Step one

Client Discovery

Goal: To understand the questions and pain points of the client and current brand.

Step two

Desktop research

Understand the design landscape and gather clear and quantifiable data that can inform the brand.

Step three

Summary and conclusions

Prioritise information you found and put together a clear report that your client can use and understand.

1. Client discovery

I like to use the tool HolaBrief to help my clients define their goals and challenges

In Holabrief, I cover:

• Overview of the company (big picture) - goals and pain points from their perspective
• Who are their competitors and how are they positioned compared to your client?
• Have they received any feedback from customers? Can we read it?
• Customer profiles:
• Demographics
• How do they like to buy?
• What motivates them?
• Brand perception - do people know about the brand? Who does?
• Positioning map - how do they want to be different and how far away is this?
• How might we questions - what do we want the new brand to accomplish

2. Desktop research

Research checklist

Visual and style research

• [ ] Direct competitors
• Who are they?
• Design choices
• Messaging/tone of voice
• [ ] Indirect competitors
• What niches might they have missed?
• What are they doing right?
• [ ] Trends for the same audience
• Culture and movements
• Psychology
• Recent rebrands

Target audience research

• [ ] Demographics
• [ ] What is the core problem they want to solve for?
• [ ] How can we extend this to a solution and what language is used?
• [ ] Specific problems brought up by client
• [ ] Conducting surveys
• [ ] Conducting interviews and focus groups

Where to find information

• Company websites - for competitors and brands the same audience likes