The Brand Diagnostic
A reading of the gap, not an audit.
The diagnostic establishes the distance between what a practice has built and how the market perceives it — and what, in what order, would close it. It is the studio's principal product, and it is complete in itself.
What it covers
The inputs are fixed, so the fee is stable and the deliverable predictable. The diagnostic examines the practice's website — up to eight pages — and up to five existing case studies or projects. Three competitors, agreed at intake, are scanned for how the practice reads against them. The current state of the practice's Instagram and LinkedIn presence is reviewed, and the positioning and messaging analysed throughout.
What arrives
A written diagnostic of twelve to fifteen pages, ending in a prioritised roadmap: sequenced recommendations with an order and a rationale, written so the practice could execute it without further involvement from the studio. The roadmap is what makes the diagnostic a complete engagement rather than a sales device.
The engagement closes with a live sixty-minute debrief — recorded, with the recording provided — where the roadmap becomes a conversation about who executes it.
What it asks of a principal
Ninety minutes, in total: a written intake, a thirty-minute call, and the sixty-minute debrief. The diagnostic is delivered within ten working days of the completed intake.
What is not included
No new copy is written. No design work is produced. There are no customer or client interviews, no stakeholder interviews beyond the principal, and no competitive research beyond the three agreed studios. The exclusions protect the scope — and the fee.
The fee
The Brand Diagnostic begins at CAD 3,500. Engagements with the studio typically range from CAD 3,500 for a diagnostic to CAD 25,000 for a full implementation, with scope driven by the size of the practice, the volume of existing work to be reorganised, and the depth of website involvement.
A practice may stop after the diagnostic. The roadmap is written so that it can — and saying so plainly is what makes the offer credible. If a next step is wanted in writing, a proposal follows within three working days of the debrief. If not, nothing follows.