Case Study
Noor Khalil
Dubai, UAECommunication & Brand, Visual Identity, Digital Platform, Content Strategy, Public Relations
Noor Khalil is an American-Lebanese holistic self-development coach who embarked on a personal journey and sought a brand platform to support her.
Audit
During the pre-setup phase, Noor shared her struggles with two other agencies in developing a brand and communication strategy. Furthermore, her father, who had previously worked as a consultant for one of the "big 4," had a session with Cousins to gain a better understanding of our expertise and approach to micro and startup brands.
Although the scope is typical, our experience in startups, particularly personal brands, has given us insight into the challenges involved in navigating subjective decision-making processes.
Setup
Building upon the audit findings, Cousins assigned a dedicated partner to the account and curated a team of experts from our network.
Partner
Victor Ayache
Managing Partner, Consultant at Cousins
Collaborator
Anna Ogden-Smith
Director at Bananamonkey, specializing in strategy, design, and digital
Media collaborator
Ceem Haidar
Direction of -ment communication
Workshop Outcomes
During the workshops conducted by Cousins, the following outcomes were achieved:
01/ Distilling the Brand Concept
While Cousins is familiar with the industry and has worked on similar projects before, conducting a distillation workshop with Noor, her practice, peers, competition, clients, and goals was crucial for approaching the project in a relevant way. Additionally, we examined the pandemic-induced shift in communication practices, recognizing the scale of this unprecedented uncertainty.
02/ Contemporary Communication Practice
Our research categorized brands into three main clusters: institutionalized brands, commoditized brands, and instabrands. A notable observation was that the more amateur a brand, the more open their dialogue, while established brands tend to exhibit decreased openness.
Our central communication strategy emphasizes an open, organic, immersive, content-sharing, digital, and experiential platform.
03/ Illusion of Comprehensiveness in Strategy
We identified a common pain point where clients struggle to find practical plans for starting up. Many strategy documents give the illusion of being comprehensive but end up forgotten in folders or desk drawers.
Our documents are meant to be on the walls. We created a poster for Noor featuring the brand concept and communication strategy.
We also provided practical recommendations for starting a brand, covering content, mediums, channels, social and advertising messaging, and tone of voice. Our aim is to ensure the brand serves as a supportive platform where things naturally fall into place for Noor.
04/ Post-Strategy Operations
Cousins operates as your agency beyond strategy development. We take responsibility for ensuring our strategies perform well and are truly comprehensive. Moreover, we assist in creating the necessary infrastructure to help you kick off your brand. Through our extensive network of collaborators, we recommended Bananamonkey as a visual communication and design studio, as well as PR companies, advertising companies, digital companies, and production ateliers.
We also provide recommendations for industry peers and potential collaborations. Additionally, we provide essential budgeting and project phasing documents to help Noor forecast her expenditures and track milestones during the initial phase.