How to Present a Brand Strategy
By Levina Kusumadjaja
When I was in business school, presentations were daunting. Every 2 weeks, each team was given 1 question to answer, 1 company to assess, and 9 different frameworks or more to apply to the company. Sometimes you have 2 weeks, sometimes you have 1 week, sometimes you have 1 night—it depends on the professor’s mood. On the d-day, you will come in with suits, a 3000-word script of and a 120-slides powerpoint. The presentations took at least 40 mins at best to 1 hour at worst. You had to go through this for 4 semesters.
Fast forward 10 years from then, I am grateful that learning brand strategy showed me I didn’t have to do those presentations to solve my client’s problem. Even though I learned a lot from business school, I didn’t learn much about having fun while solving problems. It was through brand strategy that I learned this: the best part about being in this creative journey is that there isn’t a fixed framework that works like magic forever. Every client is a learning experience. Every project is a chance to have fun. There is no one single template that defines the right way to present brand strategy.
You are free from the pressure to present brand strategy using certain frameworks.
The purpose of tactics, frameworks and tools are to make things easier. They help you like a starter kit, giving you the first stepping stone at times when you are still figuring out which steps to take. However, as you grow, if the frameworks end up complicating your process and your thinking, then you are free to completely abandon those frameworks. Just because you are enrolled in a certain class doesn’t mean you are forever obligated to stick to the templates you learn in that class.
The most important thing is that you have fun doing it and it helps make other people’s lives better. For example, Nick (one of the coaches in the Bootcamp) once presented brand strategy using post-its. Yes, post-its! I have certainly never thought of that. So, if you prefer writing everything on paper, then that’s totally fine. If you want to write stuff on a chalkboard you have at home, that’s fine too. If you want to use an online whiteboard, go for it! Perhaps for me, I have the most fun when I turn the brand strategy presentation into a storytelling session. But perhaps for you, you enjoy sharing the brand strategy through really cool animations on screen. Is one more valuable than the other? Is one more correct than the other? Absolutely not.
There isn’t a right way or wrong way—as long as you enjoy it, and it helps your clients better understand their brand and how they can get to their goals.
Keep in mind too that what works now may not work as well a few years from now, not because you are doing a bad job, but because you are growing in your journey. This growth will impact how you want to present brand strategy too. Remember to give space for you to adapt and explore as you go. You will never know what other fun things you will discover later and when you do, you are free to give them a try!
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!