Your brand is everything your company stands for – so wouldn’t you want to trust the right people to take care of it? But with so many creative agency choices from branding consultants, brand designers, graphic designers – what’s the difference between them, and which services should you go to or which?

Let’s start with branding – what is it really?

Branding can be anything to do with your business: from the basics like its name, logo, colour scheme and service offering, to the ever-evolving marketing activities like its website, digital media presence, print advertising in magazines and leaflets, email marketing campaigns, event presence and much more. Your brand isn’t just the look and feel of your company, but also its unquantifiable uniqueness – that ‘x-factor’ that makes you competitive and secures longevity in the marketplace.

What is a brand consultancy?

A brand consultancy is an agency that creates and develops brands, working with business owners to translate the concept of the company into a marketable proposition. Brand consultants are experts in figuring out how to make your brand valuable to customers and shareholders in a sustainable way: this could be as simple as designing a marketing campaign to increase brand awareness, or as complex as redesigning the entire brand identity and structure to appeal to new markets and keep trade alive.

Who works in a brand consultancy?

Branding agencies employ staff of many disciplines, helping to translate business goals into tangible creative applications. A consultancy might be started by experienced graphic designers who’ve worked on high-profile projects and overseen rebrands for household names. On their team will be other designers, copywriters, strategists, developers and marketers from many backgrounds: some will have led startups to their first instances of success, whilst others may come from in-house teams at large organisations where they’ve followed the entire journey of the branding process from a client’s perspective. This mix of skills and experiences is essential for brand consultancies to service clients of different sizes and sectors.

Why should businesses work with brand consultants?

As a business owner, you naturally want the best for your company. Doing things on your own can seem like the right idea, and even make sense for many startups in the interest of keeping costs to a minimum – but, at some stage, all businesses need to evolve into a brand in order to secure more investment, more custom, and generate healthier profits. Even the most seasoned companies can lack a recognisable brand that allows them to effectively compete – a risk that’s particularly important in today’s marketplace, where savvy startups and disruptor companies are eager to steal market share from established firms, often wielding strong brand propositions engineered to catch the attention of their target clients.

This potential threat is crucially relevant for any business, in any sector. Consumer-facing high-street names are famous for their strong brands and well-publicised rebrands, but a small manufacturing company with two or three loyal clients – although considered a world away from the high street – needs a strong brand for the very same reasons: to secure sustainable business and prosper, especially in unexpectedly challenging market conditions like the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whatever stage you find yourself, it’s never too late to consider what your brand says about your business – and how, with help, you can do more with your company.

Contact us if you would like to see more of what we do.