The Ultimate Guide to Hiring a Brand Strategist for Business Success

As a brand and culture-building expert (aka a brand strategist), part of my purpose in life is to help businesses thrive from the inside out, not just survive. My work is to cultivate, amplify, and activate the best parts of a business and move them closer to their potential.

Jim Steeg, the former NFL President of Special Events (the father of the modern-day Superbowl) and COO of The San Diego Chargers, said, “You take businesses to the next level.”

For nearly three decades, I’ve had the honor to work with and help evolve more than 300 brands (from Fortune 100 companies to small businesses to non-profit organizations) and well over 3,000 business leaders.

While that is a track record of stats and figures, people and teamwork achieve results. What matters most is the impact and results I’ve helped to create for businesses, their leaders, their employees, and their customers—this is what I’m most proud of.

As organizations look for an experienced and trusted brand strategist, there are many questions and considerations to navigate.

Whether you want to evolve your market position, create a fusion between your brand and culture, or double down on an already strong brand, you’ve got questions. To help you navigate some of those questions, I’ve compiled a guide of frequent questions I hear while looking for a great brand strategist.

What’s a Brand Strategist and Why Do You Need One?

A brand strategist is your key partner in shaping your organization’s brand strategy, aligning your goals, beliefs, and audience to ensure your business thrives. Your brand sets you apart, defines your culture, and influences every aspect of your business, from messaging to design. As markets grow more complex, your brand strategy needs an expert who understands brands’ intricacies and impact.

The Role of a Brand Strategist

A brand strategist plays several vital roles within an organization, from conducting market research and brand audits to guiding strategic offsites. They often lead complete rebrands and ensure the integration of brand and culture. They define your brand’s elements and tone to establish consistent messaging and identity across all channels. Ultimately, a brand strategist enhances brand and company value by fostering understanding and consistency among customers, employees, and stakeholders.

The Importance of Brand Strategy

A well-crafted brand strategy defines your every move and sets your business apart from competitors. It communicates your unique value proposition, reinforcing it through branding elements like your logo, social media posts, and employee interactions. Consistent branding builds loyalty and trust, making your company more competitive and valuable.

Qualities of a Great Brand Strategist

An effective brand strategist combines art, science, and humanity to create a compelling brand strategy. They distill your company’s purpose, vision, and values into a cohesive brand platform backed by data-driven decisions. A great strategist also understands human psychology and creates a brand that resonates with people’s values and desires.

Brand Strategists vs. Branding Firms or Agencies

While branding firms or agencies excel at design and visual elements, a brand strategist focuses on comprehensive, responsive brand strategy. They architect your brand, ensuring it connects with the right audience effectively.

How are brand strategists different than a branding firm or agency?

A branding firm or branding agency is often a partner you will work with for a short time in a defined engagement. Many are skilled at designing or refreshing a new brand with new identity elements. However, it would be best to have a brand strategist when you want a comprehensive brand strategy.

The brand strategist does the work that informs your visual design and all of the other elements of your strategy. They are the architect of your brand, determining whom to connect with and how that will be done for the best results.

Brand and Beyond Brand — Uniting the Interplay Between Brand, Culture, and Business Strategy

My work as a brand strategist is unique as I emphasize the importance of integrating strategy, leadership, and culture. Doing so creates brand loyalty, belonging, and trust internally among employees and externally with customers. I partner with business leaders to mine, articulate, and activate their unique belief systems, creating organizational integrity and connected cultures. This process not only evolves brands but also fosters evolved leaders and unignorable brands.

Here’s the interconnection between brand and culture

Customers trust companies with integrity between their teams, brands, and cultures because that shows up as “walking the talk.”

What connects your brand and culture — and why does it matter?

Your brand defines your beliefs; Your culture lives those beliefs.
Your brand creates interest; Your culture creates trust.
Your brand shapes your stories; Your culture makes them believable.
Your brand makes promises; Your culture delivers on them.
Your brand invites and engages customers; Your culture serves and cares for them.
Your brand carves out your market position; Your culture secures it.
Your brand attracts the right customers; Your culture builds loyalty.

The Art, Science, and Humanity of Brand Strategy

A great brand strategy is part art, part science, and part humanity.

The art aspect comes into play first by helping you define your company’s and brand’s core motivations. The art of distilling your company’s purpose, promise, and vision down to its essence is vital to framing your brand platform. Also, there is art in shaping your brand’s expression, including but not limited to the visual identity, brand guidelines, key messaging, and overall appeal. All of this requires creativity and understanding how the expression tells an impactful and emotionally compelling story to your audiences.

The science part involves analyzing data, conducting market research, and applying strategic thinking to make informed decisions. This includes understanding consumer behavior, market trends, and competitive landscape.

The humanity aspect is about understanding and connecting with people on an emotional level. It involves creating a brand that resonates with people’s values, beliefs, and desires. This requires empathy, cultural awareness, and a deep understanding of human psychology.

Together, these three elements create a holistic brand strategy that is appealing, effective, and capable of building solid and meaningful connections with the target audience.

Three indicators that you don’t want a branding firm or agency

Consider partnering with a brand strategist when:

Your focus or market position is shifting, changing, or evolving.
Your business is stable but not growing.
You’re unclear about who your audience is.

These scenarios require a strategist’s expertise to navigate effectively.

Top 10 Signs You Need a Brand Consultant Now

To gauge the necessity of a brand consultant, consider these indicators:

Significant Company or Industry Changes
Leadership Stagnation
Stalled Company Growth
Expansion into New Markets
Recent Merger or Acquisition
Launching a New Product Line
Outdated Brand Perception
Underperforming Website or Online Presence
You want to take your company to the next level.
You’re unclear about the vision for your organization.

If any of these resonate with your situation, consulting with a brand expert is likely essential.

Brand Strategists vs. Brand Consultants

Brand strategists lead the development and implementation of brand strategy, while consultants provide expert advice and insights. Strategists delve into goal-setting, actions, and execution, while consultants offer high-level guidance.

The Role of a Brand Strategy Consultant

A brand consultant acts as a trusted guide, assessing your brand’s current status and charting a course for improvement. They aim to enhance your brand’s strength, flexibility, and consistency, much like a personal trainer helps you achieve physical fitness.

Brand Consultant vs. Brand Strategist: A Distinction or Semantics?

While terminology varies, brand consultants and strategists focus on achieving similar outcomes. Strategists emphasize long-term branding goals, value propositions, and channel selection, while consultants offer broader insights to reshape brand identity and performance.

How Brand Strategists Aid in the Post-Pandemic Age

In the post-pandemic era, building relationships based on shared values is crucial. Customers seek alignment between their values and your company’s culture. A brand strategist ensures that your values shine through your branding, attracting like-minded customers.

Is Your Business Ready for a Brand Strategist?

Do people outside your company understand what you do, and what makes you different from the competition? It’s easy for people who work within a business to think that everyone on the outside ‘gets it.’ After all, employees should have a great understanding of their work and why it matters! But, if that understanding doesn’t reach the outside world, it leaves prospective customers, partners, and even employees confused.

Suppose everyone in your organization has a different idea of what you do and why it matters, or your customers need to wade through jargon and buzzwords to understand. If that is the case, you could use a brand strategist to create a clear, consistent message.

Are you known for the right reasons? We all know the saying, any publicity is good publicity, but that’s not always true for a brand. Brand sentiment is essential to your success — how do people feel about your brand, company, and products or services? If it’s negative or neutral, you can improve with help from a brand strategist.

Do you understand your competitors, or think you don’t have any? It’s time to hire a brand strategist to uncover what’s happening in the marketplace! You can’t do better than the competition if you don’t know anything about them. Bonus: if your competitors seem to be outshining you more often than not, you should also consider a brand strategist to figure out how you can take the lead.

What to Look for in a Brand Strategist

Choosing a brand strategist requires careful consideration. Look for someone who cannot just build a brand but also integrate that brand with your business strategy and culture. Your brand is never a stand-alone element. It should always be fused with your culture and your business strategy. And, because of the complexity of brand, culture, and business strategy, ensure your brand strategist has a proven track record of results.

The most important thing is to work with a brand strategist with a track record of success and experience working with team leaders. Ask for success stories and case studies to evaluate their track record — if they’ve written a book or multiple books on building brands and businesses, even better.

Why All Brand Strategists Are Not Alike

Brand strategists tailor their approaches based on your business strategy, target audience, value propositions, corporate culture, and industry norms. Different businesses may require different strategies, but all strategists must understand your company’s strategy, mission, vision, values, and target audience.

Benefits of Hiring a Brand Strategist

A brand strategist ensures consistent, well-researched messaging that strengthens your brand. They allow your staff to focus on their roles while implementing new ideas and plans seamlessly, resulting in improved business outcomes.

Because your brand is everything your company does, it’s too important to be left to an agency or a marketing team alone.

Your culture is too important to be separate from your brand.

Your business is too important to operate in parts and pieces.

Your brand and culture, together with your business strategy, drive results.

Your business impact comes from the fusion of your brand and culture working in synergy. Your people know this, your customers demand this, and your future depends on how well you achieve the integration of brand and culture with your business strategy.

After all, there’s nothing more powerful than a united group of souls ignited in a common cause with love at the core.

For a deeper understanding of brand strategy components, explore these resources:

If you want a more trusting team, a culture of belonging or a magnetic brand that attracts more of the right customers, I can help. If you'd like to explore if working together makes sense, drop me a line.

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