Remember the day you graduated college and as you walked down the aisle to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance? Did you ask yourself, am I leaving here with a skill I can use? Hopefully you weren’t pre-med when you asked that. I graduated with a journalism degree—the next Woodward and Bernstein—not quite! But I did learn a skill, one that comes in very handy in my work in advertising. I learned to ask questions, but more importantly, I learned to ask follow-up questions.

When approaching a “branding campaign,” asking questions is the first step; and the second step and the third. Very few of us are going to have the luxury of working on a branding campaign for Coke or Nike or GEICO. These brands have invested millions and millions in consumer research.  They know their brand and its message inside and out whether it is in print, in-store, TV, radio, online, outdoor or any of the digital options that seem to sprout up every week. They have asked and answered all the questions and still do.

Odds are the opportunity to help a small to mid-size company start a branding campaign is more of a reality for most of us. Just because they may not have had an army of researchers or a platoon of Madison Avenue advertising gurus strategizing in their conference rooms doesn’t mean they aren’t as knowledgeable about their brand as the power brands are. But because they aren’t a household word yet, they may need some out of the box thinking to convey it, especially on radio. Keep in mind that whatever your message is on radio, people are more than likely doing something else while listening, so you need to cut through the noise.

It is your job as an account manager to get everyone on the same page.  Make sure your client can answer these questions before you make any attempt at a creative approach:

• What does your brand stand for?
• What feeling(s) do you want your brand to illicit?
• Do you want your brand to change someone’s behavior?
• Do you want your brand to change someone’s perception?
• How do you think your brand is currently perceived?
• What is the one thing you want someone to realize about your brand after hearing your radio spot?
• Who is your customer now?
• Who do you want your customer to be?
• Is your brand current? Does it need an update to be competitive?
• Is your brand relatable?

There are hundreds of more to questions to ask, but if you approach it like a journalist on an interview a story should begin to unfold.  A picture will start to take shape of the brand and what it means to its owners, employees and customers. That is the starting point for your creative approach.

Try this exercise.  Take pen to paper and write the questions you think your client/company needs answered. Share them with your employees. If the answers come back the same or very close, then it’s congratulations to all of you. If they don’t, you have some work to do either with your team, with your agency or ideally with both.

There is an old saying, “Never ask a question you might not like the answer to.” When it comes to planning a branding campaign there are no questions that are off limits, because the success of your campaign is in the answers.

Monica Caraffa is a Senior Account Manager at The Radio Agency. Please follow The Radio Agency’s Blog “Sounding Board” by subscribing to the email or RSS links above. Visit our website TheRadioAgency.com