It’s easy to imagine that the primary task of marketing is the creation and deployment of communications tools. Certainly this is an important activity, but it comes almost at the end of the workflow for marketing.

• Begin with a clear strategy;
• Identify key segments and their needs;
• Develop positioning and messages;
• Understand your delivery channels,

…and then design the collateral and communications tools.

Having gone to the trouble of building products and offering services of real value, it makes sense to communicate effectively with your potential and current customer base.

We will help you through this entire chain, resulting ultimately in a well-documented creative brief that can be taken by graphics designers and copywriters as the starting point for the creation of marketing deliverables. Because we work with advertising agencies and marketing communications firms on a regular basis, we can ensure that you maximize the value from your advertising dollar, in terms of real impact on your chosen markets.

A typical creative brief for marketing communications contains the following elements:

1. The business purpose of the communication
2. The key audiences to whom the communication is addressed
3. The users of the collateral or marketing communications tools
4. The beliefs we want to create with the materials
5. Specific messages, with evidence, that will help create the desired beliefs
6. Pointers to information on the corporate brand and existing standards to which the communications materials must adhere
7. A timeline
8. Other considerations (if required).

There’s a simple, well-documented process to achieve these results. A creative brief is not difficult to create if the early stages of the branding, message development and market understanding have been competently executed. The best approach is to work through the entire process with an experienced consultant—that way every stage is built seamlessly on the output of previous work.