Every time I’m asked a few questions before we start any branding exercises.
What’s a good piece of design worth? What is the price for a good brand story? Or
What defines you as a creative contributor?
Almost always as brand managers we are confronted by these questions be it from our peers, clients or just in general conversations. So how does one respond to these? Perhaps the answer lies in the keeping it to the basics and the simple fact that in this ‘New Normal’ era everyone has become price conscious. That isn’t a bad thing but, the manner in how it has taken over as the focal point of every conversation is where the problem lies at.
So how do we break through this imbalance and allow a change in foresight?
We can address this by looking into a few points:
- Offering Value
- Offering Experience
- Building Legacy
Offering Value:
Every client today is looking for that ‘X’ factor that an agency can bring onto the table to make them tilt towards them and choose them over their existing vendor.
At not bending your cost of operation, research and implementation if you as an agency can offer them a ‘value-add’ offering that could help a client in making a choice towards you.
This value component can differ from project to client separately and based on you doing your own research into identifying their real background and depth.
Depending on the project strength and timeline, you could offer the said value component over the period of the contract time or at least keep it for the first quarter or 6 months. Doing this you impress upon the client to look towards you.
Offer the value but do not drop on your service quality.
Offering Experience:
Once the component of ‘Value’ is achieved you can look toward the experience. Today in an ever-demanding market offering ‘Experience’ has become a very deciding factor on where you go and how long you sustain with a client.
The experience factor here could be determined on how personalised you can take your brand development process with the client.
Experience need not be restricted to only offering something outlandish, expensive or exotic in nature. Sometimes the experience could even be by how you cultivate the relationship with the client and through that process a lot could depend on how you cultivate that process.
Building Legacy
As we know that legacy isn’t built overnight like the popular saying goes ‘Rome wasn’t built in one day’.
For legacy to happen one needs to make sure the above 2 points are adhered by and respected by both parties.
No client can build their legacy independently.
Legacy is the journey undertaken by all stakeholders through various stages by contributing their best at that time of ask.
The process is never easy because, despite all the story building we offer there could be some that might not believe in you. Can you blame them? Perhaps depending on the how much the result will impact you (for the good or the worse) it will negate your emotional quotient. But every brand has a pulse. As ‘doctors of branding’, we need to feel that pulse and accordingly react.
We need to be ready to pay what’s right for that branding process, you need to weigh down your vendor partners properly and in the same breath you must be able to weigh down the value and creditability worth of your client. Be ready for positive criticism. Why we say ‘positive’ criticism is because, feedback good or bad will always come only from the one seeking your service and never the other way round.
In conclusion, our one aim through this article was to tell you the reader (no matter what’s your story and what you represent) that no journey complete without keeping in mind the above three points. But how you want to interpret it with your audience and partners is where the real work lies. As brand consultants that’s been our one voice wherein, we always try to sell a combination of all the 3 elements. We encapsulate them broadly every time and each time by telling our clients that we are in the business of ‘Building Brand Stories through ‘Personal Branding and we do this by offering ‘Voice’ & ‘Character’ to their journey.
- From the Purple Desk!