My ideal clients (is this you?)
I work with business leaders. A well-positioned brand makes sense of your entire business. It’s much more than marketing. Most of my clients are founders or CEOs.
I mostly work with B2B/service brands. You have close relationships with your customers. They probably know you better than you know yourself.
Customers keep buying from you because they like your culture and style. Culture and style are big deals. You need outside advisers like me to really get you. Most of them don’t.
Culture comes from the top. It’s driven by the values and behaviours of the leader. Strong values = strong brand. My clients know what they’re about.
Fixing your brand is a commercial priority, but you don’t have the in-house expertise. You might have a marketing manager in the business. You don’t have a brand strategy expert.
You’re not interested in beige. You want something special. You want it to be outstanding.
You appreciate simplicity. You expect direct, pragmatic advice. You’ve had it with over-complicated consultancy.
You value expertise. You respect your advisers. You pay on time.
Typical problems (is this you too?)
Brand problems are business problems. Dress them up how you like, but they come in two varieties: we don’t make sense and we’re not attractive enough. They usually come as a pair.
People describe these problems in many ways. Do any of these sound familiar? Is this you?
- ◦ Our shop window is letting us down.
- ◦ We should be charging more for our services.
- ◦ There’s no discipline to our innovation or marketing initiatives.
- ◦ Our existing customers love us but we need more leads.
- ◦ Our website makes warm leads colder.
- ◦ We’re not the obvious choice that we should be. It’s too easy to put us in the wrong box.
- ◦ We’re good at converting but our consideration levels are way too low.
- ◦ We haven’t got our story straight.
- ◦ We’re not pressing the right buttons.
- ◦ Partners and investors are underwhelmed. We haven’t nailed our elevator pitch.
- ◦ We don’t have a shared sense of identity.
- ◦ Our business is better than our brand.
- ◦ Ten people fumble for ten different answers when someone asks what we do.
- ◦ We’ve lost our spark as we’ve grown. We’ve lost our voice.
There’s nothing fluffy about brand strategy. I’m the wrong person to speak to if you think there is.
- ◦ A well-positioned brand makes your ideal customers feel seen.
- ◦ Brand is the X-Factor behind a lead-generating shop window.
- ◦ A charismatic brand makes selling easier and marketing more effective.
- ◦ A strong brand lets you be confident with pricing.
- ◦ A coherent brand narrative makes sense of your business.
- ◦ A coherent brand makes strategy decisions more simple.
- ◦ A coherent and compelling brand gives people something to believe in and belong to.
Conversely, a weak brand can be a six or seven figure problem for a medium-sized business. (Annually.) A brand problem is a “now” problem. It’s both important and urgent.
Solving these problems usually involves a combination of positioning, narrative, and style.
If you know someone who needs this kind of help, please point them in my direction. Or is this you? If you feel seen, please get in touch.
phil @ philadams.co (dot co, not dot com). Or message me on LinkedIn.
