How to prepare for a brand audit (and what to expect)

The most common question we get before an audit is some version of “how much of my team’s time will this take?” The honest answer: far less than you fear. A well-run brand audit is designed to work around your organisation, not through the middle of it. Here is what the process actually looks like from your side of the table.

What we need from you. Three things. First, whatever brand documentation exists — guidelines, logo files, templates — in whatever state it is in. Incomplete or outdated is fine; that is itself a finding, and a common one. Second, access to samples: recent presentations, proposals, marketing materials, social accounts, and the names of the suppliers who produce things for you. Third, thirty minutes with the people who touch the brand most — usually marketing, sales leadership and whoever briefs external suppliers. Those three conversations reliably surface what no file inspection can: where people get stuck, what they improvise, and why.

What we do. We map every touch point where your brand appears, gather live examples from each, and score them against your standard — or against best practice where no standard exists. We look at marks, colour, typography, layout, tone and messaging, and just as importantly at the mechanics behind them: where assets live, who can access them, how work gets approved, and where old files keep re-entering circulation. The scoring rolls up into your Druff Index.

What you get. A scored, evidence-based picture of your brand’s current state, with side-by-side examples of what we found, the specific causes behind each gap, and a prioritised roadmap: what to fix this month, this quarter and this year. It is written for a leadership audience, not a design one; you will not need a glossary. Most clients use the report twice — once to fix things, and once as the baseline the next measurement is judged against.

What it is not. An audit is not a rebrand pitch, and we say this as an agency that would profit from rebrands: most brands we audit do not need new identities. They need the identity they already paid for to be applied properly everywhere. If that sounds like your situation, get in touch and we will walk you through it on a call first.