This is an unserious framework to show the serious way I approach brand-level briefs. It is messy and usually nonlinear, but I try to keep this in the back of my head when working on a project.
1) The first step is receiving the client brief and transforming that request into a solvable problem. The client brief naturally originates from the company’s perspective, so it is our job in this step to reframe the brief from the consumer's perspective. You need to focus on answering the question, “What do consumers feel, think, do, or not know that is causing this business problem?” Once that’s understood, we focus on solving it.
2) This leads to the first insight of the brief. The perceptual problem is a singular idea that answers what is causing the business problem. It's essential to refine this insight, as it serves as the foundation for media, communications planning, the creative brief, and the work itself—all of which aim to address this issue.
3) Now that we have the first insight to guide us, we need to expand on the Cultural, Category, Consumer, and Company contexts. This exploration helps us understand how to solve, shift, or undermine the perceptual problem. The purpose of this research is to uncover the opportunity we can target.
4) This leads us to our competitive advantage. For this framework, I define competitive advantage as “what we are leveraging to solve our perceptual problem.” It could be a cultural point of view, an archetype, a brand value we embody, a functional advantage of the product, or something else entirely. What matters is that the competitive advantage tells us: a) what differentiates our brand and b) what about our brand will motivate customers to overcome the perceptual problem. It does not have to be emotional or inspiring, as these qualities will not appear in the brief. Examples could include "cheaper luxury," "better designed," "the friendly expert," or "improves the environment."
5) The second insight provides the emotional depth needed to give the competitive advantage meaning. This insight turns the competitive advantage into something behavior-changing and inspires creativity. It makes the brief unique and requires thorough, probing research. Once the competitive advantage is “flipped” by this insight, it becomes the ‘key idea’ for the brief. This idea will guide which 'reasons to believe' are most important and set the tone for the work.
