hearten and hone
I see a lot of designers hold back from offering brand strategy thinking that “they’re not writers” or “they’re not experts in x field” and so they won’t be able to draft a good roadmap.
If this has ever crossed your mind, I want you to know that you’re not alone. I think about this too. Even after doing brand strategy for dozens of clients, self-doubt still creeps up on me. Though there’s one thing I always remind myself whenever my impostor syndrome takes over. It’s that the most essential skill I need as a brand strategist is already within me.
And I’m here to tell you that even if you’re not a writer, or know absolutely NOTHING about your client’s industry, you can still be a really great strategist.
This skill that I’m talking about is the beautiful thing called empathy. And I want to break down what that looks like and how an empathetic approach can actually make you a better strategist:
Lead with empathy
It’s a common thing for strategists to have this self-imposed expectation that you have to propose something that has never been done before to justify what your clients paid for. And so we put pressure on ourselves to gather statistics, do extensive quantitative research, and acquire numerical data for the strategy to lead to tangible results.
Though I think people forget that to get to those numerical results, we also have to consider that brands are built by and for human beings. What this means for you as a strategist is that you’re not required to know more, but simply to be more understanding, more empathetic, more compassionate towards your clients.
So what does it take for you to deliver an effective and enduring strategy? Listening to your client’s thoughts. Leaning in to understand how they feel about their brand. Indulge in the personal stories they share with you. Get inspired by their vision and use that to inform your creative decisions later on.
When you deliver a data-driven brand strategy with all the hard facts, the business makes sales and grows.
But when you deliver an empathy-based brand strategy rooted in story and emotions, not only does the business make sales, but the brand you develop creates a kind of connection with their audience in ways numbers can’t quantify
Come in with a curious mind
For most of our lives, we’ve been conditioned to say the right answer so we don’t get in trouble. Maybe for you, you’ve carried this out in your career. I know this is the case for me. During my first few brand strategy projects, I’d always come prepared.
I would spend hours and hours researching on the client’s industry, background, and competitors. I did this partly because I wanted to do a good job, but at the same time, I was also fueled by the fear of looking stupid when they bring up a question and I fail to provide the right answer.
But the thing about being a brand strategist is that you’re not supposed to give the right answer. Your role as a brand strategist is to ask really good questions so you can draw out the answers from your clients, not to dictate them. At the end of the day, your client is the best person to be making decisions about their business.
While you’re there to guide and share recommendations, your client still would have the final say. My entire perspective on brand strategy completely shifted my priority from approaching the strategy with ego & perfection to approaching it with humility & curiosity.
Coming with a curious mind eager to understand and gain a deeper perspective, is going to take so much pressure off of you as you go through the brand strategy process.
Treat the process as a conversation
There’s this whole misconception that to be a good brand strategist, you have to be the expert. You have to “take control” of the process. You have to be “well-prepared” and be in your “best disposition” when you present. I don’t know about you but to me, just hearing that makes me feel anxious and almost discouraged.
That said, it’s worthwhile to recognize that successful brand strategy collaborations are not based on how good you are as a brand strategist, or how quickly you can get your clients to approve it, and not even on how little revisions they ask. For me, what makes a collaboration successful is how both parties are able to acknowledge their contribution to the whole process.
So in each phase of the process where you’re expected to “present” something, keep in mind that nothing is said and done. There’s always room to tweak, revise, and improve on things so that you can come up with the best solution for your clients. And the best part about this is that you can bring your clients along this process. Treating the brand strategy presentation as a conversation means you get to have a free-flowing exchange of ideas without the pressure of getting things right.
By taking on an empathetic approach, you’re able to share ideas in a way that lands and resonates with them. And when you have opposing thoughts, you can rely on your empathy to understand them and get their perspective so you can come up with a favorable solution for the both of you.