Think about Apple for a second. What comes to mind when you think about this very successful company? That level of success and branding wasn’t built overnight, not over one weekend, nor over a month. If you’re familiar with Apple’s history, then you know that it was unlikely for them to ever catch up or even beat Microsoft. That is until Steve Jobs did something different. If Apple had not changed its branding strategy, it would not be the Apple that we know today.
Apple’s recipe for dominating the smartphone market by more or less 40% is not an easy one to copy and paste on every other company’s branding strategy – of course not. But one thing is for sure, the products and services that they offered the public reflected their very own vision, because of this, they were able to have a meaningful and emotional bond with their customers – that in itself is priceless and not easy to replicate.
That is where the role of a brand consultant comes to play. You cannot just copy what Apple did, you need to understand the basics of branding and the ways of approaching it – for that, you need to consult an expert in branding. The Brand Theatre will share everything you need to know about the silent strategist.
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What’s a brand consultant?
A brand strategist is someone that can show you the big picture and the specifics of marketing, branding solutions, expertise, and analysis that can help the company get noticed, recognized, and well-known to the general masses. The presence that you generate using the strategies of a brand consultant will easily turn to sales and profit for you and your company, it will also help you achieve the company’s goals a lot faster, allowing you to scale up your business in ways you might not have even thought to be possible or attainable.
Once we get to know the consultant more, The Brand Theatre will share thoughts about hiring one.
Role of a brand consultant
1. Know your company
Once you’ve hired a consultant for the company, his primary objective is to know the company that he’s working for. He needs to understand the goals, objectives, mission, vision, even the target market, customers, history, brand strengths, and values of the company to be able to operate on the same frequency or understand how the company is currently running. He must see the nature of the company so that he can easily identify the weak points of the company which will be discussed in the upcoming point.
2. Full-analysis of the company
Once the brand consultant is familiar with the ins and outs of the company, it’s time for him to analyze the flaws, obstacles, bottlenecks, strong points, and weaknesses of the company. After all, if he is to increase the market share of your company, he should know what’s making it decrease or even stagnant.
The brand strategist should check every department of the company, that includes marketing tools, salesforce, workforce morale and motivation, and even the aesthetics of the company’s receiving area. If the consultant can successfully pinpoint the problems of the company, it’ll be addressed in the solution-making process later on.
3. Know customer feedback
It is important for a brand consultant to have access to the perceptions of the company’s customers. The strategist can attain this by conducting a thorough study and research with the best brand ambassadors that you can have – your customers.
The consultant should know how the receiving end of the business. What are the expectations of the customers from the company? How are they being treated? How are the products from the eyes of the customers? Why would they prefer the competitor’s products than yours? Having answers to these questions will greatly help you have loyal customers.
4. Observe the competition
It’s a harsh world out there and everyone knows it. You, as the business owner, might not like it but your brand consultant will definitely have to study the competition and view them as such. It’s important to know what your competition is up to, their strategies, their possible moves, their ace. If you want to have a competitive advantage and rise above your competition, you need to be 2 steps ahead. Now, don’t tell anyone – but The Brand Theatre does this too.
5. Plan the most fitting marketing strategy
Once everything is accounted for, it’s the consultant’s duty to address all of the problems identified with a brilliant plan. He has to effectively and efficiently map out the marketing and branding strategies that must be followed to increase the sales, therefore, profits of the company.
Should you hire a brand consultant?
Can The Brand Theatre recommend hiring a consultant? A brand consultant will perform a thorough market analysis to figure out the competition and their strategies, this involves market intent, present promotional tactics, online presence, and even offline. With the help of these brand strategists, you’ll be able to gradually fix the flaws of your own company as well as outrank your competition in the many races of running a business. In a horse race, your horse needs assistance to be able to see the path to victory, to not get distracted or led elsewhere by the many hindrances and obstacles that your environment or competition can place upon you – this sort of assistance is the blinder that horses wear to the races. It allows them to see nothing but what’s in front of them – the road that they need to follow to arise victorious. In business, a brand consultant will somewhat act as your blinder, showing and guiding you towards where you want to be in the best way possible. Here are other reasons as to why you should hire a brand strategist:
Consultants offer expertise and experience –
years of accumulated knowledge regarding specific fields make strategists masters in that field. If you’re new to the nature of running a business, hiring a consultant is an absolute must for you and your company.
Consultants can jumpstart your project –
in line with the previous point, even if you only have an idea and you want to get it started, consultants will be of great help to you.
From their years of experience, chances are that they have done something similar to what you’re trying to do. They’ll know the dos and don’ts of the project which will save you a lot of time and money.
Consultants can teach you –
consultants will not only help you with your business, they will also teach you how to run it independently. A good consultant would be able to pass his or her knowledge to you to help you in sustaining the quality and brand of your business.
Consultants will be there every step of the way –
in most cases, hiring a consultant isn’t a short-term deal. Even after finishing a project, you’ll likely find yourself needing the expertise of the consultant again, and the next thing you know, your consultant is helping you with every project that you start and nourish.
Consultants offer a fresh perspective –
if you present them with a problem, chances are that the solution that they would provide is effective, based on experience, and not influenced by any sort of bias.
Another advantage of having the aid of a brand strategist is that he will be able to carefully audit your website, which is important especially in this day and age of Generation Information. You might not realize it just yet, but having a good online presence will make it very easy for you and your business to gain profits and upscale your business. If potential customers are looking for your products and services and all they see are your competitors, how do you expect to turn those potential customers to actual customers? Brand strategists will be able to help by looking at the inner workings of your website and improve it so that your business will be seen by the potential customers that I’ve spoken of.
So should you hire someone that can help you create an effective business branding plan? Absolutely! The Brand Theatre will be able to help you with this with ease.
