Branding agencies measure success in many ways: billings, number of prestigious clients, income. We determine ours by a different metric. We ask: In what measurable ways is our client’s brand more valuable after working with us than before? Before we accept an assignment, we want to be convinced that we can deliver benefits to the client’s brand that are a high multiple of our fee. If we don’t see such upside, we see if we can reframe the assignment to add greater value. That is what we mean when we say “To
For-profits are scored by profitability, to be sure, but we broaden the definition of ‘profit’ to include the widest possible vision of stakeholder benefits.
There are several ways to get there. In the short term, a strong, consistent brand grows sales and margins. In the medium term, a strong brand lowers the cost of labor (more good people want to work for a brand they admire) and lowers the cost of capital (strong brands are more resilient in turbulent times, so lenders and stakeholders ascribe lower risk.) In the long term—when the brand is sold, goes public, or recapitalized—strong brands command a high premium because their marketplace recognition makes th