What Does Brand Consulting Mean — Designing a Logo?
The most common answer to what is brand consulting is wrong: “logo, colours, business cards”. Those are the brand’s appearance; not the brand itself. 🏷️
Short answer: no, it isn’t designing a logo. Consulting chooses the sentence that comes to mind when that logo is seen and gets it repeated everywhere. Design is the result of that decision.
Below: which decisions consulting makes, how it differs from design and advertising, what it gives which business, and how to see your own position. 🔍
Which decisions does consulting make?
Answering what is brand consulting fits into four decisions.
Which words are forbidden?
The ones that contradict your promise and that everyone uses. A business saying “affordable prices” can’t simultaneously claim specialist expertise — those are different shelves.
How is it different from design and advertising?
The three get confused and budget enters in the wrong order.
What does it give which business?
The promise is generic; the gain is concrete.
Why does so much of this work go to waste?
Let’s be honest: half-finished projects are common here.
The three most common misconceptions
One: starting with design — a renewal done without a promise changes the appearance, not the outcome. Two: leaving the decision in a document and never carrying it to contact points. Three: giving up in three months; a brand doesn’t form before repetition accumulates. Details in the failed rebrands article. 🚧
How do I see my own position?
Theory over; diagnosis takes ten minutes.
A five-question quick diagnosis
1) How did your last five customers describe you to someone else — do the answers resemble each other? 2) Do three of your team members describe the company in the same sentence? 3) Do conversations open with price? 4) Can you state in one sentence what separates you from a competitor? 5) Does that sentence have proof? If two answers bother you, you have a reason to start. All questions on the brand consulting page. ✅
📝 Field Notes
At one client we asked five people the same question: “describe the company in one sentence.” Five different answers came back — one mentioned price, one speed, one scope. The logo was identical in all of them. The problem wasn’t the drawing but the absence of a sentence to stand beside it. ✍️
📖 Quick Glossary
Position: for whom, in which need, instead of whom you’re chosen. Promise: a one-sentence claim with proof. Message set: the words to use and the ones forbidden. Contact point: everywhere a customer meets the brand.
⚡ Quick Summary
Not designing a logo; choosing the sentence that comes to mind. 🏷️ Four decisions: for whom, instead of whom, which promise, which words. Consultant handles what’s said, designer visibility, advertiser the announcement. Most work goes to waste because it starts with design.
🎯 Next Step
Let’s run the five-question diagnosis together and see whether your promise is written: the quote page. Scope on the consulting page. 🔍
Frequently Asked Questions
Sık Sorulan Sorular
The critical one. A business trying to sell to everyone holds no place in anyone’s mind. Position becomes clear with three questions: who you sell to, in which need you’re sought, and instead of whom the customer chooses you. The third is the most-skipped question. 🎯
The promise is a single sentence with proof: what you do, for whom, and on what guarantee. “We provide quality service” isn’t a promise because everyone says it and nobody can prove it. Writing it sits in the brand voice article. ✍️
The consultant decides what gets said; the designer makes it visible; the advertiser announces it. That’s the order. Ad budget spent before the promise is written spreads the wrong sentence faster — and the more money spent, the bigger the problem. 🤝
When the existing one contradicts your promise, or when there isn’t one. In most businesses the logo is adequate; what’s missing is the sentence standing beside it. That’s why quotes saying “logo first” have the order backwards. 🖌️
Conversations get shorter: explaining what you do takes one sentence instead of five minutes. Price objections fall, because there’s something else to compare. And most importantly, the customer describes you to others in the right sentence. 💼
Everyone starts describing the company the same way. It looks small but has a direct effect on sales and hiring — once the message set is written, the repetition comes on its own. 👥
It is, and usually more so, because products are easy to compare. What decides between two businesses selling the same product is the promise beside the product. Without one, only price remains.
You can; the hard part is seeing your own difference from the inside. Talking to five customers and laying the answers side by side usually surfaces the sentence on its own. Outside help is for shortening that blind spot.
The decision document lasts for years but its application is alive: the message set gets refreshed when a service is added or a new audience opened. What doesn’t change is the promise; what changes is where it’s told. A yearly review is enough.