How to give an effective briefing to your communication agency?
Your communications agency needs to know everything about you from the outset. To get the best results, there's only one thing to remember: "Know yourself!
Could Socrates' little philosophical phrase also apply to the business world?
Here are the questions you need to be able to answer if you want to brief a graphic design studio effectively. They're pretty much the same questions as in the famous QQOQCP method, which aims to answer the following questions: Who, What, Where, When, How and Why.
1 - Why do you want to change your communication tools?
If youcall upon a graphic studio, it is certainlyto implement a change or a first communication. The environment in which your company evolves may have changed, you want to gain notoriety, launch a new product, change your customer profile... Each issue has its solution, provided that the problem to be solved is well identified.
Whether it's factual elements that give you a hint (a decrease in orders, for example), or more subjective clues such as the feeling that you are no longer in tune with your sector of activity, you need to focus on these elements in order to take off again. In order to sort out what is still working and what needs to be reshaped, a communication audit in line with your strategy is a valuable indicator.
2 - What is your communication strategy?
The communication strategy completes the global strategy of a company.
If your communication is already set up and working, then your graphic design studio will make sure to make proposals accordingly. But most of the time, it is not the case anymore. It is then more prudent to readjust your copy, even if it means taking more time before launching into the production of communication tools.
Here are the points that are important to be clear about when contacting a graphic design studio:
- What is your company's history (Who are you?)
- What is your current identity and what image do you want to project? (Who are you?)
- In which geographic market are you located? (Where)
- How to define your product and its specificities (What)
- Who are you talking to (Who)
- What difficulties do you currently face? (Why do you communicate?)
- What are your long-term business goals (What: what do you sell and how?)
- Who are your competitors and the profile of their customers?
- What is your timetable (When)
- Do you have an idea of your budget ?
3- What communication tools did you prefer?
Once the context has been defined, it's time to choose the media you want the graphic agency to create or reinvent. Websites, logos, print brochures, web content articles, etc. can all be used in different ways to address your communication issues. This choice is made as part of the communication strategy, either prior to the graphic design request, or as part of your agency'sstrategy consulting service.
On each of these media, the agency will define the visual identity that represents you, and possibly the lexical field adopted for the texts.
The briefing is also the moment to tell what you have already achieved in terms of communication, what has been successful or not. Do not hesitate to express your expectations to your graphic agency, if you wish to adopt a sober or offbeat tone for example, without forgetting to mention the possible technical or strategic constraints that it will have to take into account.