This is the starting point for any project. A big-picture view of the environment, the market, competition and the company’s goals. It provides a business framework for creating successful and sustainable brands. The same principle applies to any requirement, whether marketing, promotional, digital, content, creative, campaign or communication planning. Our approach is strategic, systematic, thorough and insightful from discovery to brand delivery.
We’re big fans of process, but this doesn’t get in the way of building relationships, creativity and collaboration.
Employing a proven process makes these things manageable; everyone knows who’s doing what, and things get done, including conducting reviews at key milestones and ensuring resources are available, and work meets quality standards
Our strategic services address all project types – new brands, a brand refresh or repositioning, an employer brand, creative strategies, promotional, content and touchpoint planning. Each challenge demands the same rigour.
This is when we get to know you – to rummage around and find out stuff about the past, the future, your dreams, aspirations, plans, hunches, failures, the competition, what your good at and not good at, your values, intent, essence, capacity, readiness, and much more…
We use a range of methodologies, including two Marque proprietary tools:
Brand audits – whole-of-business, visual expression, or single focus
Desk research
Whiteboard group sessions
One-on-one interviewing
Focus groups
Tellus surveys: The name says it all. Tellus, is a mobile-first, survey tool that provides a fast and easy way to gather brand insights to enable customers to track, understand, evaluate and improve brand relationships.
HAY surveys: HAY is designed to gather employee feedback, preferences and insights about how they’re feeling and what they need to be at their best.
The outcome of Discovery is a strategic assessment of the brand – the alignment between the brand’s positioning and the business objectives, benchmarking the brand against significant competitors, measuring brand awareness and understanding, an assessment of promotional and communication campaigns and collateral, an assessment of the design values that support the brand identity and a final set of recommendations.
Brands work from the inside out. What you see on the outside gets meaning from what’s on the inside. The brand isn’t a veneer or seen only on certain occasions. It touches everything and is everything. The brand is as much about people, products, and services as it is about character, image and goals.
This knowledge-creation part of the exercise provides a blueprint for the brand's future. So, we embark on gathering, analysing and interpreting to develop understanding and apply insights.
The most significant outcome of the Definition phase is the brand strategy. This is not something that is developed in isolation; its origins are found in the strategic plan, specifically an organisation's purpose, vision and mission. The brand strategy describes the brand in words – its essence, values, personality, how it manages its relationships and the value proposition. While the strategic positioning ensures the brand stands for something fundamentally different from the competition.
In summary, our job is to uncover the essence, the magic, the formula that will transform your brand into a one-off and set it on the road to fame and fortune.
Brands need to state a position, elbow out the competition and when the mood takes them to be first to market. But to tell customers unequivocally why you are different, you must fully understand the competitive brand landscape.
We also rummage around and find out stuff about your past, the future, dreams, aspirations, plans, hunches, failures, the competition, what you’re good at, what you’re not good at, explore your values, intent, essence, capacity, readiness, and much more...
We conduct audits for a range of reasons, e.g. to confirm a suspicion, better assess a repositioning opportunity, measure visibility, awareness and reputation, or measure the degree of alignment between the brand image and identity. Whatever the reason, ‘lifting the lid’ can pay big dividends.
We distil complexity, join stuff together, render, shape, polish and reveal the brand’s truth – its purpose, what it stands for, its difference and why it matters, positioning, value proposition, personality, the rules of engagement and the single organising brand idea. The interplay of these elements enables the brand to stand apart.
We develop architectural frameworks for families of brands or branded families and then classify these depending on market drivers, brand equity and reputation. The primary objective is to ensure each brand is resourced appropriately and all brand relationships are leveraged to maximum effect.
A brand positioning identifies what sets a business apart, relative to the competition. We envision the brand's future and find the sweet spot that resonates with customers and the market – a genuine and defendable positioning that translates into a succinct essence that defines the organisation’s unique place in the market. Then, we write a brand story – a narrative expression of the brand and it’s unique positioning – designed to entertain, influence and inform.
Employer branding creates an identity and manages the image of the organisation in its role as an employer. It is an organisation’s promise as an employer. It conveys to potential employees the overall culture, beliefs, goals and practices, and is a powerful driver that attracts and retains top talent and delivers measurable results. Internally, it helps to clarify brand behaviour, aligns HR practices with brand delivery expectations and builds loyalty and cohesion.
While strong brands are built on insightful and robust strategies, ideas bring the strategy to life so brands get noticed, engage and make enduring connections with customers and communities of interest.
The promotional part of your marketing plan may need a deft touch. We can help by developing the strategies, activities, media, channels, themes and messages that will make your brand turn heads, get talked about and keep people coming back for more.
The touchpoint planning process maps all brand interactions and communication so each touchpoint is shaped to deliver a positive and memorable customer experience, to build awareness, influence and positive perceptions of the brand.
Touchpoint planning naturally leads to brand experience design. This is where we direct or manage brand interactions ‘by design’. The most potent brand experiences are people-to-people, so we start by plotting the customer’s journey and listening to their stories. Then, we build solutions that fulfil their needs, which create great brand experiences.
We create content plans that enable brands to attract and hold attention. Themes and messages are written, expanded, designed and then organised in a hierarchy so the content is cohesive, engaging and easily digested by different audiences across various channels.
We're far from your typical branding agency.
We'll make you re-marqueable.
We’ll have your back — be in your corner, argue your case, support your cause.
We’ll treat you as equals, with complementary knowledge, including the right to disagree.
We know our stuff – we didn’t suddenly morph into a branding agency. We’ve been doing it for more than 20 years.
We deliver – more than 350 clients (and counting).
We give more – there’s always another question, a new insight, a better solution.
We’re up for the challenge – the bigger, the better.
We’re twenty plus years in the making, practical and hands-on, with a full-service offer. An old head on young shoulders, eloquent and disciplined, business-led and outcome-focused. We’re a mid-sized agency living in the digital world and we create magical brand experiences.
“The outcome was more than I had hoped for. Great strategy and smart design resulted in a very happy client.”
— Aimee Greenhough, Founder and Director, In Good Company
“The professionalism and personalised service we got from Marque is unlike any other agency I’ve worked with. Lezlie took the time to understand our business and just got ‘it’. Marque’s work was creative, original, and of a very high standard. Thank you!”
— Bailey Palmer, Marketing Manager
“I’ve worked with Marque on three separate brands. One of the things that impresses me is the attention they give to developing the brand strategy and sorting out messaging. This has meant our market communications and positioning have kept us on the front foot, and top of mind.”
— Rory Bishop, Partner, Alta
