Devoted to branding and building and protecting brands

In yesterday's rant (View), I noted the fundamental requirement in this business to ask the toughest, and sometimes "stupidest" questions of entrepreneurs who would be category leaders and captains of new industries. I used the example of a mythical, Web 2.0 business requesting proposals from interactive (Web design/development) agencies. The challenge for client and agency in this instance is to realize, and get their collective heads around, the reality that even to propose what such a site would entail requires a weeks-long, or longer, effort to establish a precise definition of the target, the brand, and the experience that will enable success from the moment the site goes live.

 

This is the way we see it at Turner/DeVaughn: The first deliverable would amount to a preliminary, but very detailed, project plan. Despite the "preliminary" label, this plan is literally the blueprint for the architecture of the actual content on the site and how it will be experienced. It's impossible to overstate its importance. In other words, its preparation is critical to measurable results and success of your business. The more resources wisely invested in this planning stage, the more effectively the team can function in developing and rolling out the most successful site possible. One that starts making money right away. Validating assumptions and substantiating gut-feel and hunches about the market (your users) calls for heavy research, secondary and primary.

 

You need to focus dollars on promotion to the right "prototype" of early adopter -- a profile consistent with the important audience you need to reach right away, when you first "go live". Only then are you prepared to specify descriptions of what choices to give users when they arrive at the site, what keeps them engaged, what brings them back, possible friction points, payment issues, mechanics of referrals, and even a trademark-able name.

 

You won't have all the answers at the end of this preliminary stage, but you will be assured of having a clear definition of your market, brand promise and target audience. In typical cases with early-stage companies, this information is conspicuously absent when the call for proposals go out to agencies. Ironically, it's the one thing you must have to conduct a productive conversation with them. Only those agencies that insist on having it, prior to proposing anything, are worth talking to.