The Full Circle of Creativity: Strategy & Research
Welcome back to ‘The Full Circle of Creativity’ – a blog series designed to highlight how each team in our creative ecosystem contributes to the journey from concept to shelf.
Last month, we pulled back the curtain on Client Service to reveal how this highly organised team translates client wish lists into actionable briefs and ensures every project receives the time, resources and expertise needed to exceed expectations. In this post, we step into the world of Strategy & Research where Associate Director of Brand Strategy Logan Murtha reveals how her team transforms data into creative inspiration, finding the sweet spot between brand objectives and consumer desires.
Building a strategic foundation
The Strategy & Research team is often involved in a project from the very first client conversation, working alongside Client Service to understand the full picture before any creative work begins.
There’s a simple reason for this early involvement. “Strategy should always come before creative because that’s what drives efficacy and impact,” Logan explains. “It ensures design doesn’t just look great, but also solves consumer problems, meets business objectives, and avoids the ‘sea of sameness’. Put simply, it leads to creative work that is both beautiful and effective.”
Understanding the four Cs
Once Logan’s team understands the problem they’re being asked to solve, they create a research plan built around ‘the four Cs’ – the company, the category, the consumer and the culture. “We aim to uncover insights in each of those lanes, helping us see things in new ways and identify creative and competitive white space,” says Logan.
The research itself takes many forms. From trend forecasting and marketplace immersion to category audits and in-depth consumer research, the team uses whatever methodology will unlock the right insights. Their toolkit includes everything from traditional focus groups and surveys to more innovative approaches like ‘shopalongs’ and virtual reality (VR) testing.
But gathering data is only half the battle. “We have to synthesise that data and look at the story it tells,” says Logan. “A lot of strategists identify as storytellers because that’s always what our work is building towards – whether it’s the story your packaging wants to tell at point of purchase or the story of your brand identity.”
When research reveals the unexpected
Sometimes, the research tells a story nobody expected. “We might start off thinking the ‘problem’ is one thing, then realise it’s something else entirely,” explains Logan. “That’s where things get exciting! If might feel uncomfortable at first but if you’re bold enough to change your brand, you’re looking for that discomfort. Rigorous interrogation is what moves the needle and creates solutions rooted in deep understanding.”
From research to strategy
With insights in hand, the team’s approach shifts depending on the scope of the project. Their expertise spans brand positioning, design architecture, innovation strategy, naming and nomenclature, creative strategy, and much more. To give you a flavour of their work, we’ve chosen four of the most common project types:
- Packaging redesign – the team focuses on developing creative briefs that outline measures of success and provide creative starting points. “We’re creating different sandboxes for our creative team to play in, giving them a creative springboard that’s grounded in insight and business objectives, but translated to inspire creative exploration.”
- Brand creation – the team’s process involves articulating the complete brand story – writing positioning statements, defining personality and voice, mapping competitive positioning, and bringing the foundation of the brand to life before creating design briefs for visual identity.
- Naming – the team brings strategists and creatives together to ‘name storm’. This intensive process generates hundreds of options before distilling them down into a focused presentation complete with rationale and competitive comparisons.
- Innovation strategy – the team goes beyond analysing today’s portfolio to uncover tomorrow’s opportunities. They identify whitespace by looking at unmet consumer needs, cultural trends, and emerging paradigm shifts, then test ideas directly with consumers. “We believe innovation works best when it’s co-created. By inviting in consumers early through workshops, we make sure concepts feel authentic, solve real problems, and are ready for the future.”
Staying connected throughout the creative process
Having strategists and creatives under one roof creates unique opportunities for collaboration and means that the handover from one to the other isn’t really a handover at all, but an ongoing collaboration.
“We’re quite anti-handoff,” Logan admits. “When the creative team starts, we become the voice of the brand and audience. This makes design work more empathetic to consumers while questioning whether creative decisions will have commercial impact.”
This approach means strategists remain involved as brand guardians, ensuring work stays true to both consumer insights and business objectives. But it’s far from one-sided. “Creatives and strategists push each other’s ideas, leading to much stronger end result,” says Logan.
Measuring success
The team’s involvement doesn’t end when creative concepts are developed. They often validate designs through consumer testing, checking against the success measures defined during the initial phases of work. “If we decided that the priority was for a product to breakthrough on shelf, for example, we will test that in a shelf set to see how quickly people find it,” Logan explains.
For Logan, success is measured both in performance and human connection. “Creating something that resonates authentically with people is such a rush,” she says. “We’re proudest when we’ve been able to make their lives easier or tastier or more exciting.”
By the time Logan’s team hands their strategic foundation to the creative teams, they’ve built more than research and recommendations; they’ve created a roadmap that ensures every creative decision has purpose and every design choice drives toward clear objectives.
Next month, we’ll explore what happens when these carefully crafted strategies meet our creative concepting team – the visionaries who transform insights into the first sparks of visual magic.
Curious about how strategic thinking could transform your brand? Get in touch – we’d love to explore the possibilities with you.
