When he's not cycling around the world in his spare time, Jan Van Brakel puts his brainpower to work on one of SKINN's core competencies: designing strategic roadmaps that support a truly holistic vision of branding. He reveals the ins and outs of this approach and how it is implemented through in-depth work with clients.


How important is a strategic approach to branding nowadays?

Jan: Times have changed. Customers used to come with a briefing on touchpoints, asking for a new logo or a new website. This approach is no longer relevant. At SKINN, we support a different vision, which is to identify the needs and demands of the brand - usually the client has a 'problem' or something to change about their brand identity and establish a strategic roadmap. To do this, we follow a well-established process, taking into account all aspects of the business model, and ultimately put in place a solid brand strategy.

How does this process work? What are the different phases?

Jan: It's a four-stage process. First, we must fully understand all aspects of the sector, how stakeholders are involved, what the market dynamics are, who the target groups are and, of course, what the characteristics of the company itself are. We carry out what we call a 'business deep dive' to get a good grasp of all these elements. In a second phase, we focus on the stakeholders. Using surveys, questionnaires and interviews, we determine how the company is perceived internally and by its customers, former customers and prospective customers. All this information allows us, in the third phase, to look at the brand positioning. To do this, we draw up an exhaustive list of attributes, emotions and functionalities that will significantly differentiate the business process. If necessary, we define the brand architecture that will be used to develop the different identities. Finally, we take an in-depth look at the foundations of the brand, to understand what makes it stand out in the marketplace.

Are companies receptive to this in-depth strategic approach?

Jan: We find that our clients have also evolved and fully understand the benefits - and the necessity - for a holistic approach to these complex issues. They often arrive with a fundamental problem to solve, usually as a result of new acquisitions, mergers or the introduction of new brands. When someone says, "we need a new website, ours isn't up-to-date", it's not just about the website, it's about the brand story or another underlying issue. To tell the brand story faithfully, a new brand strategy is required. In large organisations, the expertise we provide, and the added value of our strategic exercises, can also support internal reflections that have already begun and which we help to take forward.

You mentioned earlier that defining the brand architecture can be part of the branding process, how is it then reflected in the actual organization of the company?

Jan: We recently carried out a strategic exercise for TVH, a company with over 30 brands, with a wide range of categories and cross-category products. Our strategic roadmap sets out the criteria for deciding whether a particular brand should be retained, based on, among other things, its market share in a given segment. This can imply profound changes, which must be proposed diplomatically, considering the stakeholders and the costs involved. The question is always whether the cost of change is greater than the cost of keeping things as they are. At SKINN, through our strategic approach, we aim to draw a horizon, with an ideal scenario that enables us to build the brand's optimal architecture step by step.

How are the strategic exercises and the implementation of the new brand strategy and architecture being followed up?

Jan: Rebranding a global portfolio can obviously take time, sometimes months or even years. As well as the results of the strategic exercise, the roadmap and a complete brand architecture, we also provide guidelines. Our customers can use these to project themselves towards the new horizon. Collaboration is an important part of our strategic process, and we systematically maintain a close dialogue with our partners, using a variety of visualisation and conversation tools. The holistic vision we advocate is above all future-proof. For example, if new acquisitions are made, they can be easily integrated into the brand architecture by following the strategic guidelines. In my opinion, this is one of the strongest arguments in favour of a holistic approach that aims not only to solve a given problem, but also to rethink in depth all the implications of the changes and to forge a strong and differentiated brand identity.