A creative brief outlines the who, what, and why of a brand. It acts as a baseline to come back to, it helps maintain consistency through your brand endeavors.

The Creative Brief checklist includes:

• Brand Name
• Purpose of the Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign
• Purpose of the Brand
  • Purpose Statement
  • Values Statement(s)
• People: Target Market Description
• Problem
  • Problem Description
  • Problem Statement Framework
  • User Story
• Brand Marketing Mix Description
  • Place Strategy
  • Price Strategy
  • Product Strategy
    • FAB Pie
• Brand Value Proposition
• Positioning Statement for Brand
• Potential of Brand
  • Marketing Objective(s) (MOs)
  • Communication Objective(s) (COs)
• Persuasion: Tagline
• Brand Elements
• Common Brand Associations
  • ColorsFontsLogoTaglineTone
• Five Senses Brand Associations
  • Look
  • Smell
  • Sound
  • Taste
  • Feel

Whew. That’s quite a checklist. While the entire document is so important, we’ll focus on these three sections: Problem, Brand Purpose, and Potential of the Brand.

Problem

Outlining the problem your brand is targeting is one of the most important aspects of your Creative Brief – without a thorough understanding of the problem you won’t be able to pick the best segment of consumers to target or accurately position yourself to your target market. When considering the problem you want to target, do not write it in a way that sets up your brand as the obvious solution, but write the problem in an unbiased way.

To create a problem statement, follow this basic framework (gleaned from Dan Purdy’s company, Real Symple):

I am [role/user].

I am trying to (do) [action]

but [impediment/blocker]

because [condition causing impediment/blocker],

which makes me feel [emotion resulting from impediment].

When filling out these sections, really dig into what the root of the problem is. Keep asking yourself “why” to get past the surface-level problem.

Brand Purpose

The Brand Purpose states why the brand exists. What is the brand’s overall goal? The Brand Purpose format is: To [the contribution], so that [the impact]. This statement should be a single, concise sentence. It should be inspiring to you as well as your target market – it should be specific enough to draw in your audience while general enough to inspire more than just you. I know, right? Tough. The best advice I could offer in this process is to dig deeper, asking the question “why” until you reach the root reason. Your root “why”.

The Brand Purpose section also includes the Brand Values and their meanings. For example, one value may be respect, and the meaning might include treating everyone with kindness, providing space for everyone’s voice to be heard, and being on time in regards to attendance and tasks. When outlining the values, be sure to format them in such a way that makes the list easy to take in.

Potential of the Brand: MOs & COs

Marketing Objectives are the overall brand goals. They can include goals for profit, revenue, market share, and user growth.

Communication Objectives are related to the first four aspects of the Hierarchy of Effects: Awareness, Knowledge, Liking, and Preference. The COs outline which effects the brand is targeting. New brands need to increase awareness and knowledge of their brand before they can increase liking and preference.

MOs are your brand’s Marketing Objectives and COs are your brand’s Communication Objectives. You can have as many of each as you want, but because all resources (time, money, etc.) are limited, it is best to focus on only a couple MOs and COs.

When writing your objectives, make sure they are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timed. Include your target number (a specific profit dollar amount or percent knowledge of your brand among your target market) as well as the date you wish to achieve the goal by.