PhaseOne

To know where your brand is going, you need to understand where it’s been. We offer services that identify changes and trends in the marketplace that can signal potential pitfalls — and unique opportunities — for positioning and communicating your brand.

Landscape Analysis: We dissect the current marketplace to disclose key intelligence about competitive positioning and market dynamics, including “holes” in the communications environment that help you develop strategies that give you the competitive edge.

Brand Communications Audit: By thoroughly analyzing a brand’s recent communica-tions, we uncover consistencies and inconsistencies in brand positioning and messaging, and how they have contributed to the brand’s overall impression. We confirm alignment, or lack of alignment, with the brand strategy, show how your communications have contributed to brand equity, and recommend next steps to strengthen the brand’s future impact across all relevant media.

Brand Equity Insights: Time and again, this PhaseOne service has proved invaluable: (1) at the start of new creative development; (2) when an existing brand is at the point of change; and (3) when past successes or failures require deeper objective analysis to inform future communications. We carefully explore a brand’s communications history and offer key insights into its distinctive personality, how audiences relate to it, and to what types of future communications they will most likely resonate.

Competitive Strategy Assessment: Our competitive review reveals in-depth knowledge of how a brand’s competitors are positioning themselves through their communications; their strengths and weaknesses; how your target audiences perceive them; and opportunities or gaps you can capitalize on to capture and hold your audiences.

Regardless of the type of communication, its stage of development, or where it’s playing in the global marketplace, PhaseOne goes to the heart of a project to determine whether it is the strongest concept, contains the most persuasive language and imagery, “plays” well in different formats, and best meets your marketing objectives.

Concept Selection: Often undertaken in the early stage of creative development, and guided by the creative strategy and/or brand objectives, we identify the concept that will most effectively overcome marketing challenges, how to present it in the most relevant and distinctive way, and any overarching concerns that need to be addressed.

Campaign Analysis: First we identify which campaign best delivers the brand’s strategy and contributes most meaningfully to it. We then ensure that all elements within a campaign share key characteristics and deliver a unified message that engages and motivates target audiences. This process provides clear and actionable guidance to enhance individual communications and strengthen the campaign as a whole.

Communications Enhancer: Among PhaseOne’s most popular and sought-after services, this highly sophisticated analytical process uncovers the strengths and weaknesses of a specific communication and forecasts with pinpoint accuracy how the target market will react to it. Communications are analyzed against the brand’s strategy, breakthrough potential, strength of elements to drive preference and motivation, and the presence of obstacles that stand in the way of successful communication. The result is direct and actionable intelligence that helps you move forward with the strongest communication possible.

Packaging Analysis: In this two-step approach, we closely study the competition’s packaging to determine how it correlates with making a sale, whether it enhances or undermines the brand’s personality, and the underlying strategy it communicates. Then we analyze and rank various packaging options for your brand according to their ability to build brand awareness, contribute to a unified image, reinforce benefits, and capture audience attention. This approach helps you avoid competitors’ mistakes and provides direct, actionable intelligence to ensure you choose the strongest packaging possible.

Website Analysis: We conduct an initial, detailed study to determine the organizing and communications principles that ensure superior websites in any industry, for any strategic intent. Then we perform a comprehensive analysis of your website to confirm whether and how each page engages visitors, promotes interactivity, motivates them to go deeper, and ultimately meets your strategic objectives. This process reveals how the brand’s overall tone and personality are being communicated online and how effectively visitors navigate through the site.

You’ve just completed a highly successful campaign and are about create its successor.

Is it necessary to reinvent the wheel? What worked once can work again, right?
The answers to these questions are revealed when you uncover the complex communication dynamics that drive audience response. Through a proprietary suite of evaluation, tracking and metrics tools, PhaseOne illuminates the myriad subtle and overt elements that can influence your target audiences’ attitudes and trigger reactions — both positive and negative. The result gives you specific information you can use to achieve your specific communications objectives every time.

• Repositioning a brand
• Introducing a new product or service
• Understanding preference to drive sales
• Changing attitudes
• Reaching the youth market
• Communicating brand value
• Leadership communication
• … and much more