Agency Decisions That Can Ruin Your Brand’s Strategy

1. Agency Decisions That Can Ruin Your Brand’s Strategy The world of advertising and branding is simple and yet complicated at the same time. A lot of people usually think branding is as simple as recruiting the right branding agency but there is a lot more to that. A good branding agency does much more than setting up your logo, brand name, and identity. It lays the foundation for the rest of your brand as well and this includes your marketing strategies. Let's deep dive into this concept and see how making the wrong decision can cost you more than money in the long run. The average creative agency or branding agency will simply focus on the aesthetics of your brand. Their work ends once the look and feel of your brand have been put into place and this is why they simply focus on how cool or different your brand looks or sounds. The reality is that this is just the first step towards your main goal - which is to get customers to actually buy your products. This kind of narrow thinking will ensure that you end up with a great- looking brand but there are a ridiculous number of gorgeous brands out there that crash when it comes to actually resonate with their customers. Your logo may look amazing and have a great rationale behind it, but it is all ultimately meaningless if your target audience doesn't see the value in what you have created. The only solution here is to have a branding agency that can do some long-term thinking for your brand. Once the logos and other creative assets are in place, they should be able to visualize how it resonates with your brand. In fact, even before ideating for your brand, they should be able to tap into the pulse of your audience to thoroughly investigate their likes, dislikes, and aspirations. This is easier said than done and another solution is to opt for a fully integrated agency. Such places also specialize in digital marketing and intensive go-to-market strategies. While creating the DNA of your brand, they will also extensively think about what your audience is looking for. They will dive deep into your target audience's psyche, analyze their lifestyle, study the competitor products or substitute products that they use, and try to come up with a branding strategy that addresses all of those points. An integrated agency is nothing but a place that can give you a host of services. This means that within a single ecosystem, you get the benefit of diverse areas of expertise. The branding team will focus on your design while the research team will look into pulling out relevant insights for your brand. All work is done in tandem with the digital marketing team to ensure that the brand translates into a dynamic one. A regular creative agency will usually leave you with branding documentation that just covers the basics of your brand. The right integrated partner however will also think about how that design and thinking can translate into certain specific assets as digital ads focused on conversion or community building through social media content. The result is a brand identity that is far more comprehensive than anything a regular creative agency can give you. Even if you don't choose to continue with the same integrated agency for your marketing needs, their branding efforts will easily set important guardrails for whichever agency you onboard. It also leaves you free to get any regular social

2. media or digital marketing agency on your retainer since they don't need to think about building your brand. Your brand book will give them enough and more to start rolling out content from day one and this ultimately results in a synergistic marketing effort.