Why Work With A Brand Agency?

Why do some business owners have reservations about working with a brand agency?

The elephant in the room is cost. Other factors include lack of understanding of exactly what a brand agency does and how it can help your business grow. Branding is one of the most important investments your business can make and is often the most overlooked by SME’s. Hiring a brand agency will actually cut costs in the long run by creating a strong brand and clear strategic direction which cuts ineffective marketing spend and builds a consistent brand narrative in the marketplace which in turn drives sales. The effect of brand building is cumulative and should be framed as a longterm investment.

Larger businesses will often hire a marketing manager, brand manager or a whole internal marketing team. Companies of this type will question why they need a brand agency at all if they’ve already got internal resource. Usually the answer is that they need perspective, guidance and specialist resources to systemise the operational aspects of the brand internally, uncover pain points, unify brand touchpoints and ultimately see your business from the markets point of view.

Here are 6 reasons why you should consider partnering with a branding agency:

1. The Big Picture

Building an engaging brand that resonates with its target audience is an area that requires some serious expertise to pinpoint the vision of the enterprise and develop a cohesive brand ecosystem. A dedicated branding agency understands the intricacies of taking a brand from concept to completion and also has the experience of working with both large and small companies who are at different stages in the business lifecycle. The ability for a brand agency to understand the big picture of your organisation and help you bring your brand to life is critical and extremely valuable.

2. Talent

When you work with a brand agency, you get the benefit of having a team of strategic and creative minds collaborating on your projects. Agencies often have strategists, marketers, designers, developers, and other specialists in house, which organically starts to cultivate new and exciting ideas. Ideas that become reality.

3. Get things humming

More often than not when we start working with organisations the first thing that becomes apparant is a distinct lack of brand consistency. Disparate often expensive pieces of their brand actually working against them. C onsistency, from your name, strategy, position, messaging, tone of voice, personality, website and social media is vital to your success. We get that sorted pretty quick and we usually save you money, sometimes a lot of money.

4. Value for money

Post Covid, it’s unlikely that you have an enormous branding budget. If you’re a larger business, you may have more budget to invest into your brand. Either way, how do you make the most of your spend? A clear activation strategy will help you prioritise what you need, in the order in which you need it, to make the most impact. It’s common for companies to approach us with a pre-conceived notion about the services they require. We have recently had a client who assumed they needed a new website. When we conducted some analysis we found in fact the website was performing consistently, it was their messaging which was confused and years out of date. Problem solved for a lot less than the price of a new website.

5. Ongoing brand management

When the brand identity is defined and the activation strategy locked down it’s important that the brand is managed professionally on an ongoing basis. When a brand is repositioned, launched or goes through a refresh, it’s important to ensure the brand does not become diluted. This is especially important when the brand starts to scale. Systems, protocols and performance analytics require systematic monitoring and reporting to you by qualified individuals. Successful brands always have on-going needs and new opportunities will occur such as launching a new product, creating an investor video, or photography for an annual report. Your brand agency can advocate and direct the creation of those activations because the brand agency understands your brands ecosystem and can effectively and efficiently join the dots to deliver a flawless brand experience.

It’s said that the art of good management is delegation and having a dedicated brand agency managing your brand on an ongoing basis is good management.

6. Multi-Industry knowledge

In-house marketing teams can often become islands that deal with the same stuff in different buckets for years, with the same outcomes. We work across diverse industries and have done for over 20 years. From manufacturing, to tourism, to FMCG, professional services, tech and a lot more. Everyday, the knowledge that we have gained from working in one sector can be applied to another with sometimes spectacular results. Our clients appreciate the perspective and creative problem solving that comes from working with us.