THE IDEA:
Brand consulting and brand strategy has become saturated and commoditised as a large number of people with little or no business experience enter the space.
By collaborating, learning, and tapping into the collective credibility and experience of a network, individual consultants can grow and thrive faster.
THE UNSUSTAINABLE STATE OF BRAND CONSULTING
Brand consulting has experienced its gold rush in recent years, and is continuing to do so. Thousands of people are flocking into the space each year, most of whom come from creative fields, and the industry has not only become more crowded, it has become extremely saturated and commoditized. As a consequence, the perception and perceived value (brand) of brand consulting have suffered, while a new generation of brand consultants is struggling to make a living.
While this can be seen as a problem, it is also an opportunity for this young industry, and the fact that more people want to get into brand consulting is wonderful. Personally, it has been an industry I worked in for 15+ years as a practitioner, and I want to do my part to keep the standards (and income) high for all of us.
With this new generation of brand consultants and strategists come some issues, in my opinion (which I discuss more in detail in the video below). To me, brand consulting is at least as valuable as any other form of business consulting (I believe it should sit at the top due to its transformative power and its direct impact on customer choice, which is the most important factor for any business). Yet, with more and more people with skills mostly in only one of the two needed areas (business + creativity), the brand of brand consulting is on a downhill slide.
I would define brand consulting as something like “advising companies in building and leveraging brands to grow and transform business”. My definition focuses on “advising” over “doing”, as any higher form of consulting does. To the majority of brand consulting, the work is about creating and shipping files and assets.
The other important distinction is in the word “business”. Brands exist to serve business objectives, and this is where much of the industry gets it wrong, or partially wrong. If you don’t focus on solving business problems and growing businesses, you are focusing on the wrong things. Logos are nice to have, and visual identities are fun to create, but unless you know which business objective you are solving for, and you are solving for it, none of it matters. A brand is a brand only when people choose it over other alternatives (usually at a premium).
In the video below, I share my view on the situation, as well as a solution that I think will make it significantly easier to succeed for the 99% of independent brand consultants who are currently struggling to make multiple six figures per year, work with their dream clients, and gain the credibility and confidence they want.
My position is not to criticize people who don’t (yet) have the experience and skills to provide the level of services that I believe we need to hold ourselves to in the industry, but rather to welcome them, and to offer a solution I believe will help them thrive.
IN A NUTSHELL
- Brand consultants who come from creative backgrounds (graphic designers, copywriters, etc.) typically end up providing a bit of brand strategy combined with execution services (visual identity, copywriting, web design) at prices that hurt the perception of the industry. We need to price our work right up there with business consultants in other fields. After all, brand consulting has the power to transform companies and industries. We need to separate between consulting and execution work.
- People who start in the industry need mentorship and credibility to avoid getting stuck at the lower levels of brand consulting (getting clients and pricing services at high enough levels is crucial for survival, and survival should not be the end goal).
- There are lots of people providing training and certification for brand consulting (myself included), yet most of the providers were never practitioners of brand consultants or brand strategy at the higher levels themselves. The majority teach what I would call “brand communications”, not brand consulting. Brand consulting is a business-driven practice that precedes all things related to visuals, messages, and other brand comms activities. A brand strategy and the core idea behind it should become the organizing principle of a brand or company, and all decisions need to be made from it. Therefore, brand consulting needs to be about helping the company make the right decisions (business decisions) first.
- To help brand consultants build their business and make multiple six figures per year (a minimum of $20k/month is the lower threshold for brand consulting in my view), I suggest people join a collective like Original Minds® where we provide not only the training, mentorship, community, support, and accountability, but also collaboration opportunities and a brand you can leverage for instant credibility. Original Minds is a collective that brings together multiple disciplines across multiple regions around the world, allowing members to reach more potential clients, to sell them on bigger projects, and keep clients for longer. We do this through our Boundless Model.
If you are interested in learning more, go to www.originalmindsmembers.com and book a discovery call. We are in the process of building the world’s strongest network of independent brand consultants (and other disciplines too, as mentioned.
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
