“The customer is never wrong” was the famous slogan of the even more famous hotelier Cesar Ritz. Or if you prefer, “the customer is always right” according to Harry Gordon Selfridge. Working for engagement agencies, as we do, it can sometimes be difficult to believe these maxims, especially when reviewing the numerous briefs received from some of our clients each and every week. Does our client really think this represents their brand positively? How can they believe this brief will engage their employees? We may be experts in our field but who are we to tell our clients they might possibly be wrong?
By asking the right questions and considering the brief properly, we can steer not only our own but our client’s thinking to better understand the proper outcome. Ultimately, we can then build a brief and a proposal that will deliver what is needed as opposed to what is simply wanted, right or wrong. Here are 7 for starters…
Who is it for?
What do we know about our client, their brand and their target audience? How can we best appeal to their audience to capture the imagination? How will we communicate with them? This is at the heart of engagement and sure-fire reasoning to help create a winning brief.
What is it for?
The most important of questions that is most often neglected; why? Careful consideration of why our client wants to do this will help us to understand their reasoning and better define for the all-important objectives.
How can it make life easier?
What are our client’s pain points? What issues can we help to overcome with our creative solutions? Be it reducing workloads or improving processes, fixing problems will help our client to focus on results.
What has been done previously?
Has our client done anything like this before? What did and what didn’t work? History does tend to repeat itself which is fine when repeating success but not so good when making the same mistakes again and again.
When do we launch?
“As soon as possible!” is the usual response but we have to think more strategically about timescales. We can all turn things around in a matter of days but when will be the most effective time to launch? What other key events or timings will support the brief?
What is the budget?
Before we can try to exceed expectations, we must manage those expectations first. Let’s be honest and realistic. Promising the moon on a stick without the appropriate budget will only end up giving you stick!
How will success be measured?
What is success and what metrics will be used to measure it? Is it about increased engagement and activity or is it simply increased sales? Be clear from the outset on expectations and measuring the outcome to determine the level of success. And if you get it right, make sure you celebrate this success!
These 7 simple questions will help you and your client build a better brief and buy a better chance of seeing the right result. After all, der Kunde ist König.
