“Today, a brand consultancy company is expected to be a prophet, question like a scientist, and analyze risks like a business person.”

Brand consulting companies are transforming. It is an understatement to say that anything today is in a state of transformation; a cliché. Maybe that’s why saying “brand consulting companies are transforming” isn’t very appealing. I guess the cliché “Pandemic will change everything” also affects this… But some things need to be talked about.

A person who had surgery for appendicitis became more credible than an internal medicine surgeon

As the need for knowledge and the source of knowledge change, sectors whose capital is knowledge are greatly affected. Technological progress does not treat everyone fairly. Doctors experience the greatest impact of this. In the past, doctors were people to whom people surrendered, but now they have been replaced by Google; Doctors are left with surgical interventions that browsers cannot do (there is information about him on the internet). The availability of information presented another problem; accessibility of all kinds of information. All kinds of information, whether qualified or wrong… The reliability of its source is also controversial. A person who has undergone appendicitis surgery has become more credible than an internal medicine surgeon.

The impact of the unpredictable becomes unacceptable. Today, a brand consultant is expected to be both a prophet, a scientist and a business person.

In terms of consultancy and brand consultancy, the effects of this are not surprising. In the past, the person referred to as the “Consultant” was seen as the absolute and absolute source of information, now the information is obvious. There are many marketing theories in the literature; In fact, new ones appear every day. Models, tools, kits… Therefore, consultants who in the past were ostentatious as an absolute source of information (this applies to all consultants) can now provide added value thanks to their ability to adapt to innovation and cultural richness. On the other hand, the measurability of almost everything in marketing requires business processes to be faster and more result-oriented. This makes the job very difficult. The amount of data that needs to be analyzed is increasing, but the patience of companies and managers is decreasing. The impact of the unpredictable becomes unacceptable. Today, a brand consultant is expected to be both a prophet, a scientist, and a business person.

Today, brand consultancy companies have no choice but to base their work on five basic pillars to strengthen the brand by creating a correct and effective strategy for the brand.

5 Indispensable Features of Brand Consulting Companies:
Holistic Market, Competition and Customer Analysis:
The purely market and competition-oriented strategies of the past (some of them are just tactics) have been replaced by complex and partially based on instantaneous data, fed by qualitative and quantitative research. For this reason, it is necessary to use very advanced research and analysis tools for consumer insight. Everyone sees everything visible about the consumer, and it is no longer possible for this to provide a separation. It has been a long time since the advertising and communication industry developed methods to penetrate people’s subconscious. The interesting thing is that the research industry has not adapted to this yet (And this topic will be an article on its own).

Brands should see what others cannot see, and the brand consultant should have glasses that show it naked.

Cultural Design:
The relationship between brand strategy and culture is not at the point Peter Drucker stated; culture no longer has to eat strategy for breakfast. Because what we call culture is not a static thing like it used to be. For this reason, with strategic culture design, it is necessary to identify the distinctive values within the brand/institution and to ensure that the brand strategy lives eternally by redesigning it. Today, a brand consultancy company cannot be only interested in the showcase of the brand it serves. Companies are transparent. The moment you express sensitivity towards women, someone may come out and reveal that you pay women 25% less. You cannot bring to the table what is not cooked in the kitchen. However, it is now possible to create a kitchen for what you need to bring to the table, which was not acceptable in the past.

This subject was examined in more detail in another article published in Marketing Turkey.

Brands should put the power of culture at the center, and brand consultants should stop dealing with the showcase; it should build the necessary culture for the strategy to be permanent and to live for many years.

Person-Brand and Person-Brand Relationship:
Another important issue here is the personal brand. People play a very important role in the formation and development of brands. However, in the past, it had mostly partial representation power for brands and institutions. Both the persons were limited and the power of representation. Now, each employee has turned into a medium and the brand face has its dynamic communication channels. Bill Gates told the newspaper in the past, that he now has 58 million followers on Twitter (Elon Musk’s 80 million).

With a single sentence, he can reduce the shares of IBM, which has 670,000 followers, by 20%. This power has never existed in Kuru Kahveci Mehmet Efendi’s life.

Brands should benefit from the power of individual brands, and brand consultants should have the intellectual background, models, and structures that can create strategies for them.

Brand Strategy:
Brand strategy is the core of the brand consulting profession (if it is a profession). It consists of a brand’s preferences and opt-outs. Although different theories have been put forward about a brand’s focus on a certain value proposition or audience lately, this is the case… No institution or brand has unlimited resources.

Fueled by deep consumer insights under the brand strategy; There are many sub-elements such as the brand’s value proposition, tone and tone, brand personality and values. They should answer what the brand does, how it does it, who it does it for, and why.

Customer Experience Design:
Finally, a brand consultant should have a good grasp of the experience in which the strategy he produces comes to life. On the other hand, he should know how a correct brand name, category-appropriate and distinctive brand identity, effective media preferences, the role of channels in social media, and walking routes in the store or experience areas in the office should be shaped within the framework of the brand strategy.

Brands should not hand over the design of customer experience and touchpoints to strategy-ignorant hands. The brand consultant, on the other hand, should establish absolute dominance in every area where the strategy will come to life.

We started with a cliché and we ended with a cliché. Like brands, brand consultants and brand consultancy companies can generate greater benefits only by transforming. Because wisdom is more important than knowledge, and in today’s world, this wisdom is fed by many sources such as intellectual capital, depth and versatility.

You can read our other article to learn how brand consultancy companies contribute to company growth.