Brand discovery is all about ensuring that every touchpoint reflects a consistent, compelling message about who you are as a company. Learn how uncovering your brand’s core and pairing it with PIM can boost alignment, improve customer trust, and help your business scale with confidence and clarity.
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Picture this: You’ve just finished a portrait sketch, only to realize it looks more like a potato with eyebrows than the person you were trying to draw. So, what do you do? You don’t throw away your pencils in despair, you figure out what went sideways and give it another shot, this time with a sharper eye.
Brands are no different. The smart ones don’t blindly stick to the same scribbles if they aren’t looking right. They pause, reflect on themselves, and ask the big questions: Who are we? And do we look strange to the world? This self-reflection isn’t a sign of a crisis, but a strategy. And it has a name: Brand Discovery.
Brand discovery is the process of uncovering and defining the core of who your brand is beyond your logo, color palette, unique selling propositions (USPs), unique value proposition (uvp), or catchy tagline (though those are all important!). It’s about getting clear on your mission, values, voice, audience, market position, and what makes your brand truly unique.
Think of it as a step-by-step into your brand’s DNA. It helps you answer critical questions like:
Done right, brand discovery gives you the clarity and confidence to build consistent messaging and meaningful customer experiences, which makes a brand that people actually remember.
Brands can’t just do anything they want for the sake of it and call it a strategy. Especially when they’re trying to build a name for themselves that resonates with their target audience and differentiates them from their competitors. Without transparency, teams end up sending mixed messages, and customers are left scratching their heads! A strong brand foundation makes sure everyone, from marketing to sales, tells the same story.
More than just internal alignment, brand discovery gives you an edge in today’s digital landscape. It reveals what sets you apart and ensures that every move you make, from campaigns to product launches, stays true to your identity.
Brand discovery isn’t just good PR, it’s the groundwork for long-term growth. Done right, it can:
Of course, it’s not always smooth sailing. Brand discovery also comes with a few hurdles:
Here’s how you peel back the layers and find your brand’s true identity:
Dive into your brand’s core by questioning its reason for existence, its purpose, its values, its audience, and how you want people to feel when interacting with it. Get input from leadership, employees, and customers for a 360° view.
Who are you really talking to? Go beyond demographics and dig into psychographics; what they value, how they think, what they struggle with, and why they should care about your brand.
Start by reviewing your current brand assets. Are they consistent? Do they reflect who you really are, or who you used to be?
What makes you different? Be honest—and specific. This isn’t about sounding nice; it’s about being clear. Your UVP should highlight how you uniquely solve a problem or fulfill a need in a way others don’t.
Are you bold and cheeky, or calm and authoritative? Decide on a tone that matches your values and resonates with your audience. This shapes everything from taglines to tweets.
Look at what your competitors are saying, doing, and claiming. This helps you identify white space, and avoid blending in.
Compile everything into a brand discovery report that lays the foundation of your company. This becomes something your team can refer back to for consistency as you scale, launch, and evolve.
Brand discovery defines who you are, but Product Information Management (PIM) ensures that identity shows up consistently wherever your products live. It acts as a central hub for all your product information, helping you translate brand values into consistent and accurate content across every channel.
With PIM, you can enrich product pages with the right tone, visuals, and attributes, align messaging across regions, and scale your content without losing control. In short, it connects the dots between your brand strategy and how it actually appears to your customers!
In a world where customers crave authenticity and clarity, knowing who you are (and expressing it consistently) is what sets memorable brands apart from forgettable ones. It’s the foundation for everything that follows: your messaging, your product storytelling, your market positioning, even your customer relationships.
And while that discovery process starts with introspection, it doesn’t stop there. Tools like PIM ensure that what you’ve uncovered about your brand makes its way into the real world—on every channel, in every product detail, and across every customer touchpoint.
When you align what you say with what you deliver, you build trust, loyalty, and advocacy. Brand discovery is an ongoing commitment to understanding, evolving, and communicating your identity in ways that resonate. With the right strategy and technology, you can transform discovery into delivery, and delivery into lasting impact.
Our Akeneo Experts are here to answer all the questions you might have about our products and help you to move forward on your PX journey.
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