When you go to the movies, what do you expect from it? Some people might say fun, some may reply with action, cinephiles will look for experience, and film students will respond with answers like good script, art direction, and new lessons. But there’s one more thing that everybody is looking for and yet only a few people will call it, and that’s entertainment.
Nobody likes to watch a two-hour or three-hour film just because they want to learn something about cinema. They are not coming to the theaters and multiplexes for art direction and script. They come because they seek entertainment. If a film can entertain them, it's a good film indeed.
Conversely, when someone asks the question, "What should you expect when working with a brand consultancy firm?" Every business or founder will have their own replies.
We want to become a successful brand.
I’m looking to give a visual identity to my product.
We need guidance with our strategy.
All these are blank statements. What they are truly seeking are actionable measures leading to results. Every founder wants to see the magic happen. There are millions of blogs on the internet that can explain everything, educate anyone, and talk about almost anything in this world; still, people fail, brands incur losses, companies make mistakes, and so on and so forth.
So my question to you is that if everyone has access to the knowledge and all the information in the world, how are they still failing? The answer is simple: it's all theory, it's all up in the air, fugazi, intangible, not on the elemental chart. What people and our brands require or are already in dire need of are actions fueling positive results. That’s exactly what experienced brand consultant services are built to deliver.
With this thought, let’s begin our blog. Now focus here, stop drifting, and pay attention.
Expect CLARITY
When you collaborate with a brand consultancy, you’re in for a ride that will make you vomit all the false information, pretense, and delusion that you were trying to digest. A brand consultant or a brand strategist is not there to be servile in exchange for your money.
Branding firms focus on removing the jargon, dumping your marketing gimmicks, and trashing your poorly executed experiments with your product. It will throw all the brand facade out of the window.
Now, tell me, what happens when the clouds go away and the sky is clear?
The sun comes out.
Exactly like this, when there is no nonsensical baggage around, you reach clarity. Clarity that cuts through all the bullshit you’ve been peddling around in the name of branding operations. What you use for marketing is not branding. No more poetry, no more jingles breeding confusions. Clarity makes your product sharp, sensible, smart, and, of course, sellable.
Reaching to the CORE
You must have heard about the 5 whys exercise.
A brand strategy consulting firm will help you practically perform it on your product to reach the final and real problem nobody is talking about. Now, this can throw you off, this can be uncomfortable, and this can be disheartening, but hey, remember why you hired a brand strategist in the first place.
The reason why I underline this is because often it happens that the real problem reaches a place or element that founders are not ready to compromise or eliminate. If you won’t change or make the choice, this doesn’t solve the problem.
To give you a metaphorical understanding, when you tell a doctor about what’s wrong with you. You are not describing the health issue; you are just listing down the symptoms. The real problem is beneath it.
With a brand consultant, you can expect to move over from the symptoms and reach for the real problem.
Expect a SYSTEM, not a solution
When you partner with a brand consultancy, they do not treat you like clients. They won’t just offer the solution and disappear forever. That’s the best part: a brand strategist sits with you, listens to you, and tries to comprehend. They reflect on your thoughts about your business or product. They create a brand strategy that works like a system for you to execute every single task and activity in sync with time and other aspects.
You can surely expect a roadmap, a blueprint, and a framework that will make more sense compared to your own marketing and branding experiments that resulted in poor outcomes and terrible experiences incurring loss.
With no bland stuff to play with, you aim for clarity, and a well-devised strategy allows you to approach the whole setup through a system of well-executed and thought plans.
Adopting alignment
Don’t sell books marketed as a bunch of paper bound together. People will use it to wipe their nose.
I hope I was clear with the above line. I have worked with several brands, and I can tell you that most of the time, it's not the customers, competitors, or market that is the problem. It is their own confusion that disables them from selling their product to their target audience.
A brand consulting agency knows this because it is a very common problem among businesses. At each level, you will find someone marketing the product as per their own version.
You must have heard that to know that a tomato is actually a fruit, not a vegetable, is the difference between knowledge and education, but to not use a tomato in a fruit salad is wisdom. Stop creating your own product versions and descriptions in your head. It’s totally not worth it. Know that such activities only invite confusion and no solution.
This is where a brand consultant agency comes into play; they bring each and every employee, team, partner, and presentation on the same page. When there is no confusion, companies start adopting a certain sense of alignment.
Wrapping up
Alright, this brings us to the end of another great class. Absorb everything and I look forward to you implementing it practically and for personal branding executions. For some frequent key takeaways, remember that a brand consulting agency is a partner, not just a one-time solution to your prevailing problem. The more you collaborate with brand consultant services, the chances of your becoming a successful brand increase exponentially.
This is it for today, Brand Professor signing off
