You Don’t Need an Ad Agency, But You Do Need a Brand Consultant
Written by Ashley DeCarli
(3 min read)
Over the last decade, businesses of all types and sizes have broken up with their advertising agencies (or stayed single from their onset), opting to manage their marketing in-house. They have built their own teams of writers, designers, content producers, social media managers and media buyers. They create their own articles, ads, podcasts, video content and more. And thanks to user-friendly CRM tools such as HubSpot and Salesforce, they seamlessly manage, track and optimize their marketing efforts across every digital communication channel.
We get it. The shift makes sense. Why would businesses stick with a traditional service model when their marketing needs and capabilities are anything but? Businesses now have the tools and resources to execute their brand communication on their own — effectively and, some may argue, much more efficiently. But execution is not the same as strategy. Marketing is not the same as branding. Businesses may no longer need an advertising agency, but they do need a brand consultant.
But, execution is not the same as strategy. Marketing is not the same as branding. Businesses may no longer need an advertising agency, but they do need a brand consultant.
Brand consultants play a fundamentally different role than that of an in-house marketing team because branding and marketing are fundamentally different. Although they work hand in hand with one another, marketing is the tactical expression of a business’s brand, while branding is the foundational strategy and identity that underpins marketing and so much more.
Marketing is the message that businesses deliver to their audiences and the means by which they do it. It’s the primary way businesses drive awareness, procure sales, deliver added value and cultivate relationships with their customers. Branding, on the other hand, defines who a business is. It’s a business’s reason for being, its core belief and what truly makes it special. A brand is a business’s unique character as well as its strategic North Star. Put simply: Marketing is the “what” and the “how,” and branding is the “why.” The what/how requires detailed daily management, while the why requires a Big Picture perspective — this is what brand consultants specialize in.
Brand consultants build brands that businesses cannot.
Brand consultants (the really good ones) build brands that businesses cannot. They immerse themselves into the world of their clients, obsess over the nuances of their business and become intimately familiar with their industry, yet they’re able to see their client’s brand through a very different set of eyes — the consumers’. Their outside, customer-centric perspective delivers more insightful research, stronger strategy and richer creative ideas. It’s a brand consultant’s job to ask the hard questions, push past assumptions and challenge what’s “understood” so that their clients overcome the comfort of familiarity — the death of differentiation. And the best consultants possess the rare ability to uncover unseen opportunities that will lift their clients out of the sea of sameness and put them on the path to exceptionalism.
Marketing tactics will always change, but branding is constant. It’s a business’s most important building block, most valuable asset and most worthy investment. It’s too risky to overlook or — worse — get wrong. So, while your in-house marketing team manages the details, look to a brand consultant to focus on your Big Picture. Let them develop your road map for your marketing team and the foundation for your business’s future.
