Getting back to the roots of Quill & Co. with highlighting my favorite thing, brand strategy. You’ve probably heard designers talk about brand strategy as you’re scrolling through Instagram or cruising through the internet. And maybe you’ve been wondering if it’s a good fit for you to add it to your services too.
So to help you take the guess work out of deciding if offering brand strategy is right for you, here’s a few key indicators.
In order to decide if you should offer brand strategy, you’re going to need a good understanding of what exactly brand strategy is. At its core, brand strategy is a mapped out plan of action that aligns your brand, your goals, and your audience together. It’s essentially the blueprint to business success. Here at Quill & Co, we call the brand strategy process the “Brand Roadmap” because it’s a mapped out plan of action on how to take your business from point A to point B. From there, we build a shortcut that clearly shows the overlap between business goals, the brand heart, and the customer’s needs. Through brand strategy, we are able to zoom in on a clear vision and plan to help them achieve their goals that both serve the ideal customer and move the needle in the business.
Just like design, brand strategy is a learned skill. We didn’t wake up expecting to be amazing designers from day one, and we should expect the same when it comes to learning new skills like brand strategy.
It took me a lot of trial and error to figure out how best to introduce it to my clients. Everyone has their own take on how to implement it into their offerings and will take you time to master it. So you’ll need to be prepared to be patient, to make mistakes, and commit to learning.
If you are happy designing logos and pretty graphics that’s amazing and you should keep doing it! You don’t have to offer brand strategy to be a good designer or a better designer.
However, If you are interested in taking a more holistic view at the entire brand, then brand strategy is for you. By offering brand strategy you get to take a look at what the brand values, the brands personality, and their vision for the world and decide on how to portray that visually through the brand identity. **
A brand’s logo is a small piece of a much bigger picture… think a single puzzle piece. Now imagine dumping the box containing the rest of the pieces in front of your client, and proceeding to assemble it piece by piece. Finishing off the puzzle by placing that final piece, the logo.
Offering something to our clients just because we think we should or that we think we can charge more and not because we want to or are passionate about brand strategy is never a good idea.
Because here’s the hard truth, If you offer something that you don’t want to do – you’re going to do a shitty job at it. And I want you to know you can charge more without offering brand strategy (you just have to raise your prices, because you can and because you’re probably just undercharging).
When you know strategy, you gain a seat at the table with decision making with your client. You go from order taker or pixel pusher to someone that your client trusts. You aren’t just presenting them with pretty colors and fonts- you’re giving them business solutions. You take on more of a consultant role.
When you can start providing real solutions to business problems your clients will trust you so much!
We’ve all heard the phrase “you get what you pay for”. Well, when you are offering brand strategy, you are offering so much more for the client! You are helping them build a really solid brand foundation, you’re helping them get clear on their mission, vision, voice, and so much more. You also are no longer taking on small scope projects for one-off pieces. So instead of taking on random small projects, you are now working on bigger budget, full-scope projects for the whole brand experience.
Brand strategy can be as in-depth as you want to make it, but at its most basic level it should answer these main topics:
Now that you’ve learned more about what brand strategy is and isn’t. You can think critically about if it would be a good fit for your business and potential clients. If all of this sounds exciting to you and you’re ready to dive in, be sure to hop on the waitlist for Brand Clarity Academy. his is Quill & Co’s signature program that teaches the fundamentals of brand strategy, how to run calls with clients, and how to use your takeaways to deliver a profound Brand Roadmap document that serves as a steady foundation for all branding to come.
Join the waitlist here or continue exploring more blogs about brand strategy!