When the Sales Channel Changes, the Marketing Brief Has to Change

For a Vancouver pearl exhibition in 2026, I recommended a dedicated display area for the jewellery. I designed brand and product-information panels, event signage and promotional materials. The display was installed and used at the exhibition.

The decision began with what I felt the setting needed to communicate. A premium jewellery purchase deserved space for the brand's background and information about the products alongside the jewellery itself. Choosing the materials followed from that judgment.

That is the part I would carry into a marketing brief: explain the job before settling on the asset. A request for a poster or a storefront layout gives the work a form. The brief also needs to explain what has changed in the business and what the material should help a customer understand.

Start with the change in the business

My collaboration with Hazelnut Select Studio began around winter 2018/19. Over time, I supported brand materials, recurring campaigns, promotional posters and shopping bags, as well as mobile storefront presentation.

The business initially sourced Canadian products for customers in China. It later focused on Japanese products for customers in Canada. Rachel handled Canadian customer orders, while the Japan-based partner managed sourcing and shipping. The audience and product range changed with that shift.

My work also moved into the places where customers browsed. For a WeChat mini-program, I designed the customer-facing UI, UX layouts and promotional graphics; a separate developer built it. I also designed mobile Taobao storefront presentation for the business and its pearl jewellery partner.

Looking across those requests, I would begin a new brief by naming the current setting. Where will people encounter the material? What are they looking at there? The answers give a designer something more useful to work with than the dimensions of the next image.

Give product information a physical setting

In 2023, Rachel introduced me to her Japan-based pearl jewellery partner for identity work. The relationship later extended to the Vancouver pearl exhibition.

The 2025 format relied on WeChat promotion and VIP appointments to view jewellery. For 2026, I recommended creating a dedicated physical display area. I wanted the setting to carry the brand and product information that I felt suited a premium jewellery purchase.

The visual presentation brought the Japanese store background, pearl information and event communication into one area. Brand panels could introduce the business; product-information displays could sit within the setting where the jewellery was being presented. The recommendation therefore involved deciding what the physical space should communicate, as well as designing its materials.

The installed display is the documented outcome. My contribution was the recommendation and visual presentation. Business operations and product sourcing remained with the owner and partner, and I was not responsible for running or installing the exhibition. I do not have sales or conversion evidence to attribute to the display.

What makes this example useful to me is the decision itself. For a future brief, I would carry that connection forward: the proposed setting gives us a reason to reconsider what information the materials should contain.

Decide where each explanation belongs

For a future project, I would use that distinction to discuss the material's job before preparing a list of deliverables. I would bring four questions to the brief:

• What does the customer need to understand in this particular setting?
• Which information belongs beside the product, and which belongs in an introduction or promotional message?
• What should remain recognizable when the brand appears in a different format?
• Who can confirm the product details, and who is responsible for putting the material into use?

For the pearl display, the Japanese store background, pearl information and event communication had a shared physical setting. In a future brief, I would still examine their individual roles. A message inviting someone to an event has a different immediate purpose from an explanation placed alongside a product.

This also leaves room for conversation. I would discuss what the material should explain on its own and what the owner or partner expects to explain personally.

Carry the brand into the new format

Across a long collaboration, continuity matters. The business needs to remain recognizable as its products and ways of reaching customers develop.

I would approach that by preserving a coherent identity and deciding how to organize information for each setting. A phone screen and a physical display offer different spaces to work with. Reusing a layout simply because it is available can skip the more useful question of what needs emphasis here.

An existing asset may still be appropriate. The brief should give a reason to keep it, adapt it or commission something else. That reason can be modest and practical: an offer needs clearer wording, a range needs a browsing layout, or product information needs a place beside the product.

Make responsibilities part of the brief

The mini-program work made the delivery boundary clear: I designed its customer-facing presentation, and a developer handled the build. For an exhibition, visual design likewise sits within a larger set of responsibilities. A complete plan needs to establish who confirms information and who handles implementation.

I would make those responsibilities explicit alongside the purpose of each material. This gives the next conversation a concrete starting point: what needs to be explained, who can verify it and what must happen for the material to be used.

In my article on turning customer questions into marketing decisions, I discuss examining a signal before choosing a response. A change in sales channel or viewing format gives me another reason to pause at that choice.

For the next brief, I would write the information need and its setting first. The choice of poster, storefront layout or display panel can then follow from a job the people involved understand.