Branding Consultant – Nuanced Review

What is a brand consultant?

Strategic consultants are the specialists that provide sessions on the topic of brand creation, management, dealing with crisis situations and redefining companies’ looks. They make sure that customers perceive brands in the needed light and get the right messages.

The task of branding consultants doesn’t reside in creating appealing pictures, but in directing brands towards the right path. They craft distinctive and workable assets employing a wide range of tools, market insights and creative skills to align together in a unified brand that turns heads.

While some companies hire such an original counsellor to be a full-time employed part of the staff to constantly monitor everything that happens with a brand, others delegate the assignment of managing their branding assets to specialised agencies that can provide one-off support or ongoing aid on special terms. Find out more what is branding.

Their insights and thorough knowledge of strategies, techniques, people behaviour and trends are of use for every possible industry – from entertainment to medical and beauty. No matter the scale of a business – enterprise, middle, small; freshly founded venture or a company that has been operating for centuries – for all of them valuable information obtained by insightful consultants is greatly important.

What do brand consultants do?

Coming up with strategic solutions and designing fascinating visuals, experts provide more than just a list of deliverables, but generate anticipated outcomes for businesses, empowering their growth.

Let’s delve into more activities the counsellors do:

• Help deal with brand awareness frustrations

No matter how the scale of the venture, there’s always a battle of how to tell the world about your deliverables through the means that will secure memorability and recognition in the future. Brand specialists conduct extensive research to determine who can be interested in what you offer, specify how to effectively reach them and point out the most appropriate ways of presenting to them your products and services.

• Create strategies

The extent to which balanced professionals are capable of advancing business indicators is astonishing. They actively study the market, knowing the latest trends – those that only spark and fade and those that can be employed and they will be effective in the future – like with digitalisation and environmental responsibility now.

• Form authentic and unified images

What they do, not only design visuals and write catchy words. A corporate branding consultant stays alert to many changes and is able to find any possible misalignment that can lead customers in the wrong direction. Being attentive even to details that can be insignificant in the eyes of others, they polish the idea till it starts flourishing.

• Ensure a brand causing emotions with messaging

Through the stage of brand development roadmap creation, they characterise the main point of your firm’s exclusivity, differentiating your proposition and formulating missions, values and core statements. Meticulously selecting the right words so they shape perceptions, perfectly convey the messages you want to share with people, giving a special thought to writing a true story that may revolve around your brand formation or unique features, they evoke emotional response.

• Strengthen brands with online presence tools

To stay relevant, a brand needs to have a defined web identity! Using your website, customers find out important information about your products, buy them, leave their opinion and engage with your brand in every possible way that can be invented. A brand consultant can help you with website concept, design and coding, social media platforms revamp and in some cases software development if you want to impress your audience with some novelties.

• Breath new life into assets through rebranding

Even companies like Pepsi and Visa from time to time refresh their looks, leaving out the fact how good they have been already accepted. Instead of waiting when something goes wrong, they look for adjustments that strengthen their images. Whether a company needs help with saving damaged reputation, adjusting its brand to the real situation or just adding some improvements.

How to select a branding consultant?

Have the questions we outlined below answered and the process of choosing a reliable vendor won’t be unclear anymore:

Step №1. What are your objectives?

Defining the potential scope of work is something that should be done before you apply for branding services. You may ask – aren’t they qualified enough to understand what I want? Sometimes they are really true masters and brainstorm brilliant ideas. However, if it turns out that your project demands more than they can offer, you will need to outsource parts of it to different firms that might not be convenient.

The point: Identified objectives will save your time and prevent the appearance of new difficulties.

Step №2. Are you up to offline or online cooperation?

Having decided on the extent of deliverables you need, also consider whether you want to have a meeting face to face or if it’s enough for you. At first it might be obvious – offline communication is usually better. However, limiting yourself to resources provided by branding specialists in a certain area, it might be difficult to find a team that will be the perfect match.

Step №3. Is industry experience important for you?

If you consider partnering with a potential vendor that you have cultural fit with, find their pricing fair and the outcomes of their previous projects, yet, they’ve never worked with the businesses from your industry, sometimes it can have consequences. In cases, when urgent complex decisions should be done in the shortest term, lack of sector-specific knowledge might slow down the process a bit.

Step №4. Assess their ability of turning ideas into practice

The case studies agencies publish on their websites are a great source of information for you. If the explanations are clear, with the illustrations, results descriptions and the tasks stated satisfy you and in one’s firm style you would like to see your own differentiating project, it’s a very good sign. Studying a portfolio is also a good chance to evaluate their diversity of skills – some vendors perfectly manage certain styles, while others flawlessly adjust to any possible variation.

Step №5. Find what their clients tell about them

The best branding consultants will surely have reviews on their work. Estimation of such criteria of work like following the schedule that was agreed, the overall quality of deliverables, the manner of speaking – if the assistants are rude or just don’t communicate well, will help you filter out incompetent providers of services. Check whether there are any reviews left on independent platforms.

Step №6. Initiate a conversation

Regarding communication in the above said passage, we want to highlight how significant its role is in successful carrying out a project. Even if you opt for a firm with an appealing portfolio and a good website and they fail to communicate, the risk of underperformance rises, since there is a possibility of miscommunication and misunderstanding.

On our platform we have assorted a variety of listings prepared for businesses to select the best vendor, based on industries, cities and type. However, if selecting a firm seems too troublesome, we can find an agency for you, depending on your expectations and wishes. You need only to tell us what you want.

The cost of hiring a consultant for branding

Referring to payment terms of consultants, there are many matters worth closely studying – from the prices of services provided to the methods of payment. We summarised the most essential information that will give you the understanding of approximate offerings’ tariffs.

Pricing models of innovative agencies

Requesting brand consulting, it’s important to be acquainted with the actual prices, but also pricing conditions agencies support – hourly model, project-based pricing, value-based method, subscription and retainers. For every kind of project, short of long, there are better model options.

Based on the duration of project, we highlighted the schemes that are offered:

• Consultancy – if you want a one time meeting with a professional, for example, to study what does a brand consultant do there are usually no any more variations than hourly payment – you pay for hours spent;
• Short-term project – while hourly rate is still relevant, there are more possibilities, such as paying based on the value of deliverables – if for the firm they will bring high profit, then the services provided will be paid according to agreed terms; a business also can set a task of achieving some concrete outcomes that will be paid on a good for both parties tariff;
• Long-term partnership – on these conditions, there are several opportunities for businesses, starting from subscription options with fixed payments every month and a few different packages: small, medium and big to retainer methods. It’s better than hiring an employee, because such a brand mentor is included in your team “on demand” and as soon as you find that you don’t need the services, it’s quite easy to cancel.

Benefits of hiring a branding consultants for your business

Entrusting your project to professionals, you get market-driven results, build the reputation of your business and make clear the way of your brand development – these are the advantages that come to mind first. Still and all, there are much more perks for your business when you apply for brand strategy assistance.

First of all, the experts look at every angle of the brand, bringing to the surface the multifaceted state of the brand – strong suits and shortcoming, with a particular attention to what your customers think about your brand (as well as your employees), through the questionnaire they determine the perceived quality of the products and services a company provides and examine the identities, whether they correspond to the brand purpose.

With the knowledge of the brand state, current trends and industry requirements, a marketing and branding consultant gets the material to work on promotion. You have probably already seen the examples of advertising that is too flat, scattered or dull, and even seems pointless. Such can happen with established brands too, but when your company’s image is formed, there are strict rules of using elements, colours, missions and values.

Having the main points identified, you’ll have original and well-aligning ideas for your brand promotion as it is with Snickers that emphasise relieving hunger and craziness or in Coca-Cola campaigns. When your brand is well-formed and is loyal to its identities, you’ll be able to find a plethora of marketing concepts that will be loved by your customers.

Aside from checking all possible auditing tips and marketing launches, a creative brand consultant secure better comprehension of the target audience, finding approach even to picky consumers. They don’t only create the image of your buyers but also make it possible to enter new markets with workable solutions, reducing time and resources on guessing and wandering in the dark.

Considering behaviour, experience, age, gender and fancies, they help businesses set trends on themselves.

Real impact of business or product brand formation is seen in the long run. It’s undoubtedly difficult to wait for outcomes, but there is nothing as precious as reaping the benefits from the contribution you made years ago. Undertaking brand building, strategists and designers fuel future possibilities, opening more doors such as collaborations, enhanced loyalty and recognition.

Trying to make your business more interesting for investors to support your initiatives, brand characterisation, especially with the involvement of a digital brand consultant.

Lastly, the most straightforward benefit of all is saving time and money. Of course, conducting research, designing visuals and experiential aren’t free but pricey. However, if we knock all the details together, we’ll see how effective brand influences a company’s growth, acquisition of talents as your employees, boost of loyal customers and overall awareness of your firm. All of these factors represent the bigger picture.

With the assistance of experienced and well-versed professionals who are gifted with tech and creative savviness, investing in a brand you support your business future and save a lot of time on trying to do it by yourself.

Conclusion

We hope that after finishing our synopsis, you’ve gained comprehensive knowledge on the topic. There are plenty more matters to study though, with one more we’re capable of providing support. For example, you can employ our calculator to count the cost of logo crafting, stopping on it to make clear the estimated price of this one element or adding a few more and we’ll make calculations for you.

Put your project under care of innovative consultants who know how to set your brand development into motion, rush the revenue and make your offerings a regular choice of your dedicated customers.