Strategy Workshops: Where to Start?
By Levina Kusumadjaja
A strategy workshop is a time when you meet the brand’s decision makers to outline who or what the brand is, who needs to know about the brand, and how we are going to bridge the gap between the two.
The first time is almost always the scariest time, right? Your first day of college, your first day of work, your first client.. and if you’re like me and most creatives, your first strategy workshop. Just thinking about sitting down with my client for hours to uncover their brand sounds a lot more challenging than sending out an email questionnaire to our client. I have written these emails countless times before and it’s as if there’s no way it could go wrong. But... an actual face-to-face meeting with a client?
“What should I ask?”
“What if I run out of questions?”
“What if they run out of things to share, and yet I still don’t have all the information I need to develop a strategy for them?”
“Help...!!!”
I wanted to share this with you because I know how scary it is to do your very first strategy workshop. I used to talk to my clients via email or messenger. Many times, I didn’t even use a questionnaire and relied solely on the client’s email brief. At times when my client wasn’t clear, I would ask certain questions to clarify, but I wasn’t clarifying to understand my client’s goal—I was only clarifying to get the brief done. But I’ve come to realized that this wasn’t the right way to do things. Having a strategy workshop was a fundamental part of the process, and I wouldn’t know what to do if I didn’t have someone like Melinda to teach me about where to start. So, keep reading and I hope you can have more confidence coming into your workshop by having these questions in mind.
1) “Who are you?”
“You” here means the business. It means the brand. This question has everything to do with understanding the business. Uncover as much as you can about what the brand or business does. Talk in depth about the products and services that the brand or business are offering. If they have multiple types of products and services, dig into them. Dive into their business goals and figure out where they are in terms of achieving those goals.
Understand what the business is making, the needs that they are trying to solve. Ask questions about what the business can produce and what the business is actually producing. Talk about what the business wants to be known for, and what they are actually known for. Are they aligned? Look for stories, not adjectives. Use this time to get your clients share their stories, and then connect these stories together to build a holistic understanding about the business and the brand.
2) “Who are you for?”
Every business exists to serve certain needs of certain groups of customers. They must have this context because if they are not serving people, there is no reason for the business to exist. In question 1, you are outlining the business side of the brand. You are tapping into what they are offering to market. Now in question 2, you want to know who will benefit from what the business is offering.
Who are the brand’s ideal customers or super fans? If the business or the brand had to describe their ideal customer, how would this customer look like? Define their demographics, identify their interests and habits. Find out the origin story of the brand. Ask questions about the person that your clients had in mind when they started their business or brand. These questions will help you know who the business and brand exist for.
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Pretty simple questions, right? Don’t overthink the process and just start with these two questions above. You can’t figure out how to help your clients and their brands without knowing them and where they want to go. Once you know who the brand is and who the brand wants to reach, you can then start diving into how the brand can actually connect and reach the customers.
Now that you know where to start, your job is to simply schedule your first strategy workshop and get to it. Good luck and have fun!
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!