Creating a sales call template in Notion can help keep you on track and ensure that you cover all the necessary topics. It can also help you stay organized and make sure that you don’t forget anything important. Here are some tips for creating a sales call template:

Create an Outlined Sales Call Template

Before you start creating your template, outline the topics you want to cover during the call. Think about the questions you need to ask and the information you need to convey to the client.

Here are a few questions that you may want to add to your sales call outline:

1. What are your business goals and objectives, and how are you hoping the design will help you achieve them?
2. How will you measure the success of this project, and what metrics will you use?
3. Who is the target audience the design will need to appeal to, and what are their needs and pain points?
4. What sets your business apart from your competitors, and how can design help you stand out?
5. How much time are you willing to invest in this project, do you have anything planned in the next couple of months that may take away from that time?
6. Will you be the sole decision maker for the project or are there key stakeholders we should be aware of?
7. What is your timeline for this project, and are there any key milestones we need to hit?
8. What is your budget for this project, and how much value do you expect to get from it?
9. What is your vision for this project, and how can we collaborate to bring that vision to life?
10. How involved in the design process are you hoping to be, and what level of input and feedback do you expect to provide?
11. What challenges or concerns do you have about this project?

Asking these questions can help you understand the client’s goals, budget, timeline, and expectations. It can then help you create a proposal that is tailored to their needs. It also helps build trust and rapport with the client and sets the stage for a successful project.

Use a Consistent format

Use a consistent format for your template so that it’s easy to follow. You might want to include sections for the introduction, client information, questions, and next steps. This takes away any awkwardness or nerves before a sales call because you are following a familiar format every time.

Include Space for Notes

Make sure to include space for notes so that you can jot down important information during the call. This can help you stay focused and engaged during the conversation.

Test and Tweak Your Sales Call

Once you’ve created your template, test it out during a few sales calls. Make adjustments as necessary to ensure that it’s effective and meets your needs.

Then when it is time to present the proposal you can revert to the notes you made in the sales call. I also use my notes from this call if any objections arise in the process. It helps to revert to what they initially said they wanted.

By creating a sales call template, you can streamline your sales process and ensure that you’re prepared for every call. It can also help you provide a better experience for your clients, make you more confident, and help with future sales calls.

Interested in learning more about how to use Notion for your design business? Sign up to be the first to know when my new Notion for Designers course launches!

A heads-up that this blog post includes affiliate links. All the words are my own and I only recommend products that I use and love.

The post How I Prep for a Sales Call with Design Clients appeared first on quillandco.design.

Here’s why:

Brand Colors

First, brand colors are incredibly important. They create an emotional connection with your audience and can even influence purchasing decisions. Think about it – when you see a red and white logo, you might associate it with excitement and energy (like Coca-Cola) or with passion and romance (like the Valentine’s Day section at your local drugstore). On the other hand, a blue and green logo might make you feel calm and relaxed (like the ocean or a peaceful forest).

By choosing the right colors for your brand, you can create a mood or feeling that aligns with your brand values and messaging. And by consistently using those colors across all of your marketing materials, you can build a strong brand identity that your customers will recognize and trust.

Font Choices

Second, fonts are also important for your brand. The right font can help to convey your brand personality and values. For example, a bold and modern font might be perfect for a tech startup that wants to convey innovation and forward-thinking, while a classic and elegant font might be better for a luxury brand that wants to convey sophistication and exclusivity.

Just like with colors, consistency is key when it comes to fonts. By using the same fonts across all of your marketing materials, you can reinforce your brand identity and create a cohesive customer experience.

Brand Messaging

Now, don’t get me wrong – your logo is still an important part of your brand. It’s just not the most important part. Your logo should be a visual representation of your brand values and messaging, and it should be consistent with your brand colors and fonts.

But ultimately, it’s the combination of all these elements – your colors, fonts, logo, messaging, and more – that create a strong and memorable brand. So instead of focusing solely on your logo, take the time to develop a comprehensive brand strategy that includes all of these elements. You can learn about my 4 secrets to creating an irresistible brand here.

In conclusion, while your logo is an important aspect of your brand, it’s not the only one. Your brand colors and fonts are equally important – if not more so – for creating a strong and memorable brand identity. So take the time to develop a comprehensive brand strategy that includes all of these elements, and you’ll be on your way to building a brand that your customers will love and trust.

The post Your Logo Isn’t Important (and what actually is) appeared first on quillandco.design.

That’s the power of branding, my friend.

Brand guidelines are like a blueprint for creating that special feeling for your business. They define the visual and verbal identity of your brand, including your logo, color palette, typography, and tone of voice. When done right, they help you stand out in a crowded market, build trust with your audience, and create a memorable experience for your customers.

But why are brand guidelines so important, you ask? Let me break it down for you:

Consistency is key

Have you ever stumbled upon a brand’s social media page, only to be confused by their inconsistent visuals and messaging? It’s like trying to navigate a maze blindfolded. When your brand is all over the place, it’s hard for your audience to recognize and remember you.

Brand guidelines help you maintain a consistent look and feel across all your touchpoints, from your website to your social media profiles to your email newsletters. This consistency not only helps you build brand recognition but also makes it easier for your audience to trust and engage with you.

Saves you time and money

Let’s be real, as a business owner, time and money are two of your most valuable resources. When you have brand guidelines in place, you don’t have to waste precious hours agonizing over which font to use or what colors to pick for your next Instagram post. You already have a set of rules to guide your creative decisions, which means you can focus on creating content that resonates with your audience.

Plus, when you have a clear idea of what your brand looks and sounds like, you’re less likely to waste money on designs that don’t fit your brand. You can confidently outsource design work or invest in branding tools that align with your brand guidelines, knowing that they’ll deliver results that meet your standards.

Builds brand loyalty

When you create a consistent and memorable brand experience, you’re more likely to build a loyal following. People are drawn to brands that evoke emotions and create a sense of belonging. By sticking to your brand guidelines, you can create a cohesive brand story that resonates with your audience on a deeper level.

Think of your favorite brands. What do they have in common? They all have distinct personalities and voices that set them apart from their competitors. Brand guidelines help you define that personality and create a brand that people can connect with on an emotional level.

In conclusion, brand guidelines are essential for any business that wants to create a strong, recognizable brand. By defining your visual and verbal identity, you can maintain consistency, save time and money, and build brand loyalty. So if you haven’t already, take the time to create your own brand guidelines. Your business (and your customers) will thank you for it.

Happy branding!

The post Why You Need Brand Guidelines appeared first on quillandco.design.

So to help you take the guess work out of deciding if offering brand strategy is right for you, here’s a few key indicators.

What Exactly is Brand Strategy?

In order to decide if you should offer brand strategy, you’re going to need a good understanding of what exactly brand strategy is. At its core, brand strategy is a mapped out plan of action that aligns your brand, your goals, and your audience together. It’s essentially the blueprint to business success. Here at Quill & Co, we call the brand strategy process the “Brand Roadmap” because it’s a mapped out plan of action on how to take your business from point A to point B. From there, we build a shortcut that clearly shows the overlap between business goals, the brand heart, and the customer’s needs. Through brand strategy, we are able to zoom in on a clear vision and plan to help them achieve their goals that both serve the ideal customer and move the needle in the business.

Offering Brand Strategy Is Not For You If…

You don’t have the time and energy to committing to learning and making mistakes

Just like design, brand strategy is a learned skill. We didn’t wake up expecting to be amazing designers from day one, and we should expect the same when it comes to learning new skills like brand strategy.

It took me a lot of trial and error to figure out how best to introduce it to my clients. Everyone has their own take on how to implement it into their offerings and will take you time to master it. So you’ll need to be prepared to be patient, to make mistakes, and commit to learning.

You are happy with what you are delivering right now

If you are happy designing logos and pretty graphics that’s amazing and you should keep doing it! You don’t have to offer brand strategy to be a good designer or a better designer.

However, If you are interested in taking a more holistic view at the entire brand, then brand strategy is for you. By offering brand strategy you get to take a look at what the brand values, the brands personality, and their vision for the world and decide on how to portray that visually through the brand identity. **

A brand’s logo is a small piece of a much bigger picture… think a single puzzle piece. Now imagine dumping the box containing the rest of the pieces in front of your client, and proceeding to assemble it piece by piece. Finishing off the puzzle by placing that final piece, the logo.

You think that you “should” or because others are offering it

Offering something to our clients just because we think we should or that we think we can charge more and not because we want to or are passionate about brand strategy is never a good idea.

Because here’s the hard truth, If you offer something that you don’t want to do – you’re going to do a shitty job at it. And I want you to know you can charge more without offering brand strategy (you just have to raise your prices, because you can and because you’re probably just undercharging).

Offering Brand Strategy Is For You If….

You want to be seen as an expert by clients

When you know strategy, you gain a seat at the table with decision making with your client. You go from order taker or pixel pusher to someone that your client trusts. You aren’t just presenting them with pretty colors and fonts- you’re giving them business solutions. You take on more of a consultant role.

When you can start providing real solutions to business problems your clients will trust you so much!

You want to be able to charge expert prices

We’ve all heard the phrase “you get what you pay for”. Well, when you are offering brand strategy, you are offering so much more for the client! You are helping them build a really solid brand foundation, you’re helping them get clear on their mission, vision, voice, and so much more. You also are no longer taking on small scope projects for one-off pieces. So instead of taking on random small projects, you are now working on bigger budget, full-scope projects for the whole brand experience.

You’re ready to help your clients with bigger problems

Brand strategy can be as in-depth as you want to make it, but at its most basic level it should answer these main topics:

1. The Brand Mission: The guiding vision for the brand and its long-term goals, every decision about the brand should be made with this in mind. Businesses that lack a brand mission operate without principles, which can deter them from reaching their real goals.
2. The Brand’s How: This equates to what are the actual products or services that the business offers. Beyond that, it answers the brand’s processes for delivering or experiencing said offer.
3. The Brand’s Audience: An incredible offer is only as good as the people it serves, and for that we need to know who those people are, what they need, and what motivates them. Oftentimes in traditional marketing, the ideal client avatar centers around demographics but in our version of brand strategy we focus more on psychographics — what do they care about, what motivates them, what are they afraid of? These kind of questions bring us closer to who they really are to better see the solutions we can provide them.
4. The Brand’s Differentiating Factor: What makes this brand different from the rest and why do they shine compared to the competition? By looking to the differentiating factors we can more easily spot opportunities or gaps in the market to better position the brand.
5. The Brand’s Values: What does the brand stand for and what does it believe in? Asking these deeper questions help to understand how these values impact the long-term goals. You can also think of it like a moral compass for the brand.
6. The Brand’s Voice: Thinking about the brand’s personality and tone helps develop a more consistent and cohesive in-person and online presence. This impacts everything from the copy to the visuals and is critical for reaching the right people.

So, is brand strategy a good offering for your business?

Now that you’ve learned more about what brand strategy is and isn’t. You can think critically about if it would be a good fit for your business and potential clients. If all of this sounds exciting to you and you’re ready to dive in, be sure to hop on the waitlist for Brand Clarity Academy. his is Quill & Co’s signature program that teaches the fundamentals of brand strategy, how to run calls with clients, and how to use your takeaways to deliver a profound Brand Roadmap document that serves as a steady foundation for all branding to come.

Join the waitlist here or continue exploring more blogs about brand strategy!

The post Should Designers Be Offering Brand Strategy? appeared first on quillandco.design.

Later in school, I took pride in being able to skip steps in art class. My teacher wanted me to lay out the proportions, draw a rough sketch of the skeletal structure but I would jump ahead and just draw what I saw. I thought this proved I was good at drawing. But when I went to college, and when figure drawing class got tough, I was caught off-guard. My professor made me cry a few times as he scolded me for not following the process.

And none of this is to judge. I’m guilty of this type of thinking too. I’m often impatient and want things quickly. We all want to skip the tough or uncomfortable parts.

The desire for shortcuts is widespread. We all want a successful business, but often we don’t want to put in the hard work or experience failures along the way.

One thing I’ve noticed is, we’re willing to jump ahead of the foundations in order to start implementing something sexier.

1. Instead of thinking about color psychology, a color palette gets pulled from Pinterest
2. We’ll use the latest trendy font instead of thinking about the personality of the brand
3. So much emphasis will be put on the visuals of the brand without ever thinking about what the brand actually stands for

Setting the foundations first takes work and it’s not always easy and I think this is why a lot of people skip the business strategy and brand strategy in order to dive headfirst into a marketing strategy.

We hear the word “strategy” a lot these days. And there are a lot of strategies out there but ultimately it just means a plan of action- how you’re going to get something done.

And if you are scratching your head wondering what the difference is between business, brand, and marketing strategy, I totally get it and you are so not alone.⠀

These are all stand-alone strategies but there is some overlap between them. Allow me to break it down for you.

Step One: Business Strategy

This covers things like the business model, sources of revenue, cost structure, and strategic partnerships.

We can find the overlap between business strategy and brand strategy when we take a look at the marketplace and the peers in our space.

Step Two: Brand Strategy

This covers things like the essence of the organization, its characteristics, values, attributes, and positioning. The brand strategy is more of a “pull tactic”, meaning what makes the brand magnetic and why do people come to you?

We can find the overlap between brand and marketing strategy when we think about things like our unique positioning and who our audience is and what their needs are.

Step Three: Marketing Strategy

This is the plan for promoting and selling a product or service. The marketing strategy is more of a “push tactic”, meaning what do we need to do to get in front of people?

The sequence of following these three steps is important.

Business Strategy Brand Strategy Marketing Strategy

I’m not going to scold you or make you cry like my professor did for skipping a step. We all do it. But when we skip a step we ultimately have to go back to the foundations. What we think is a shortcut will actually end up taking more time.

You have to establish one strategy before you can move on to the other. But when they work together and no steps are skipped – *chef’s kiss*

To learn more about brand strategy check out this blog post and this blog post!

The post The Difference Between Business, Brand, and Marketing Strategy appeared first on quillandco.design.

If this is you and you need something to help you stand out against the rest.

Well, allow me to throw you a life preserver.

Back in 1962 Avis always came up as #2 against their rival Hertz. So they set out to launch a new campaign to help position themselves as better.⠀⠀⠀

But during their research and brand strategy phase, as much as they tried, they really couldn’t come up with anything that really helped them stand apart. So instead of fighting it, they embraced their weakness.

They really couldn’t think of anything other than, “We try harder because we have to”.

They came up with a new slogan “when you’re No. 2, you try harder.” They ran ads that read “Avis can’t afford to make you wait”, and “Avis can’t afford not to be nice”.

Their customers loved it and they went from losing over 2 million to making over 1 million in one year. (Remember this was 1962 so about $8.9 million today).

It went down as one of the most memorable marketing campaigns in history for one single reason – it doesn’t pretend to be something that it isn’t. Avis didn’t claim to be the best in their industry instead they embraced their flaws with humility and in turn it helped them stand out in a competitive market.

I know this all happened in 1962, but I think we can still learn so much from Avis. What if instead of trying to hide our flaws, our quirks, or what we’re a little bit embarrassed about- we embraced them.

Instead of trying to hide our weirdness we took ownership and found the silver lining?

So, what’s YOUR weirdness? What are you trying to hide that could actually be your superpower?

If you’d like to learn more about leveraging brand strategy check out this blog post as well as this blog post.

The post Avis Case Study appeared first on quillandco.design.

But let’s be real, developing a brand strategy can be a lot of work and take a long time to perfect and establish.

While I find brand strategy as an integral part of a successful brand, I know that it doesn’t fit into everyone’s budget and sometimes you need something quick to start moving the needle in your business. Enter: Design VIP days (read more about all of the details here). These VIP days are a great way to work closely in a one-day sprint to get your brand launched. I reserve my whole day just for you, and by the end of the day, you will have the important elements of a brand identity needed for your business.

Pre-Design

Unfortunately we can’t complete a full brand strategy in one day, I can only do so much. But we will waste no time! So dive in with me:

It is important that your brand has thought, intention, and some strategy behind it to ensure that it makes sense for your target audience. A good brand identity ensures that it will last long past current trends, and is true to your brand’s values and goals.

Before I start designing I’ll take a look at who you are and what your goals are for your brand and find ways to convey this through the design.

I’ll put together a mood-board illustrating ideas and elements we will use to reach your goals. I will also always put together a color pallet that uses color psychology to ensure your colors are evoking an appropriate emotion for your brand. Once the mood-board and color palette have been approved by you, we move onto the actual design of your brand.

For Park 21 Design it was important that the brand was neutral to showcase Emily’s interior portfolio while also providing a pop of color for interest and personality to create an appropriate mood for the audience.

Brand Identity

After getting to know Emily, I had a good idea of who Emily is and who she wanted her brand to be, allowing me to begin designing!

“Refined. Timeless. Not trendy” were the words given by Emily that really guided my design decisions for the logo. I wanted the logo to be refined yet approachable and to have shapes with structure that would allude to interiors and architecture.

I noticed that Emily uses lots of natural and weave textures in her interior designs so I knew I wanted to incorporate that into her brand. Inspired by this I created a brand pattern that feels organic and mimics this use of texture that she commonly uses. This brand pattern can be blue and bold to draw attention to areas or can have a lower contrast to add a more subtle texture to the brand or website.

During our Design VIP day I also developed a color and typography system for Emily to use. I wanted to use an unexpected font system that was fun yet approachable. With this in mind, I established a system using multiple typefaces that are formatted so that they create hierarchy throughout the copy.

Brand Guidelines

After the brand identity has been designed it doesn’t stop there. It’s important that you actually know how to properly use your brand elements to maintain its integrity to keep everything consistent and cohesive. Consistency makes your brand memorable and builds brand recognition. You want everything to be cohesive so that everything you put out looks on-brand and as if it came from the same place and making sure that it’s always communicating the same message.

The best way to do this is through brand guidelines. Brand guidelines can also be known as a brand manual, brand book, brand bible, or identity manual, etc. Although these guidelines are known by many different names they all do the same thing: share a set of rules or guidelines so that you or anyone on your team can keep your brand consistent and looking good.

For Park 21 Design we created a set of guidelines that included:

1. Keyword Landscape
   • This is essentially a set of words that describes the brand and the brand identity. Whenever something is being put out into the world by this brand, these words should be referenced to ensure that they are staying true to the brand.
2. Logo Usage
   • This is a set of guidelines to ensure that brand logos are always used correctly: in the appropriate place or application and that there is enough negative space around the logo to give it breathing room.
3. Color Usage
   • This details the color palette by providing: colors codes, how much of which color should be used, and how/where each color should be used.
4. Typography system and hierarchy
   • Like color usage, this goes over what the brand fonts are, where they should be used, and how each font should be used to accurately show the hierarchy of information.
5. Use Application
   • This details how all of the elements play together to create a full brand identity. It shows examples of how elements should be used in print or online.

Wrapping it up

Overall a VIP day includes a lot of work to get done in one day, but is incredibly effective in providing a launching pad for your business. All of these elements work together to present an established brand that will showcase that you are professional and trustworthy. There is a lot that goes into brand strategy and simply having these elements isn’t enough. It is important that these elements are used in an effective way and used regularly.

Want to know more about VIP days? Check out this blog going into all the nitty gritty.

Already know that a VIP day is exactly what you need? Schedule your VIP day here!

The post Park 21 Design: How I Created a Brand in One Day appeared first on quillandco.design.

That being said, we all know there’s a ton of trendy, buzzwords in the industry, and brand strategy definitely falls into that category. One day you’re browsing through Instagram and see that a heap of designers you know are now calling themselves “brand strategists” in their titles. What does it mean? What does it entail? And what does it take to call yourself a strategist? And is it something that designers should even be doing? These are important questions to get answers to and they will help you better understand if setting a goal to add brand strategy to your offerings makes sense for you and your business.

What is brand strategy?

Back to the basics but oh-so-important, a true definition of brand strategy is crucial to know if you would even want to learn more about it. At its core, brand strategy is a mapped out plan of action that aligns your brand, your goals, and your audience together. It’s essentially the blueprint to business success. In my own business, I call my brand strategy process the “Brand Roadmap” because it’s a mapped out plan of action on how to take your business from point A to point B. From there, we build a shortcut that clearly shows the overlap between business goals, the brand heart, and the customer’s needs.

Brand strategy is akin to unearthing, and stripping down a business to its framework to understand what it needs to be successful. Through brand strategy, we are able to zoom in on a clear vision and plan to help them achieve their goals that both serve the ideal customer and move the needle in the business. Without brand strategy, businesses are picking a brand aesthetic based on their own intuition and taste, whereas brand strategy takes into account the overarching goals in a customer-first perspective and then builds a visual identity with that information as the base frame.

What are the elements of brand strategy?

Brand strategy can be as simple or in-depth as you want to make it, but at its most basic level it should answer these main topics:

1. The Brand Mission: The guiding vision for the brand and its long-term goals, every decision about the brand should be made with this in mind. Businesses that lack a brand mission operate without principles, which can deter them from reaching their real goals.
2. The Brand’s How: This equates to what are the actual products or services that the business offers. Beyond that, it answers the brand’s processes for delivering or experiencing said offer.
3. The Brand’s Audience: An incredible offer is only as good as the people it serves, and for that we need to know who those people are, what they need, and what motivates them. Oftentimes in traditional marketing, the ideal client avatar centers around demographics but in our version of brand strategy we focus more on psychographics — what do they care about, what motivates them, what are they afraid of? These kind of questions bring us closer to who they really are to better see the solutions we can provide them.
4. The Brand’s Differentiating Factor: What makes this brand different from the rest and why do they shine compared to the competition? By looking to the differentiating factors we can more easily spot opportunities or gaps in the market to better position the brand.
5. The Brand’s Values: What does the brand stand for and what does it believe in? Asking these deeper questions help to understand how these values impact the long-term goals. You can also think of it like a moral compass for the brand.
6. The Brand’s Voice: Thinking about the brand’s personality and tone helps develop a more consistent and cohesive in-person and online presence. This impacts everything from the copy to the visuals and is critical for reaching the right people.

Is brand strategy considered more of a business and marketing offer?

Many designers feel intimidated by brand strategy because they automatically associated it with more complex marketing tactics. At its very core, brand strategy requires someone who can ask the right questions and even more so, be an active listener. As the leader of the brand strategy session, your main job is to help clients see themselves and understand their brand — which requires more listening than talking. While brand strategy and brand design haven’t always gone hand-in-hand, that doesn’t mean designers can’t offer strategy and excel at it.

So, is brand strategy a good offering for your business?

Now that you’ve learned more about what brand strategy is and isn’t, you can think critically about if it would be a good fit for your business and potential clients. Offering brand strategy is probably a good fit for you if you can be a strong listener and if you’re ready to help your clients with bigger problems. You love designing but realize that without those pillars of strategy, it’s hard to build a brand identity that moves beyond aesthetics and solves business goals.

If all of this sounds exciting to you and you’re ready to dive in, be sure to hop on the waitlist for Brand Clarity Academy, my signature program that teaches the fundamentals of brand strategy, how to run these calls with clients, and how to use your takeaways to deliver a profound Brand Roadmap document that serves as a steady foundation for all branding to come.

Join the waitlist here or continue exploring more blogs about brand strategy!

The post The Ultimate Guide to Brand Strategy appeared first on quillandco.design.

If you think about it, our true job is working as an investigative reporter — mining for insights on the search for golden nuggets like that special brand magic where the brand’s essence, their goals, and their audience all overlap. While I could easily send all of this info off in a wordy document, I use the Brand Strategy portion of my branding process to equally balance the words I use with dynamic visuals. We’re graphic artists after all and what better way to truly make a point than with a clear and moving graphic. I find this also helps the client, who could otherwise be overwhelmed by the pure amount of information they receive when working through complex topics like the difference between their Brand Why and Brand Mission.

So in my business and brand strategy process, I find myself leaning on a few key diagrams to help organize my thoughts and lay everything out in easy-to-understand visuals that help my clients understand.

1. Venn Diagram

A school room classic, I tend to use the venn diagram for showcasing traits such as pillars, brand values, and personality. It’s such a simple graphic, we’ve all made them in the 5th grade, but it is used frequently because it is powerful in showing where two ideas can meet. It’s familiar and a great way for discovering alignments and traits such as content pillars, values, or personalities.

So as seen above, this graphic is helpful to explore your content pillars for a brand. In one circle write down everything that you care about and then fill the other with everything that your audience cares about. What lies in the middle, the overlap, is your common ground, the topics that resonate with you and your audience and can then be used as content pillars to grow your brand in an aligned way.

2. Brand Map

Two-by-two maps can be used to plot different brands within the market to easily visualize the similarities and differences, which in turn show us voids within the industry. A huge part of the brand strategy process is understanding a brand’s unique value and a smart approach is to look to what everyone else is doing and seek out holes that can be filled in with your offer.

This simple 2-by-2 chart is a quick and perceptual way to easily map out different brands that exist in a similar space based on different attributes. Two brands that earlier felt similar because they sell a like-product can suddenly become vastly different on a brand map. You can that propose different questions like:

Does the brand’s position align with the company’s strengths and capabilities?

Does the brand’s position express that unique value that they offer?

How sustainable is this brand’s position relative to other brands in this space?

Through these thoughtful questions combined with the simple, easy-to-follow visuals the search for a unique selling point becomes that much clearer.

3. Golden Circle

Borrowed from Simon Sinek, I use this diagram to display the brand’s essence, core ideas and supporting ideas. In his TedTalk on the Golden Circle concept, Simon argues that we can use these layers to help others better understand what they do, how they do it, and why they do it — applying these questions from the outmost layer inward.  The three layered circles help to visually convey depth and layers that might not be as well understood with just words. For more on Simon Sinek and his concept of the 3 Layers of Purpose, check out my recent blog post “The Scoop On Powerful Branding — Start With Your Brand’s Why”.

This graphic approach to translate a brand’s meaning has become a core part of my brand strategy process, which has become the backbone of my design process and a core pillar of my educational offerings for designers. If adding more strategy into your business model is appealing, I encourage you to watch my free video training: Brand Strategy for Designer: How to master the 3 essential steps.

So next time you go to write a long paragraph, or multiple paragraphs, pause and think about how you can take those words and convey them into a simpler but equally meaningful diagram. You’d be surprised how it pushes your own creatively and ultimately helps your client arrive at a greater understanding in your projects.

The post Brand Strategy Diagrams Make Powerful Visual Tools appeared first on quillandco.design.