How often do you walk into an office building or shop and ask for an explanation of the their brand strategy? Chances are you didn’t because most likely without even thinking about it, you already knew.

You knew what the company stands for, how they build their business, what they care about, what their employees are like, and how they are perceived in the market. And most likely you have, on a personal level, formed some type of opinion about it.

Because the true definition of brand is the sum of associations, truths, beliefs and experiences you manage to anchor in your audience that creates an economic benefit for your organization.

This means that your brand should be at the core of your organization acting as your guiding principle, your aspirational focus point, and the unique driver that sets you apart from everyone else.

Which is why management consulting needs to understand the concept of brand and how it influences and drives business growth. If you want to advise the next generation businesses and be a part of creating growth and improving performance, brand needs to play a major role in that advisory. Which in turn, is why we are building a truly next generation advisory within The Brand Project.

It is a bit more creative, a bit more visionary, a bit more integrated, and slightly more unpredictable than you are used to. However, done correctly and with the right focus, it will create new growth, a more holistic perspective on your culture, and help you claim a position in the market much faster than approaching growth challenges with a single, siloed perspective.

Now more than ever there are no more excuses. You will not be able to build a business without focusing on brand from the very beginning. Audiences are more educated, more engaged, more digitally savvy, more critical and much much less loyal than ever before.

Your brand should and will enable your go–to–market perspectives just as much as your employment policies and internal culture development. All your touchpoints should adhere to a fundamental brand strategy that orbits around your organization ultimately driving innovation and taking your company to the next level. Your vertical integrations need to make sense, both to your business and to your audience.

And of course, brand does not solve it all. Your structure and technology, as well as your business model and distribution channels, and your value chain need to interact to become scalable enterprises. But having brand at the very core, simplifies alignment and ensures strategic fit throughout your growth journey.

Call it what you want, but we call it management consulting with a twist.