Conducting Research (Phase 1)

Overview

Phase 1 of the branding process: understand the organization before you design anything. Research informs future decisions — it should never justify decisions already made. Understanding comes from reading strategic documents, interviewing stakeholders, experiencing the brand as a customer, and auditing everything the organization already says and shows. Research is a dance between the intuitive and the intentional.

When to use

• At the very start of a new identity, rebrand, repositioning, or merger — before strategy or design begins.
• When you need consensus on the business problem, the brand's essence, or the constraints the new identity must work within.
• When you must present learnings to senior management to close the research phase.
• Do NOT use this to make design/strategy decisions — that is a later phase; here you only gather and synthesize.

Goals of research

• Understand strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis competitors.
• Discern internal values and stakeholders' collective vision for the brand.
• Discover any constraints within which the new brand identity must be built.
• Establish consensus on the business problem to solve.
• Uncover the essence of the company.