“Put the Cart Before the Horse”

One day, I received a call from a client asking me to create a new identity for an upcoming project. However, towards the end, I realized that he had placed this activity at the end of his project campaign – making it seem like the brand identity and value was the last piece of a large jigsaw puzzle.

This might seem normal to several people who don’t understand the brand process but it’s actually a very destructive process – especially if we want to build a balanced, strong, and consistent brand.

The client will go ahead and plan his campaign extensively not putting into account the image, the story and how his brand is portrayed to his audience. This is a one-way relationship that will lead him to a result with a flawed finish.

The brand should always be present from the beginning because it will be the façade of the project, whether through marketing, design, or simply interacting with the public.

How can we do that?

When manufacturing a jigsaw puzzle, we tend to create the whole picture first, and then we start to cut it up into parts. The same thing goes for any project – We need to envision the whole picture, then start with the execution, and only then will we have a complete project with vivid features.

To reach the final step, we need to have a pre-planning process that has all the vital aspects of the project. This can be summed up into three words: Story, Strategy, and Brand (SBB).

First:

The Story: This is the main component that carries all the principles, goals and characteristics of the project or brand. Simon Sinek has pointed this out in his book “Start with Why – The story indeed creates a spirit for the brand, which can ensure the regeneration of the content creation and consistency. Big examples include Adidas, Apple, and Amazon.

Second:

The Strategy: It is the roadmap for any project; the output of this step is to know the brand positioning in comparison with other competitors in the market, and what the brand promises and what it delivers. This is usually called the “tagline”, “Mantra” or “Slogan”, e.g. “Just Do It” by Nike.

Third:

The Brand: It evolves around two things; the first part is the “Brand Visual Identity”, which is inspired by the story and stimulated by the strategy like the Apple logo. The second part is the attitude, or what we can call “Brand Culture”. It means rooting the brand’s values within the public, which can eventually result in what we call “User Experience” UX.

To sum it up – What we really need to build an identity is not have it work partially but holistically through applying the SBB method. If we don’t, then we will not Put the Cart Before the Horse.

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