I often send myself some notes through email to my phone to prepare for a first discussion with a client or potential client, and I thought I’d share this list I just sent myself today for a meeting. These are intended to give me a sense of both what makes any brand tick but also to what degree my client understands their own brand.
Please feel free to steal these and use for your own discussions. These are conversation starters so rephrase and reword these to fit your own discussion style.
Who are you? (Personality)
What do you do? (Cocktail conversation quicky)
What’s your vision? (define “wild” success)
What’s your mission? (how dare you getting to “wild success”)
What wave are you surfing? (social context?)
Who shares your brandscape? (competitive audit)
What makes you the “only”? (Positioning strategy?)
What should you subtract/Add? (Curate, curate)
Who loves you? (Tribe?)
Who’s your enemy? (Who is it fun to rally against?)
What do your customers call you? (In their words not yours)
How do you explain yourself? (What’s your value without “marketing speak” and acronyms)
How do you spread the word? (marketing strategy/execution?)
How do people engage with you? (integrated platform?)
What do/should they experience? (How do you want them to feel?)
How do you earn loyalty? (Building your tribe how?)
How do you extend success? (Where are you moving/how changing?)
How do you protect yourself? (Hoew do you defend your position? Innovate how?)
* Some of the wording here comes from Marty Neumeier’s outstanding books “Zag” and “The Brand Gap”. Get them read them.