How To Become A Brand Strategist
So you want to become a strategist, huh? — Whether you’re in logo design, branding, or marketing, all roads lead back to the brand strategist.
How To Become A Strategist:
- What is brand strategy?
- What does a brand strategist do?
- The common career path of a brand strategist
- How to go from being a designer to strategist?
- What skills make a successful brand strategist
- Examples of problems a brand strategist solves
- How much does a strategy consultant charge?
- Can you offer brand strategy remotely?
- How do you learn brand strategy?
The best course to become a brand strategists 👇
1. What is brand strategy?
What is brand strategy?
Before we talk about becoming a brand strategist, let’s define what exactly brand strategy is.
“A plan for the systematic development of a brand in order to meet business objectives.“ — Marty Neumeier, Brand Gap
The goal of brand strategy is to shape the perceptions of a brand’s audience sot that ultimately we can influence them.
Therefore, the brand strategy sets out the plan for shaping those perceptions through different forms of expression both visual and verbal.
Brand strategy used to be reserved for global brands, but now more business owners start to realize the importance of building a brand and the strategy behind it.
In this article, you’ll learn how I became a brand strategist so you can navigate your career in the right direction and raise your specialist profile.
2. What does a brand strategist do?
What does a brand strategist do?
So if a brand strategy is a plan for development of a brand, then brand strategist is the person who helps to plan that development.
What a brand strategist does in a nutshell:
- Define the brand internally (brand core)
- Position the brand in the market (brand positioning)
- Define the brand externally (brand persona)
This is the simplest breakdown into 3 sections.
Check out my other article to see all 9 key elements of brand strategy.
However, the main role that brand strategist performs is to understand the business and its audience and then devise a perfect solution for branding that business.
With the ultimate goal to create the desirable perception of the brand in the minds of customers.
3. The common career path of a brand strategist
The common career path of a brand strategist
How do you go from being a designer to brand strategist? — designers often ask me this question.
Perhaps the best way to answer this is questions is by telling you how I became a strategist.
I studied graphic design at Academy of Fine Arts in Poland and I worked with many design agencies.
Some of which appreciated my love for conceptual thinking and some don’t, but I always loved that strategic approach.
I liked developing big concepts, and then using design to convey a clear message in the most minimalist way possible.
I always believed that if you design something beautiful, but it has no concept, then it’s useless.
Probably that’s why I didn’t like art that much in school and I used to argue with professors often.
You see, commercial graphic design is not fine art, you actually have to solve a problem or help achieve certain goal.
I came to that realization at the early stage of my career, but it wasn’t until 2014 when I started offering brand strategy to my clients.
So what happened? I’ve read a lot of books, learned from various experts and most importantly — I’ve run a lot of workshops.
So that true my tenacity to learn and try, I naturally transition from being just a designer to brand strategist.
You need make that decision — “Yes, I want to be a strategist”, and then act upon it.
Learn, experiment and then see if you like it.
4. How to go from being a designer to strategist?
How to go from being a designer to strategist?
At the beginning you might be a bit scared because strategy is such a big word and it can mean so many things.
I started with a questionnaire — just like most of designers do. (brand identity questionnaire).
Then I started running strategy workshops and at some point I realized how valuable the outcome is for their company.
I realized that I pivoted their company during only 3 hrs meeting and helped them organize their thoughts and ideas.
Once I started seeing tangible results, I knew that this is really important.
I noticed that strategy actually moves them in totally different direction.
This was the moment I noted how valuable strategy really can be, so I started doubling my fees.
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