A solid marketing foundation is the basis for a good brief. The brief should demonstrate and explain your business, product, customers and objectives for the campaign or activity. In general, we’d recommend developing standard briefing documents. A brief for general use, and a short form brief for simple projects with a fast turn-around. You’ll find that once developed the briefing document can become an essential reference tool for many people in the organisation, documenting major marketing elements such as product positioning and messaging. The brief is also a great starting point for other activities such as developing training materials, sales presentations and product support plans. It can help make sure everyone is aligned and pulling in the right direction at all points of customer contact.

Of course, the brief doesn’t always have to be this detailed, but a thorough briefing document for new product introductions in a B2B market may contain the following:

1. Business, Product or Campaign name

2. Target Market(s)

- Size

- Market dynamics

3. Target Audience

- Job Title

- Function

- Psychographic profile –’what makes these people tick? What are their frustrations?’

4. Competitors

- The companies

- Their products

- How they position themselves