My friend likes to do things on his own.
He likes to fix appliances, open switchboards, and often carry a screwdriver with him.
He admits that it makes him feel manly, plus he’s also in his DIY phase.
Sometimes he does fix things, and sometimes he doesn't.
But let me share with you an incident that recently happened with him: his refrigerator broke. He asked for a serviceman’s number, but just when he should have made the call, he felt like giving it a try.
He started dismantling the fridge, piece by piece, and gave it multiple shots, but the fridge didn’t work. Now it's about his ego; he went further and totally lost it with the refrigerator. Finally, he called the serviceman, and just because of his stubbornness, something that could have gotten fixed at $36 cost him $450.
Now, you may laugh at him; I did too, but if the same thing had happened to you? Would you be laughing then?
The reason I narrated this story is because I want you to understand the importance of services, expertise, skills, and knowledge and why you should never ignore them.
Hiring a brand consultancy is just like that; at first you feel you don’t need them, and later there is so much mess that it becomes unbearable to balance. If you think about it, that’s also the exact difference between expensive and costly.
Founders often think that having a creative brand consultant is expensive, and later, with all that hodgepodge, it becomes costly for them. It becomes costly with scattered marketing, lost sales, poorly executed campaigns, and wasted resources.
In this blog, we are going to explore the importance of brand consultants and how it helps you prevent bleeding financially in the long run.
The Brand Blueprint
When a brand associates with a consultant from the start, they are able to diagnose the business, understand the product, and deliver a well-structured blueprint for the companies to follow for a set span of time. They offer a roadmap to follow and have all the scenarios calculated in their heads, keeping the team prepared.
This also allows the brand strategist to connect with the brand on a deeper level. When a brand hires a brand consultant from the beginning, it gives ample time and space for them to connect and understand their product, craft a brand checklist, brand story, personality to its respective target audience compared to someone who is hired in the middle of a crisis.
The Growing Demand
The brand strategy industry has witnessed a growth of 150% in demand for branding services since 2020. This one stat is enough to underline the importance of hiring brand consultants for the long run.
This stat shows that there is a dire need for branding solutions, and companies all over the world are investing in branding services. If you think you can do it all alone. You may want to check on it again because another stat indicates that 90% of startups fail due to bad or weak brand presence.
Hey, wait!
I’m not trying to scare you off; I’m just trying to get you focused on the facts that these stats show. Develop a perspective.
DIY Is Killing Your Brand
Tell me, are you experiencing any of this issue?
You keep redoing your website every six months or less?
Social media with five different voices and content messages?
Experiment with multiple things on different platforms with little to no hope?
If your answer is yes to any of these questions you are deeply buried in the “Do It Yourself” strategy.
Stop thinking that hiring a brand consultant is a luxury; with time it is becoming a necessity. Spare yourself the burden of thinking that you can do everything. There is a separate brand strategy industry, which is proof itself that there are brand consultants, personal branding agencies, and strategists that have the expertise to help you redefine your brand story.
Do you know that 64% consumers buy after watching a brand video
Do you know that 77% of customers make buying decisions based on brand name
And hold on..
Do you know that 36.1% of consumers like to engage with brands through marketing messages.
These are some startling figures and should be a complete eye opener for you.
The problem with DIY is that you lack strategy, creativity and plus you have a lot of other things to focus on. When you are an entrepreneur, focus on things that complement your title and leave the rest for others. There are hundreds of brands that suffer from the same mistakes, but I evidently say that a smart man always learns from others' mistakes. You should too.
Accept the fact that you simply can’t do it all on your own.
Goodwill And Reputation
When a startup is launched, it is mostly backed by young entrepreneurs and founders, and there is this one typical habit that they all possess. They tend to think of everything in terms of expenditure.
They want it good, but they want it cheap; they want it to work, but they want it for free.
In fact, it's not totally their fault; every business needs capital, and nobody likes to spend investors’ money or hard-earned funds on things that at first look unnecessary.
But I would advise you to look closely; you are not building a business just to earn money. In the long run, you’ll need goodwill and a reputation in the market as well. These are two elements that will require just the right branding strategy and marketing operations. Here we are talking about five years, ten years down the line; here we are talking about the long run.
A brand consultant that has been with you from the beginning is more likely to treat it like a personal project and feel for it the same way you feel about it, like your own baby.
And think about what is at stake here. If you don’t hire a brand consultant in time to offer the best branding solutions and stand with you to bring life to your brand, you are losing time, money, resources, reputation, competitors, target audience, content, online presence, and whatnot.
To me, it certainly looks like a heavy price to pay.
Serves As A Brand Advisor
Brands often come across turmoil every now and then. Even a good brand with a great reputation can face market problems and get stuck with marketing issues that can tamper with its goodwill and induce financial loss.
On the contrary, brand advisors serve as a partner who is there to help you when things are not looking good and your marketing campaigns are not running smoothly with no desired outcomes. Brand consultants can regularly monitor your brand strategy and advise you from time to time to change or update it as per market conditions and newly formed trends.
Think of hiring a brand consultant as digging the well before you’re thirsty.
With them by your side, you don’t have to worry about aspects such as campaign planning, content management, strategy, and online presence. This will allow you to focus on other components such as sales, production, logistics, and so on.
Final Thoughts
The bottom line remains the same. In today’s market, having a brand consultant is inevitable irrespective of what you believe in. With growing digital presence and the need to remain active on all social media platforms, companies are in a brutal competitive race. To make a difference, you need an extra hand, someone who treats your brand like their own and not someone who is just there to offer services in exchange for a basic fee or price.
