Bare Brand Strat - Sep 2024

Brand strat stripped back.

A live, four-week online learning program lifting the lid on the reality of pitching, planning and implementing brand strategy in the real world.

Packed with practical content, real-life projects and actionable takeaways that can be applied to working design-based businesses, this is a course for creatives, studios and teams looking to make their thinking sharper, their work stronger and their skills more valuable.

No fluff, no flake, just bare brand strat.

Program Outline

This online learning program consists of four live workshops, 3 group Q&A sessions, a program recap session and a one-on-one session for each attendee with program designer and facilitator, Richie Meldrum. Attendees get sent all slides, access to recordings of the workshops and the QnAs and a online brand strategy workshop template Miro board that they can use in their own projects.

Workshop #1 RESEARCH 

Thursday 5th Sep 10.00am-12.00pm AEST, Online via Butter

Starts with hard work, ends with champagne! In the first workshop of the program, we’ll be learning how to kick-start your brand strategy properly with an in-depth look at the all-important research and discovery stage of a brand or rebrand project. This will include conducting audits, analyzing data, exploring your competitor landscape and conducting interviews with internal and external stakeholders - who to ask, what to ask, how to ask it, all that good stuff. We’ll also look at the business side of things, including how to scope, cost, pitch and plan your project. 

Workshop #2 WORKSHOPS

Thursday 12th Sep 10.00am-12.00pm AEST, Online via Butter

Get me in a room! In week two, we’ll look at how to extract, test, align and impress with a step-by-step guide to organising, designing and facilitating custom brand strategy workshops that hit the sweet spots with the top dogs on any given project. We’ll look at how to use your research insights to design bespoke exercises and activities to run during the workshop and how to spark and steer the right kind of discussions. We’ll also cover presenting a ‘strategy playback’ to your client or team that documents your research and outlines the path for the next stages of your project.

Workshop #3 FRAMEWORKS, NAMING AND NARRATIVE 

Thursday 19th Sep 10.00am-12.00pm AEST, Online via Butter

Get ready to hone in on the main meal in week 3. No endless decks of waffle, ‘your brand is a Volvo’ or pointless arrows and diagrams. Instead we’ll focus on how to develop a practical and useful brand framework covering personas, positioning, architecture and more. We’ll explore the complex world of developing a name for a new brand and go deep into writing a compelling narrative, message and story that forms the foundation of a brand’s verbal identity (including how to harness ChatGPT). Finally, we’ll cover how best to present all this work back to those that matter in your project.

Workshop #4 BRAND IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT, ROLLOUTS AND GUIDELINES  

Thursday 26th Sep 10.00am-12.00pm AEST, Online via Butter

It’s alive! To make sure your brand gets the birth it deserves in week 4, we’ll be focusing on feeding all your strategy work into the development of your brand’s new or revamped identity. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to present the new concept, master the rollout process and develop key brand touch points across on and offline channels. We’ll also cover ways to document your strategy, narrative and identity with clear, robust and practical application guidelines to keep it strong, fit and healthy for many, many moons. 

QnA Sessions

As well as the workshop session, all attendees get access to join 3 live group QnA session to unpack the content from each week, ask questions, listed to others and talk about topics important to them.

Tuesday 10th September 10am-11am AEST

Tuesday 17th September 10am-11am AEST

Tuesday 24th September 10am-11am AEST

Program Recap Session

Tuesday 15th October 10am-11.30am AEST

A recap session going over key areas from all 4 workshops with opportunities for questions and discussion.

Program suitability 

Bare Brand Strat is aimed at design and communication professionals. The program is perfect for those working in or running a consultancy, studio or agency that helps make or shape brands for its clients. It’s also designed to help in-house teams, marketing managers, brand managers or business owners looking to build and grow the brands they work for or run.