Platform Inspection:
is your brand platform sound?
In one line
an expert examination of the strategy your brand is built on, the work usually sold as a brand strategy audit, for self-funded technology companies, delivered inside two weeks.
The facts
Price
£3,500, one payment in full.
Length
Two weeks.
Your time
Two to three hours: one conversation at the start and the findings briefing at the end.
Done by
Luis Defaz, Brandian's founder.
Credit
Brand Platform, Renown, Coherence or Range, in full, inside six months.
When to buy this
Prospects keep asking how you're different, and the answer changes with who gives it.
Your prospect's procurement team puts you in a spreadsheet beside larger vendors and the conversation ends up about price.
Your product keeps improving and new business hasn't moved.
Each is about your brand platform: the strategy underneath the brand, who it's for, where it sits, what it claims and what character it shows. In a technology business grown on its own revenue, that strategy was set by the founder, lives mostly in their head, and has never been tested against the market. Funded competitors had their story written for them at every announcement; yours you wrote yourself, around everything else. It got your business here; whether it holds for what comes next is another question. The Platform Inspection examines it part by part and puts the evidence in writing.
Where your credit goes
Where the findings show faults in your strategy, the corrections are ranked, and the decision on them is yours. Brand Platform is the service that makes them. Buy it inside six months and the Platform Inspection's full price comes off the first instalment. The same credit applies to Renown, Coherence and Range, where the identity, the voice or the portfolio needs rebuilding with it.
The Inspection's work is that service's opening step already done, so you pay for it once. Where the findings show your strategy holding, you have that in writing, and it opens Brand Identity and Brand Tone of Voice on their own, since Brandian won't build a guaranteed identity or voice on a platform that isn't sound. The Inspection has narrowed where to look, and the remaining parts of your brand have Inspections of their own.
What it examines
Four parts, each matching one piece of what Brand Platform builds, examined on your sales material and public presence.
1
Your buyer. Who you serve and write for, beside any buyer description you hold and how it was made. It answers whether you sell to who you think.
2
Your positioning. Every competitor's claim on the axes your market compares on, and your place. It answers whether that ground is worth holding.
3
Your unique selling proposition. The difference you state or imply, tested for evidence and consistency. It answers whether a buyer would see it.
4
Your personality. The one your communications show, on your category's archetype map beside your competitors'. It answers whether it holds everywhere.
The Inspection doesn't build your brand strategy. That work belongs to Brand Platform.
How the two weeks run
Day 1
The opening conversation. You hand over whatever strategy material exists, in whatever state. The rest comes from your sales material and public presence.
Days 2 to 13
The four parts are examined and the report written. A clarification or two may reach you by call or email; nothing else is asked of you until day 14.
Day 14
The findings briefing with Luis, where your questions are answered. Each finding opens on what it's costing you, with its evidence graded and the corrections ranked, and your further questions go to Luis by call or email, as many as you have.
A test you can run this week
Take the opening line of your website and your two nearest competitors'. Strip the names, put them side by side, and ask a potential buyer which is whose. If they can't say, the claims are interchangeable, and you have seen one of the four parts. If yours is picked at once, that part is holding; the test says nothing about your buyer, your positioning or your personality, which is why the Platform Inspection examines the four together.
Questions buyers ask
We have no written strategy. Is there anything to examine?
Yes. The strategy exists whether or not it's written down: it lives in what your technology company publishes, sells and says, and the Inspection finds it there. An undocumented strategy is itself a finding.
Can I cancel or postpone?
A Platform Inspection can't be cancelled or refunded, because the work is scheduled as soon as you buy; you can postpone it once, for three months at most. Inside six months, its full price comes off the first instalment of Brand Platform, Renown, Coherence or Range.
Does it carry the Performance Guarantee?
No. The Platform Inspection is a fixed-price examination delivered inside two weeks; the Guarantee belongs to Brandian's services and solutions.
Who does the work?
Luis Defaz, personally, from the opening conversation to the briefing.
Does this commit me to buying anything else?
No. The findings name what is failing and what would correct it; what you build on them, and with whom, is yours to decide. If you go on to Brand Platform, Renown, Coherence or Range inside six months, the Inspection's full price comes off the first instalment.
What if the findings say the strategy is fine?
Then your brand platform is sound, and the problem lies elsewhere. The findings say where to look next.
What if the findings show my category is crowded?
Then the good positions are taken and the brands in your category sound alike, and the map shows who is saying what. Two exits follow: reposition inside the category, which Brand Platform covers in full, or create a category of your own through Category Creation. That addition is quoted in the Brand Platform proposal and payable only if the evidence opens that door and you choose it.
How is this different from the Brand Record?
The Brand Record measures how your buyer sees your brand; the Platform Inspection examines your brand strategy as it stands. Buy the Inspection if you already suspect your brand strategy is the problem. Buy the Brand Record if you can't yet say which part of your brand is at fault.
Inspections