Brand research
Brand research is a comprehensive process that gives your brand marketing agency the insights to shape a successful strategy.
Our team uses a variety of initiatives and methods to understand your audiences, explore challenges and evaluate brand awareness and sentiment.
One key component is the brand portfolio audit, which examines your products and services in line with business values to ensure alignment. Awareness tracking is also crucial to gauge the visibility of the brand within target audiences over time, while stakeholder alignment ensures that internal and external stakeholders are aligned with your objectives.
Brand research also includes competitor benchmarking, which helps identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Our team is experienced at bringing all of these elements together into a strategic framework that shapes your brand strategy.
Brand audits
A brand audit is an exercise to evaluate your brand's position in the marketplace, in order to shape strategy and identity. Our research team analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your current brand by reviewing various brand elements including visual identity, messaging, customer perception and market positioning.
CWA’s brand audits are tailored to each client but typically consist of steps including market research to assess brand awareness, analysis of competitor landscapes, and a comprehensive review of internal and external communications strategies.
Once we have gained insights into your brand's performance, we can identify areas for improvement and align them with evolving market trends to deliver a successful brand strategy. All whilst using data-driven insights to make sure your brand resonates with target audiences.
Brand strategy
A good brand strategy covers several elements, starting with the creation of a comprehensive brand platform that outlines the brand's essence, values and mission. With this in place, our experienced team can develop a brand architecture, which establishes the structure and hierarchy of brand elements to ensure alignment and consistency.
Your brand agency should also craft a compelling value proposition and messaging framework that resonates with target audiences, as well as key USPs such as positioning your Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy. We have skilled in-house copywriters ready to work up the individual elements that will help get your brand noticed.
Ensuring clarity in communication and using insights from the brand research, CWA brings all of these elements together into a cohesive brand strategy that meets your objectives.
Brand identity
Next comes the visual elements that help to showcase your brand to stakeholders, prospects and customers. CWA’s creative services team is experienced in developing brand identity assets for clients in a variety of sectors, including the creation or enhancement of logos, colour palettes, typography, imagery and graphics.
If needed, we can support with collaborative and creative input to the brand name and tagline, as well as creating brand stationery, signage, and templates.
To ensure consistency across all channels, we would always recommend developing comprehensive brand guidelines and digital brand books.
Brand touchpoint audits
A brand touchpoint audit helps to ensure consistency and effectiveness of the brand strategy by checking how audiences perceive the brand at every interaction point. This includes online and offline communications channels such as websites, social media, customer service, packaging and advertising.
Benefits include increased brand consistency, improved customer satisfaction and enhanced brand loyalty. The outcomes typically involve insights that allow our specialist team to make adjustments for continuous improvement.
Brand storytelling
It’s essential to create a unique brand story and as an experienced brand marketing agency, CWA has the tools required to inspire audiences and create an emotional connection.
We’re skilled at developing elements including brand heritage, values and culture, combining them with the brand proposition to create a narrative that sets brands apart. We then use a combination of copywriters, filmmakers, photographers and designers to bring those stories to life through engaging and creative assets.
Brand refresh
If your brand is already developed and you simply need a refresh, CWA can develop new brand identity elements based on insights.
We still start with comprehensive research on your brand, your audience and competitors, to define your current position and identify areas for improvement. Being careful to maintain consistent communication and exploit any existing strengths, our team will enhance and refresh your brand as needed to help an industry leader.
It’s also important to reinforce the brand with comprehensive plans for internal and external rollouts, as well as ongoing activation campaigns to drive continuous awareness.
Brand activation
Brand activation is the act of bringing the brand to life, driving direct engagement with its target audience.
CWA has experience in planning experiences, events and campaigns that raise awareness and drive action from consumers, bringing brands to life and positioning them in the marketplace.
We have developed immersive experiences and innovative campaigns for clients across varied sectors, with compelling storytelling and high-reach visual assets that create memorable impressions and contribute to long-term commercial success.
We also support roll-out asset development, campaign management, measurement and optimisation to deliver an end-to-end solution for brand activation.
Product launches
If you have a new product to launch, we can help develop the proposition and develop activation techniques to help get in front of your key audiences.
CWA has the tools to build excitement and awareness, aligning with wider marketing strategies and campaign development to showcase your products with confidence.
Employee branding
Employee branding is vital to help attract and retain talent. By shaping internal and external messaging, CWA can position your brand as a responsible, engaging and supportive employer that puts its people first.
We typically launch brands internally first to ensure staff buy-in and drive employee engagement, always aligning messaging with your mission and values. Our internal branding strategies help position employees as brand ambassadors, making sure that they are moving in the same direction on your journey towards brand success.