How to Hire a Branding Strategist (Without Getting Scammed)

How to Hire a Branding Strategist (Without Getting Scammed)

The title “branding strategist” gets thrown around far too loosely.

Every graphic designer who’s read a marketing book and learned the word “synergy” seems to have slapped it onto their LinkedIn profile. They talk about “vibes” and “storytelling” and charge you a fortune for a PDF filled with stock photos and fluffy adjectives.

The result? Businesses waste thousands on branding that’s nothing more than a pretty costume. It looks the part, but it has nothing to say the moment it speaks.

This confusion is costing you money. It’s leading to beautiful websites for businesses with no clear message. It’s producing slick logos for products nobody understands.

What is a true branding strategist's real, tangible, business-altering job? And how can you tell the genuine article from the charlatan?

Let's Get This Straight: Strategist vs. Designer

The most fundamental misunderstanding is the difference between a strategist and a designer. It’s simple, but critical.

One is the architect. The other is the decorator.

The architect studies the terrain, understands the purpose of the building, draws up the structural blueprints, and ensures the foundation can support the entire structure.

The decorator comes in later to choose the colours, the furniture, and the finishes that bring the architect’s vision to life.

Hiring a designer before you have a strategy is like asking a decorator to pick out curtains for a house that hasn’t been built yet. It’s absurd.

Here’s a simple breakdown:

Feature	Branding Strategist (The Architect)	Brand Designer (The Decorator)
Primary Focus	The Why & How.	The What & Look.
Main Question	“Where do we fit in the market and why should anyone care?”	“How do we visually represent the strategy?”
Core Work	Research, analysis, positioning, messaging, workshops.	Logo creation, typography, colour palettes, visual systems.
Output	A blueprint: Brand Strategy Document, Value Proposition.	A toolkit: Logo files, Brand Guidelines, website design.
Success Metric	Clarity, differentiation, market position, and easier sales.	Aesthetics, consistency, recognition.

You need both. But you must have the architect’s blueprint before the decorator mixes paint.

So, What’s the Real Job? The Architect Behind the Facade

A strategist’s job isn't to make things look good. Their job is to make decisions. They provide the logic, the evidence, and the brutal honesty required to build a brand that can actually compete and win.

This work happens in distinct, logical phases.

Phase 1: The Detective Work (The Brand Audit & Research)

Before they can prescribe a solution, a real strategist diagnoses thoroughly. They become a detective, looking for clues in two main places: inside your business and outside in the market.

• Looking Inward: They interview you, your leadership, and your staff. They dig into your business goals. Are you aiming for rapid growth or premium positioning? What’s the company culture really like, not the version on your website? What are you genuinely better at than anyone else? The truth often has sharp edges, and their job is to find them.
• Looking Outward: They become a customer. They analyse your competitors—not just who they are but also what they say. How do they position themselves? What promises do they make? Where are the clichés? Where are the gaps? This isn't a casual Google search; it's a forensic analysis of the market conversation.

Phase 2: The Cartography (Market Positioning)

Once the research is done, the next job is to find the gap. A strategist is a cartographer, mapping out the entire market to find the one piece of uncontested territory your brand can own in the customer’s mind.

It's not about being better; it's about being different.

Think about supermarkets. Tesco and Sainsbury's fight over the vast middle ground. But Aldi planted its flag somewhere entirely different: “Like brands, only cheaper.” It’s a simple, powerful, and other position. They knew exactly where they were going to compete. A strategist helps you find your Aldi-sized gap.

Phase 3: The Psychology (Defining the Right Audience)

The most common and laziest mistake in business is trying to be for everyone. The moment you say “my product is for everyone,” you've admitted it's for no one in particular.

A strategist forces you to get ruthless. They help you build a detailed picture of your ideal customer. Not just their age and location, but their fears, ambitions, and motivations. What keeps them up at night? What does a successful outcome look like for them?

Crucially, this process also defines who your brand is not for. A strong brand repels as much as it attracts. That's a sign of confidence.

Phase 4: The Core Message (The Value Proposition & Voice)

With all this foundational work done, the final strategic step is to distil it into a powerful, simple message.

This is your value proposition. It’s the simple, clear-cut promise of value to your specific audience. It answers the question: “If I am your ideal customer, why should I buy from you instead of anyone else?”

Alongside this, they define your brand voice. How do you speak? Are you the wise mentor? The witty challenger? The reassuring expert? This voice must be consistent everywhere, from your website copy to social media replies. The voice of Oatly is fundamentally different from that of Dove, and that’s by design.

The Tangible Output: What Do You Get For Your Money?

This all sounds very cerebral. However, the output of a brand strategy process is a concrete, convenient document. It’s often called a Brand Platform or Brand Strategy Document.

It isn’t a 50-page slideshow of inspirational quotes. It’s a blueprint for your business. It should be dog-eared, coffee-stained, and used to make actual decisions.

A proper brand strategy document typically includes:

• Audience Personas: A clear, detailed description of who you're talking to.
• Competitive Analysis: A blunt assessment of the landscape and where you fit.
• Market Position: A definitive statement of the territory you own.
• Brand Pillars: 3-5 core ideas that your brand stands for.
• The Value Proposition: Your core promise, stated simply.
• Messaging Framework: Key talking points and answers to common questions, ensuring everyone in the company says the same thing.
• Brand Voice & Tone Guidelines: A guide on how to write and speak as your brand.

This document is the source code. It’s what you hand to a copywriter, a web developer, and yes, a brand designer. This blueprint is essential for creating a meaningful and compelling brand identity. Without it, any design work is just guesswork.

Spotting the Charlatans: A Field Guide to Fake Strategists

The market is awash with people adding “strategist” to their job title. Protecting your business means learning to spot them from a mile away.

Here are the dead giveaways.

Red Flag #1: They Lead with Design

If you get on a discovery call and one of their first questions is, “So, what colours are you thinking of?” or “Do you have any logos you like?”—end the call.

They are a designer, not a strategist. They’re thinking about the decoration before the foundation is even poured. A true strategist will spend 80% of their time asking about your business, customers, and competition before they ever whisper the word “logo.”

Red Flag #2: They Speak Fluent Jargon

“We'll leverage synergistic storytelling to activate your brand's core archetypal vibes.”

This is meaningless. It's a smokescreen used to sound intelligent and justify a high price tag. Real strategy is about clarity. It uses simple, powerful language. If you don't understand what they're saying, it's not because you're slow. It's because they're full of it.

Red Flag #3: Their Portfolio is Just Logos

When you ask to see their work, do they show you a series of beautiful, isolated logos on a clean background? Or do they show you the thinking?

Ask them to walk you through a case study. Not just the final design, but the problem. What was the client's business challenge? How did the market look? Why did they make the strategic choices they did? How did that strategy directly lead to the final design?

If they can't connect their work to a business result, they're an artist, not a strategist. And you’re not buying art.

The Business Case: Why Bother With Strategy?

Strategy isn’t some abstract, academic exercise. It’s a commercial tool designed to make your business more money. Period.

According to a study by Lucidpress, consistently presented brands see an average revenue increase of 33%. Consistency doesn't come from a logo; it comes from a clear strategy everyone in the company understands and uses.

Here's the rub:

• A Good Strategy Makes Selling Effortless. When everyone knows exactly what you stand for and who you're for, the right customers are pre-sold. Your marketing just needs to find them.
• Good Strategy Justifies Premium Pricing. A strong brand isn’t just another commodity. It has a perceived value that transcends a simple feature-for-feature comparison. Apple doesn't sell phones; it sells an ecosystem of seamless integration. That’s a strategic position, allowing them to command a higher price.
• Good Strategy Breeds Loyalty. People don't feel loyal to a product. They feel loyal to a brand they believe in that “gets” them. Strategy is the work of defining what that belief is.
• Good Strategy Saves You Money. It prevents you from wasting a fortune on marketing campaigns that don't land, website redesigns every 18 months, and pivoting your business because you never had a clear direction in the first place.

Can You DIY Your Brand Strategy? A Reality Check

You're on a tight budget as a small business owner or entrepreneur. I get it. The temptation is to do everything yourself.

You can—and should—do some foundational thinking. But you have to be honest about the limitations. The single biggest challenge is a lack of objectivity. You're too close to your “baby” to see it. You're in the bottle, so you can't read the label.

A strategist provides a crucial, unbiased outside perspective.

However, if you're not ready for that investment, ask yourself these brutally honest questions. Write down the answers. Be specific.

1. The Differentiation Question: If my business vanished tomorrow, what specific group of customers would genuinely miss me, and why? What would they have to go back to using?
2. The Competitor Question: Who is my number one competitor (not who I wish it were)? What is the one thing they do better than me, and what is the one I do better than them?
3. The Audience Question: Who is the customer I love working with? The one who gets the most value and causes the least friction. What if I only served that person?
4. The Rejection Question: Who is my product not for? Be specific. Which group of people should be actively repelled by my message?

Answering these won't give you a complete brand strategy. But it will give you a taste of the difficult, clarifying work that real strategy entails.

Strategy is a Verb, Not a Noun

Here’s the final, critical truth. A brand strategy isn’t a document you commission, approve, and file away. That’s just an expensive paperweight.

Strategy is a verb.

It’s an active, living tool used to make decisions. Does this new product fit our strategy? Does this marketing copy reflect our brand voice? Does this partnership align with our core values?

The strategy is your compass. It keeps you from getting distracted by shiny objects and ensures that every single pound and hour you invest pushes the business in the same, deliberate direction.

That's the job of a branding strategist. They don't just give you a map. They build you the compass.

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If you’re past the point of guesswork and are ready for a clear, actionable blueprint for your brand, then our work is likely what you're looking for. See how we apply this thinking to our brand identity services. If you want to talk specifics, you can request a quote directly.

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