Demystifying brand discovery

And do you even need it?

—02.11.22

What’s your appetite for risk?

Perhaps it’s a bit of a strange question coming from a brand design consultant but bear with me…

Let’s say you’re thinking about embarking on a rebrand or brand refresh and you see the phrase, ‘brand discovery’ or ‘brand immersion’ as the first in a series of steps an agency has in mind for you.

Do you know what it means? And will you be taking a chance on it? (The agency knows what it’s doing, right?) Or, as you’re pretty sure you know what you want from the design process, maybe you’ll see if you can skip anything with a whiff of workshop about it.

Why discovery matters

In truth, brand discovery (that’s what I call it!) is integral to any rebrand or brand refresh. It sits at the heart of a project, and is far more than that initial, ‘getting to know you’ discovery call a client and agency have by way of introduction to each other. It’s what needs to happen before anyone starts doing any of the creative work as it is what informs the brand strategy.

So, rather than being a question of, “Do I need this?” it’s more about, “How deep do we need to go?”

It helps you manage risk

A helpful way to look at it is as a see-saw or sliding scale – the bigger the brand overhaul, the riskier it gets and so there’s a greater need to invest in really thorough research. It’s a way of mitigating the risks that any change such as rebranding brings:

Potential damage to your carefully built brand equity
Financial cost of rebadging – on and offline
Cost in terms of the time that will need to be blocked off

After all, you just want to get it right. So, if you’ve been in business for a while and it feels like your brand identity hasn’t kept pace with where you are and where you’re headed, then go in deep, looking at your brand from all manner of perspectives.

How to make the most of brand discovery

Use brand discovery to acquire absolute clarity on the what, how (character and personality) and why of your business, involve and listen to your team, and then take the discovery process beyond your organisation. Look outwards – examine how your customer sees you, understand what they care about and challenge yourself to look at your marketplace and the wider context you operate in (remembering that not all your competitors will sit in the same space as you). All of this will help you mitigate risk and create a brand that’s more empathic and finely focused on the value you provide.

Brand discovery, immersion or 360° – let them call it what they like, but do make sure you do it.