by Philippa Smart
Many times over the last twenty years, we’ve been commissioned to design new brands, literature, packaging, advertising and of course web sites. The brief could at best be described as ‘brief’ and it was always my mission to question, question, question.
Without me doing this, I could never have created and achieved the results we have for clients. The quality of the brief is paramount. Without the depth and background of what the business is trying to achieve how can this design gain tangible results? The return on investment for a design alert business is £225 for every £100 spent according to research by the Design Council. Design must be aligned to the company’s strategy – makes complete sense to me.
So this list is designed to help marketeers achieve a much better result in their dealings with design agencies.
- Business plan including vision and strategy.
- Marketing plan
- All existing marketing collateral
- Brand guidelines
- The purchasing procedure
- Contacts – who does what and full contact details
- A full written brief not a paragraph
- Any research or focus group feedback
- Product info and the product itself
- Budgets
- Examples of brands they aspire to and why
- Competitor analysis
- Holidays booked!