BRAND STRATEGY AGENCY MELBOURNE
xCreative™ is a brand strategy agency in Melbourne, based in Chadstone. Brand strategy is the part of a branding project that happens before anyone draws a logo: who the business is for, what it should be known for, how its products or companies relate to each other, and what it is called. We have done this work since 2016 for more than 200 Australian businesses, in English and Chinese.
Strategy is the first stage of every identity we build, and it can also be commissioned alone, as a brand consultancy engagement, when you already have a designer or an in-house team. The design stages that follow are covered on our branding agency Melbourne and brand identity design pages.
What brand strategy covers
Four decisions, made in this order.
Positioning. One sentence that says who you serve and why they should choose you over the business next door. If the sentence could describe a competitor, it is not finished.
Brand architecture. How a parent company, its divisions and its products sit together. Activation Group works across investment, technology and business strategy, so its identity had to carry authority in all three without reading as three different companies.
Naming. Names shortlisted with a trade mark search and a check of how they read in Chinese. Kingsley fuses Kingsway and Glen Waverley, the two names that define its address. Our brand naming page covers this stage on its own.
Messaging. The tagline, the three or four claims you can prove, and the tone your staff and suppliers can copy without a designer in the room.
Strategy you can see in the work
The logo obeys the strategy, not the other way around.
Binary Group received an identity built on a nine-square grid because the strategy called for something modular and structural. Tony Deng & Co, an accounting and advisory firm, is positioned as a guide through complex financial territory, so the identity navigates by the Southern Cross.
How an engagement runs
Short, written down, and decided before design.
We start with your market, your competitors and what customers actually buy from you. No design happens in this stage.
You receive the positioning, the architecture, naming options with their trade mark checks, and the core messages as a written document. You approve a direction before anything goes near production, so the money spent on design, signage and a website is spent once.
FAQ
Questions clients ask us.
What is the difference between brand strategy and brand identity?
Strategy is the set of decisions: audience, positioning, structure, name and message. Identity is how those decisions look and sound: logo, colour, typography and guidelines. Strategy comes first because it gives every design choice a reason.
Can we hire you for strategy only?
Yes. The strategy is delivered as a written document that your own designers or another studio can work from. If you continue into identity design with us, the people who wrote the strategy are the ones drawing it.
Do you work with corporate groups and professional firms?
Yes. Groups with several divisions are where brand architecture matters most. Our corporate branding page covers that work.
Can the strategy cover a Chinese-speaking audience?
Yes. We write names and messages in English and Chinese as parallel originals. See our Chinese marketing page.
Selected work
Brand strategy sits behind the identities in our portfolio. Filter by type below.
Contact
Talk to us about your brand strategy.
Phone: 03 8652 5115
Email: info@xcreative.com.au
Studio: Tower 1, Level 8, 1341 Dandenong Road, Chadstone VIC 3148
See our full portfolio of 63 case studies or read about xCreative.
