The only guide you need to plan a focused, highly definitive brand strategy session
This checklist is designed to enable you to be ready and fully prepared for an exhaustive and comprehensive brand strategy workshop. It will empower you to make sure you do not forget anything before the workshop commences. This checklist is applicable to both a professionally facilitated workshop and a DIY workshop. Let me tell you, a brand strategy workshop can go in either direction. It can be a turning point, or it can be a total disaster. The way you prepare for it and hold your conduct in it makes all the difference. The idea sounds simple: gather your team, talk about the brand, and figure things out. But without structure and preparation, workshops often turn into boring boardroom meetings with the same agendas being discussed over and over again with no strategy, structure, or execution.
With that thought in mind, we have compiled this broad checklist as a brand strategy workshop guide for you, which is on point and crisp and, at the same time, is insightful. Whether you're a startup founder struggling with your leadership team or a marketing head trying to align cross-functional units, this checklist is the answer to all your dilemmas. By the end of this brand strategy workshop checklist, your whole perspective and arrangement towards workshops will shift completely.
Before any further ado, let’s jump on the key elements that you must pay attention to in a brand strategy workshop.
Defined goals and objectivity
Have a clear and well-established goal about your branding needs and future requirements. Know the importance between branding or marketing. When we say this, it doesn’t mean that you have to set unrealistic expectations and over-the-top targets. You can start small goals that you can interpret and express freely with the professional facilitator. Workshops without defined outcomes tend to become a place of discussion, debate, and a dumping ground. In contrast, when you start thinking about your objectives, do not make a full-page list. Go in the workshop with ideally one or two core objectives. We can assure you that if you get to the tailored solutions for those, the rest of the objectives are automatically addressed.
Schedule properly, dedicatedly, and undistracted.
This is not just a brand strategy workshop checklist matter. If you are going to attend a workshop, it's your responsibility to respect it and respect your time and interest as well. A brand workshop is not a seminar, a cultural function, or an award ceremony where you can arrive fashionably late and leave as you please. Show respect for all the participants, the facilitator, and, most importantly, your brand, for which you are attending the workshop. Set a straight schedule, do not go in and out for different meetings, bring in sincere focus, and maintain it throughout the workshop. Strategy doesn’t happen in a rush. You’ll need time to frame problems, explore options, discuss openly, and come to a conclusion. Avoid and stay away from distractions. This level of focus sends a strong signal to the team, and they respond with parallel sincerity.
Appoint a skilled facilitator, strategist,
If you are into planning a DIY brand strategy workshop, this isn’t for you, but at the same time, know that a good and neutral facilitator can make all the difference to your workshop experience. Ideally the individual must have a series of qualities like experience in brand strategy and workshop design. Someone who can keep discussions on track, manage group dynamics, is a good listener, offer actionable measures, think in a result-oriented manner, and provide critical feedback to founders and CEOs.
This generally never happens in a DIY brand workshop. The exact same reason why it can fail compared to a professionally facilitated workshop.
Opt for a neutral, undistracted environment.
Just as we discussed the importance of undivided attention with time, you need to schedule the workshop at a venue that resides in an undistracted environment. Places bring vibes; they change the whole decorum of the room and the energy of the teams attending the workshop. The quieter it is, the more collaborative your team will feel around in the workshop.
Book an offsite venue that feels different. Let the creative energy flow. If you're planning to schedule a remote workshop attendance, create a virtual space with real intention. Use the right online tools to make the workshop more powerful and well integrated.
Do not treat it like any other meeting. There is a reason why it is called a strategy workshop.
Go in with the right inputs.
You don’t have to bring in a suitcase, but at least do not show up without a briefcase. This simply is pointed towards the idea that you don’t have to go in there with everything; do not show up with messed up reports, old data, and just any paper that you think would be required. Instead, plan everything. Only gather and go in the workshop with documents that are relevant to your branding operations, such as customer feedback, market insights, data from marketing and sales teams, and survey reports, and that will be all.
The whole idea is not to be present, uninformed, and empty-handed. Even if the workshop is only partially focused on messaging or positioning, bring the receipts. Your future brand clarity depends on it.
Document the right ideas.
Already 70% of brand managers give more importance to audience building rather than converting sales. It can be increased by proper documentation of ideas. Do not wait for the workshop to end. If you find the right idea or concept, do not forget to document it. Of course, you’ll receive a well-documented brand strategy from the facilitator or the creative brand consultant, but do it for the sake of not leaving it to the end and waiting for someone to hand it over to you.
Workshops can take long hours; you may feel exhausted, and the ideas can disappear in thin air. If you think the workshop is leading to a strong point, note it down; you can also use it further in the workshop for another discussion.
Take the right people, prepared in advance.
This is one of the most common mistakes people make in a workshop. They show up with everyone they think has a creative opinion. Never do that. Always pick the right people and have a brief meeting with them in advance. Prepare them, inform them why the workshop is orchestrated, what they should expect, and how to perform once they are in the brand strategy workshop with the facilitator.
Go in with the team, not with a crowd. You will only make it clamorous. The main problem here is the workshop will become a local market, and you will return home without buying anything.
Final words
These brand strategy workshop checklist elements will help you prepare and become presentable at the workshop. By the time you will finish a comprehensive brand workshop, you will surely have a reality check, an eye opener and a post workshop plan with actionable measures ready with you.
With us, you can always prefer to have a fertile session. But you have to understand that there are some checkboxes that you also need to tick right as an entrepreneur, founder, or business owner. Branding is a wide subject with endless possibilities and scope; to discuss it in a strategic workshop requires your efforts too. Bring them in and see the difference occurring.
