How not to choose – banding services

1. There are no branding services – we, at Toud, do not believe there are – branding services, we believe there is collaboration in the sphere of activities that define or influence the brand of an organization. What do we really want to say? We believe that in branding there cannot be services, but there must be more than that: a close collaboration in a mixed team, with a lot of empathy, involvement, and the desire to generate transformation. So, it is not something you quantify and transact, it is more than that, it is the emotion and joy of getting involved or these cannot be called branding services.
2. If you don’t find a solution, don’t adopt the option – we solve it in-house, it simply doesn’t work, because you don’t have people ready to do it and because you need an outside perspective.
3. The price doesn’t matter – more than the cost (whether it’s too low or too high), what matters is the empathy and experience of the team.
4. The people who are assigned to your project matter – you can go to a large company that operates in the area of brand consulting, here you will end up working with a team, make sure that there is experience and empathy there too. In small companies, in general, there is only one team.
5. If the discussion reaches the logo very quickly, you are not in the right place, this is not what it should be about. . . You will also discuss the logo, but much later.
6. Branding services – there can be many, in fact, it should be a holistic approach. . . Anyway, make sure you understand what you are getting and what the agency is assuming.
7. Try to have a dialogue in the bidding phase with at least 5 agencies (it will be difficult for you to find 5 in Romania :D), you will learn a lot from this activity, and especially it will help you regarding point 6.
8. If the agency has no connections with the outside (companies, universities, other agencies), be skeptical, it is very likely that they do not understand what branding is. . . If there are connections, it does not mean that they understand.
9. The difficult part is the implementation, from this stage, look to see how the agency will get involved in this phase, or at least how it prepares it.
10. There shouldn’t be – branding services – without research, without a deep connection with people in the organization (from all hierarchical levels) and, in many cases, with other parts of the public (stakeholders).
11. You cannot do “magic” in branding, there are no – branding services – that bring transformation quickly and generate a positive impact on the business in the short term, there are only medium and long-term solutions, which require great effort and which, if they are well implemented, they bring results.
12. The notion of time expands when you start to “consume branding services” – the process is quite complicated and, most of the time, the plans are not respected, make sure that you can control the time right from the beginning.
13. In order for things to work, you need the involvement of top management, a lot of transparency from the organization, and a lot of time allocated. . . An agency must ask for these things from the bidding stage, it will not be able to do the work of the organization, in fact, it will not be able to do almost anything without the people from the organization.
14. Before starting on this path, try to train at least two people from the organization in the sphere of brand management, they will have an important role right from the bidding process and, especially, in the implementation one.
15. You must know what you are looking for – branding services – this phrase may sound strange, but yes, it is important to be able to define well the need and especially the expectations you have following a process aimed at the brand of the organization or the product.

All the points above refer to the organization brand. In the case of a product brand, things are slightly different, the process is different and requires slightly different resources.

If we were to give you a piece of advice, as a conclusion regarding this process of finding a serious partner to offer – branding services, it would be this: try to talk to at least 5 agencies and choose by feeling and less by digits; chemistry, empathy with the agency will be more important than anything else (obviously we start from the premise that there is experience and know-how in the case of the agency – the branding service provider).