if needed, a new name, all brought together in one strategic brand document. That document becomes the compass for your logo, your website and every piece of copy that follows, whether we create them or someone else does.
The foundation under everything that follows.
Brand strategy is the foundation everything else rests on. Your positioning decides who you attract. Your brand story decides why people stay. Your name decides how you’re remembered.
We lay that foundation together with you, based on who you are, who you want to reach and what the market around you looks like. That way, every decision that follows, from design to communication, is built on something solid.
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Why strategy comes before design
A beautiful logo on an empty box is still an empty box.
Most brands start with the visuals because they’re tangible. Picking a colour feels like progress. But an identity without strategy is a costume without a character. Sooner or later, it shows.
We flip the order: first we work out what your brand needs to mean, and only then decide how it should look. That sounds slower. In the end, it saves you months of work.
The process
From a vague feeling to sharp choices.
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An example
Wewatt: the story first, then the logo.
Wewatt makes bike-powered furniture that generates electricity and is present in more than twenty countries. The product worked, but the brand didn’t tell that story, and that hurts when you want to charge higher prices to international enterprise clients.
Before we drew a single line, we pinned down who the clients are: airports, corporate offices and universities, each with a different need. We chose English as the primary language and rewrote the communication to be simpler, clearer and more confident. The visual identity that followed had a clear direction from the start.
What you get
A compass for every decision that follows.
Brand positioning
A clear description of who you are, who you’re for and why that matters in your market.
Audience profiles
Concrete descriptions of your core audience: what drives them, what holds them back and how to reach them.
Competitor analysis
An overview of the space in your market and where you can stand out.
Brand story
The storyline that runs through all your communication. What you say, how you say it and why people remember it.
Naming advice
A well-founded name choice with the reasoning behind it and an availability check, where relevant.
Strategic brand document
Everything brought together in one reference document, usable by anyone who works on your brand.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about brand strategy.
What exactly is brand strategy?
Brand strategy is the set of choices about who you are as a brand, who you’re there for and why someone would choose you over a competitor. In practice, it covers positioning, target audiences, brand promise, brand story and tone of voice. The result is a document that everyone who works on your brand can fall back on.
When do you need a brand strategy?
Whenever your brand needs to head somewhere other than where it came from. A launch or relaunch, a new audience or market, a price increase, a merger or a rebrand. And if your team explains the same company in five different ways, that’s a sign the strategy isn’t sharp enough on paper.
What’s the difference between positioning and a slogan?
Positioning is an internal choice: the place you want to hold in your client’s mind, against which alternatives and on the strength of which proof. A slogan is one possible way of expressing that to the outside world. Without positioning, a slogan is a nice sentence that commits to nothing. With positioning, you also know what you won’t say.
How long does a strategy project take?
Usually two to four weeks, depending on how many conversations and interviews are involved and how quickly decisions are made internally. The strategy phase is also where we need the most thinking from your side. Teams that appoint a single decision-maker move noticeably faster.
Can you also come up with a new name?
Yes, naming is an optional step in the process. We look for a name that fits the positioning, is easy to pronounce in the languages you work in and sticks for the right reasons. We check whether the name is available as a domain name and in the trademark register. For the formal trademark registration, you’re best off working with a trademark specialist.
Can we get just the strategy, without a logo or website?
Yes. The strategic brand document is written to be usable by anyone: your own team, another designer or an agency you already work with. Many clients do go on to have us create the visual identity or the copy, because by then we know the brand inside out.
Case studies
Brands with a solid foundation.
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Branding
What follows the strategy.
Not sure where your brand should go next?
That’s exactly the right moment to start. Send us a message and we’ll ask the questions you hadn’t thought of yet.
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