Why most Marketing briefs miss the mark - and what to do instead

I don’t trust most marketing briefs. Not because they’re badly written. But because they follow a template—and templates have a nasty habit of being filled out rather than thought through.

Too often, teams are so focused on completing the boxes—"target audience," "key message," "success metrics"—that they forget to step back and ask: What’s the real problem?

A better brief doesn’t just guide the work—it challenges it. It gets everyone aligned on:

- The real business shift we need.

- The emotional shift the brand must create.

- What we’ll choose not to chase this time.

At BrightGrain, we help uncover what’s really going on underneath the brief—and build a better path forward. Want to dig deeper? Reach out or connect via LinkedIn.