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I started my career in agencies and consulting and I'd like to think I was good at that work, but I really found my own going in house.
I remember presenting things to clients and they didn't want to go with the great option but I'd sigh and say, "Well, it's their brand."
I remember presenting things to clients and they didn't want to go with the great option but I'd sigh and say, "Well, it's their brand."
It's harder to detach from the work, from decisions when it is your brand. But you also see how ads and strategy and perfect decks are such a tiny fragment of the work that any company does and that no one can understand an org like the people that work in it.
I worked on so many "brand reinventions" early that were about the market opportunity, trends, the "white space in the landscape" but failed to take the culture of the org into account. As well as brand reinventions that were all about the inside view without customers in mind.
As a consultant, I said so many times: "The brand is not a logo. Your brand thrives or dies where your logo doesn't show up, like a sales call."
It makes a difference that my sales folks are right there (virtually). They can tell me what the brand really means to people.
It makes a difference that my sales folks are right there (virtually). They can tell me what the brand really means to people.
I also love being a customer - paying my monthly bill, watching the emails come in, figuring out a better spot for my mesh extender. Understanding what goes wrong when it does, because something will always go wrong sometime, and figuring out how to make it better.
When I was a consultant, it wasn't cost effective for any client to have me look at every single piece of collateral a customer gets. Being in-house gives me the ability to do that. To focus on what's important, not just what's sexy or portfolio worthy.
Being a consultant, being in an agency - it takes a lot of skills, patience, creativity, understanding, late hours, fast learning, empathy. It's really valuable.
But it's really a different world than truly being responsible for the brand or business.
But it's really a different world than truly being responsible for the brand or business.
