Color coded monkeys

Let's for a second imagine that you're asked to create a brand, or perhaps rebrand a company, what would you do?

Would you do a magnificent survey, using different colour-coded systems for different segments of the expected target market and a list of all the competitors in an advanced taxonomy based on their impact on the market?
Or would you just buy a load of cans with flourecent spray paint and tennis balls, raid the local zoo for monkeys and put it all together in a sealed room and see what kind of creative shit they come up with?

I'd actually recommend a combination of both, because that would give you both the insight in the core of the brand, as well as the 'factor x' that makes the whole shabang interesting.


Usually these two directions are tied to what kind of company or organization it is you're dealing with. A larger company has a huge corporate body that has to be taken into consideration when developing a brand communication strategy, but also tend to be conservative and scared like a puppy when it comes to taking risks (ie. 'factor x').
That's why they tend to hire the man with a tie and lots of degrees to give them a document filled with numbers and an explanation of what they should do.
Smaller and more independent players on the other hand neither afford nor see the point in spreadsheet-models and S.W.O.T-analysis, they just want something cool (and cheap).
That's why they let their neighbours kid do his magic with a felt-pen on a napkin.

I know it's easy to theorize about things like these. Both scenarios are of course extremes and the reality tend to be somewhere inbetween. The designer settles for what he's good at, creating smashing graphics, and may even get a "cool logotype"-comment for it.
I just believe that if the kids in the design-schools just realized this, the very essence of brand development, we might actually be blessed with color coded monkeys in a not very distant future.