Maybe you've paid for brand strategy already.
If you have, it's in a drawer, or in a folder on the server nobody opens. It went out with onboarding, nobody was quite sure what to do with it, and nothing lined up behind it.
So why won't this one end up in the same drawer?
Fair question, and it's the one that decides whether any of this was worth paying for. A brand only changes anything if the people writing proposals and answering submissions actually use it. Most of them never get that far, and it's rarely their fault.
We put it to work ourselves
The retainer isn't a separate product we upsell you. It's the part where the strategy actually reaches the market. You don't get handed a document and wished luck with it.
Everybody gets the same words
Producers, service, leadership. Internal alignment isn't a nice extra, it's the reason five people stop describing one program five different ways on the same day.
It's built to be found
Structured so a producer opens the right page in ten seconds, right before writing a proposal. A document nobody can navigate is a document nobody opens twice.
Every touchpoint is on a list
You end up with a ranked list of specific things to fix, from the first search result to the invoice. Not a feeling that something should probably change.
You need a brand book that your team follows...
And in that book you'll get:
Positioning
What you stand for, who you're for, and the one thing you want to be known for. Check it before you say yes to an opportunity, a hire, or a new program.
Messaging
The words for partners and the words for clients. Same argument, both directions. A producer opens it before writing a proposal, so five people stop describing one program five ways.
Identity
Every visual rule in one place. The work looks like you no matter who builds it.
...and your brand experience map
Alongside your brand book, you get a complete map of everywhere your brand meets the market, from the first search result to the proposal and the invoice, ranked by what to fix first.
Eight weeks, and you know what happens in each of them.
Listening
You, your team, a partner, a client. Plus everything you already put in front of the market.
Deciding
A competitive read of your niche, then the four decisions. You see them before anything gets built.
Building
Messaging written so your team can use it without you in the room, and the visual system that carries it.
Landing it
Every touchpoint mapped and ranked, then who does what, in what order, from the week we finish.
What you'll get once the foundation is done:
Social
For the firm, and for the people who lead it. A principal's own presence often carries more weight than the company page.
Articles & newsletter
The kind a producer forwards to a client.
Opened, not filtered.
Campaigns
Built around one line or one program, timed to when it needs the attention.
Two levels of implementation
Growth
Growth keeps this running every month.
- ✓ Two channels for the firm
- ✓ LinkedIn for two leadership principals
- ✓ Articles & monthly newsletter
- ✓ Monthly email campaigns
- ✓ Quarterly case studies
- ✓ Two line or program campaigns per year
Full Service
Full Service scales it, then adds trade press and event production.
- ✓ Three channels for the firm
- ✓ LinkedIn for three leadership principals
- ✓ Everything in Growth, plus:
- ✓ Twice the email output
- ✓ Four program campaigns per year
- ✓ Trade press placement work
- ✓ Event production support
The retainer doesn't run on its own.
If you have a team that can execute, take the foundation on its own. We build it, brief the people who have to use it every day, and stay close enough to keep the execution true to it.
If the strategy is already done and what you need is delivery, we read what exists first. Two weeks, and you get an honest answer on whether it holds and what we would change, before anyone produces a thing against it.
What we won't do is start producing with nothing underneath it. Not out of principle, but because you would be paying full price for guesswork.