Study guide: Davis chapter 7 and The Brand Gap

Wednesday, September 30. Two readings: Douglas Davis, Creative Strategy and the Business of Design, chapter 7, Getting Knee Deep: The Advanced Strategy Session (12 pp.), and Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap, the opening plus Discipline 1, Differentiate, and Discipline 2, Collaborate (pages 1 to 80 of the PDF, most of them single-line slides).

Today you finish your creative brief and start your explorations. Page references for The Brand Gap are PDF page numbers. The Davis chapter is an ebook, so references give the section heading.

Reading 1: Davis, chapter 7, "The Advanced Strategy Session"

Where it sits. In chapter 6, Davis introduced the creative strategy framework, a chart with columns for the target, facts, features and benefits, and objectives or messages. Chapter 7 takes each column a second time. He says the first pass is about quantity and this chapter covers "the steps after quantity." His running example is a pitch for the Amazon Fire TV Stick.

Davis's point: after you collect everything, cut it down to what you can build on

• Clean for quality. Erase anything that is not relevant, even if it is true. For each item, answer "Can we build a campaign on that?" and give a reason.
• The target is a person, described by behavior. He lists people who act a certain way, such as "binge-watching cord-cutters who are light gamers." For the Fire TV Stick he argues that values, mindset and behavior matter more than demographics, and he adds that this depends on the job.
• Do not narrow the target too far. His example of too far: "Tech-savvy grandmas wearing red sweaters who have one grandchild and who live on the ground floor of a third-floor walkup".
• Facts come from outside the company too. Go past the corporate website to what people say about the brand on blogs and forums. He learned from sales associates that people jailbreak the Fire TV Stick.
• Features and benefits are pairs. One tangible feature connects to one intangible benefit. Keep them as short fragments so you do not start writing copy.
• Objectives are specific and measurable. "increase sales" becomes "increase sales by 15 percent" and you then need a way to measure it.
• Messaging is the takeaway. Write what the audience should understand afterward. The headline comes later, from a writer.
• A "thread" connects the columns. It runs target, then the conversation, then the message, then the objective. Davis says the thread is a starting point for concepts. It is not the idea.

Key terms, in Davis's words

• Messaging: "Messaging is what you want the target group to understand about you and your product, brand, or service after watching the video, webisode, reading the poster, attending the event, seeing the ad, or using the app." (The Objectives or Messages Column)
• Demographics: "facts like nationality, amount of money, family size, life stage, location, etc." (Researching Your Target)
• Psychographics and behavioral attributes: "things like values, mindset, attitudes, beliefs about spending money or technology use" (Researching Your Target)
• Value proposition: "what the brand offers the target in exchange for her money, personal, details, or attention" (Next Steps)

Quotations

Davis says the first thing to do with a full chart is delete.

"Look through the content and erase anything that really doesn't have relevance, even if it's correct or true." (Cleaning for Quality)

He gives a rule for writing the target.

"Be sure that the target is actually a person and not a profession." (Turning Words Into Inspiration)

He warns against mistaking the thread for the finished idea.

"Keep in mind that the thread isn't the idea itself; it is a starting point on which to build concepts and visual directions." (Next Steps)

Use it in your brief

• 4. Audience. Describe people by what they do. Check that you have not cut the group down to almost no one.
• 5. Insight. Davis starts from "a hunch" and lets the research "prove or disprove" it. That matches the brief's format: the fact, your guess, and the evidence.
• 3. Goals and 12. Action and measure. Write each goal as a verb tied to your audience, with a number where you can.
• 7. Message. Write the takeaway plainly. Davis quotes Luke Sullivan: "Say it straight, then say it great."
• 15. Requirements. Davis pairs each feature with the benefit it gives, and the brief's "so that" asks for the same pairing.
• The brief in one line. A Davis thread and the GET / WHO / TO / BY line both tie the audience, the message and the goal together in one sentence.
• Explorations. "If you are designing from this stage, look to the words in each column for visual thought-starters." Take words from your brief into your moodboard and brand language.

Reading 2: Neumeier, The Brand Gap, opening, Differentiate and Collaborate

Where it sits. The Brand Gap is a slide presentation in two parts: a definition of brand, then five disciplines of brand-building. Today's pages cover the definition, the gap, and the first two disciplines. Neumeier argues that strategy and creativity sit on opposite sides of a gap, and that a brand built with both sides working together can become charismatic.

Neumeier's point: a brand is what the audience feels, so be different and build it with others

• A brand is not a logo, an identity or a product. He opens by setting all three aside (pp. 7 to 11).
• Brands live in individuals. The audience defines a brand, and the company does not (pp. 14 to 18).
• Branding matters because people have too many choices and too little time. Offerings look alike, so people buy on trust. His formula is trust equals reliability plus delight (pp. 19 to 22).
• The gap. Strategic thinkers are analytical and verbal. Creative thinkers are intuitive and visual. In most companies the two are kept apart (pp. 28 to 31).
• Differentiate. The brain filters out what is the same, so the brand has to be different. Marketing has moved from features to benefits, then experience, then identification, "Who you are" (pp. 38 to 42).
• Focus, and the focus test. Who are you? What do you do? Why does it matter? Brand extensions are the most common way to lose focus (pp. 45 to 55).
• Collaborate. No single person builds a brand. He compares three ways to organize the people who do: the one-stop shop, the brand agency and the integrated marketing team (pp. 56 to 80).

Key terms, in Neumeier's words

• Brand: "A BRAND IS A PERSON'S GUT FEELING ABOUT A PRODUCT, SERVICE, OR ORGANIZATION." (p. 14)
• Charismatic brand: "A CHARISMATIC BRAND is any product, service, or organization for which people believe there's no substitute." (p. 32)
• Good brand extensions: "GOOD BRAND EXTENSIONS grow the value of a brand by reinforcing its focus." (p. 54)
• Bad brand extensions: "BAD BRAND EXTENSIONS are those that chase short-term profits at the expense of long-term brand value." (p. 54)

Quotations

Neumeier explains why the definition puts the brand in the person.

"It's a PERSON'S gut feeling, because brands are defined by individuals, not companies, markets, or publics." (p. 15)

He names the problem the book is about.

"In most companies, STRATEGY is separated from CREATIVITY by a wide gap." (p. 28)

He gives the reason for the first discipline.

"WE'RE HARDWIRED TO NOTICE ONLY WHAT'S DIFFERENT." (p. 40)

Use it in your brief

• 5. Insight. Your brief asks for a sentence about the person, not the product. Neumeier's definition puts the brand in that person's gut feeling.
• 6. Competition, 8. Position and 9. Character. Differentiate is the reason your character should not match your closest competitor's. The position line is where you say how you are different.
• 1. Overview and 7. Message. Run the focus test on both. If you cannot answer "Why does it matter?", the message needs more focus.
• 19. Out of scope. An extension that does not reinforce the focus is a candidate for this list.
• 17. Content and 1. Overview. Collaborate asks who develops and stewards the brand. The brief asks who writes the content, who keeps it current, and who decides.
• Explorations. Your brief is the strategy side of the gap and your explorations are the creative side. Neumeier says the brand gets built "When both sides work together" (p. 31).

Where the two readings agree and where they pull apart

They agree on these points.

• The audience holds the meaning. Neumeier: the brand is what "THEY SAY IT IS" (p. 18). Davis: messaging "should be focused on what is most compelling to the target" (The Objectives or Messages Column).
• Say less. Davis cleans the chart until only what can carry a campaign is left. Neumeier lists the three most important words in differentiating a brand, and all three are the word focus (pp. 45 to 48).
• The work takes more than one person. Davis tells teams to split up the research. Neumeier says "It takes a village to build a brand." (p. 58)

They pull apart on features and benefits. Davis builds a whole column on feature and benefit pairs and pulls headlines from it. Neumeier's timeline puts features ("What it is") at 1900 and benefits ("What it does") at 1925, behind experience and identification (p. 42). Davis works at the level of the product. Neumeier argues that brands now compete on who the customer is.

Check questions

1. Davis says to erase true information. What question does he use to decide what stays, and what must follow the answer?
2. Why does Davis prefer "tech-savvy middle-aged bookworms" to "librarians" as a target?
3. Write one of your brief's goals the way Davis asks: as a verb, tied to your audience, with a number.
4. According to Neumeier, who defines a brand? How does that change what you write in your Insight section?
5. Answer Neumeier's three focus-test questions for your own project in one sentence each.
6. Davis's thread and Neumeier's gap both describe a handoff from strategy to design. Using your brief, name one word or phrase you will carry into your moodboard.