Hello my name is……..
Introductions can be tricky but when you also need to introduce a product that needs to be branded, it may become tricky to know what to cover first.
Start with you, who you are and why you are in the food business, every brand Toast Food has worked with has people behind it who are just as interesting and engaging as their products!
Once you establish that, you can then focus on the job at hand, outlining what you would like the designer to help with.
These could include:
If you have a creative brief, then offer to share that, if you are unsure what should go into one of those then make sure you do the following
Have a list of questions you need to be answered
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, any designer worth their salt will be happy to answer any queries you may have or provide you with links or documents that do.
Make sure you have them written down and have a pen and paper ready for the replies.
Feel free to add additional questions as and when they come up but ensure you get your core questions resolved.
Questions you may want to ask can cover:
- What is the name and background of the person who would work on your food branding project?
- What are the stages of the project, and how will they be managed?
- What are the timeframes or schedules needed to complete the project properly?
The point is, if it is a concern then ask and note the answer if you are talking to more than one agency you need to make sure who said what, as not all agencies are the same.
Be open to answering any question
On contacting a Food Brand agency, you might be met with a form to capture basic information on the requirement or asked to attach a creative brief.
The purpose of this is not to be nosey but rather a means to understand better how best they can advise you when they get to talk to you and prompt any questions they might need to know.
Questions they may want to ask can cover:
Do you have a brand strategy for this product? Can you share it?
They will want to know this so they can understand details including what stage of the product cycle we are at, who their competitors are and what the route to market looks like.
Do you have a budget assigned to this project? If so, can you share?
They will want to know this so that they can advise what can be achieved within that budget or if it needs to be reconsidered. It is better to have this conversation at the beginning rather than once the project has started.
Do you have all the allergen and nutritional information confirmed?
Where ever possible it is best to have any great packaging design information signed off and ready to use. Having to amend or reposition a product due to its nutritional or allergen information isn’t just a case of simple editing, it can affect the whole branding.
These are just a few examples of the kind of questions your designer may ask, be open to answering potentially hard questions as it is always better to have them at the beginning of the project.
