Decide what you are buying before you look at who sells it
Most shortlists are built on portfolios. A portfolio shows what a consultancy can make; it does not show whether it can find what is wrong with your brand or whether the work will still be standing in three years. Before you look at anyone, write down which of four things you are buying: a diagnosis (what is the brand costing us and why), a position (who we serve and why we are worth more), an identity (how that position looks and sounds), or a system (the templates, guidelines and rhythm that keep it consistent). Many businesses need all four; most briefs ask for the third.
The order matters. Identity built before position is the single most common cause of a rebrand that changes nothing. If you cannot say what the position is, the first thing to buy is the diagnosis, and the consultancy that offers one at a fixed price is telling you something about how it works.
The four kinds of supplier, and where each breaks
A branding agency delivers the project and leaves. The pitch team is senior and the delivery team usually is not; the strategy phase is often a workshop and a questionnaire; rollout is someone else's problem. It is the right buy when the position is settled and the job is expression.
A strategy consultancy delivers the thinking and hands the making to someone else. The positioning is rigorous; the identity that follows is briefed to a third party who was not in the room, and the gap between the two is where meaning leaks.
Freelancers deliver pieces, well and cheaply, with nobody owning how the pieces fit. Right for a defined task inside a system that already exists; wrong for building the system.
An in-house hire owns the brand but one person cannot cover strategy, design, words, motion and production. The brand becomes whatever that person is good at.
A consultancy that also produces the work sits where the four meet: director-level judgement, the strategy and the making under one accountability, and, if it offers a retainer, the rhythm that keeps the brand consistent after launch. This is what Pivitt is, and it is not the right buy for everyone: it costs more than a freelancer and it will not take a brief it thinks is the wrong brief.
Ten questions that separate the shortlist
- What do you need to understand about our market and our customers before you design anything, and how will you find it out?
- Who exactly will do the work, and how much of their time is in the fee?
- Show me a position you wrote for a client and the commercial result it produced.
- What did the last rebrand you delivered cost, all in, once the client had applied it everywhere?
- Which surfaces does this quote cover, and what happens to the ones it does not?
- What will my team be able to produce on its own the day the engagement ends?
- How will we know it worked? Which numbers move, and by when?
- What would make you tell us not to rebrand?
- What is your kill test for a positioning idea that is not working?
- Who is accountable if the website launches in March and the signage in September?
A consultancy that answers the first, third and seventh with specifics is selling outcomes. One that steers every answer back to its portfolio is selling aesthetics, which is a fine thing to buy if aesthetics is the problem.
What the proposal should contain
A serious proposal names the research it will do and how long it takes; states the positioning deliverables in nouns (statement, proposition, messaging architecture) rather than verbs; lists the surfaces the identity will be applied to; prices rollout and the system separately so you can see what is and is not included; sets a timeline with the strategy phase visible and not compressed into week one; and says what will be measured, against what baseline, at what dates. UK market ranges for each level of work are in the rebrand cost guide; a proposal well outside them should be able to say why.
Red flags
- The strategy phase is a single workshop.
- The proposal has mood boards before it has a positioning statement.
- Nobody asks for your numbers.
- The team that pitched will not be the team that delivers.
- Rollout is mentioned once, at the end, without a price.
- The case studies show logos but not what happened to the business afterwards.
- The consultancy cannot describe a project it turned down.
How to run the decision
Shortlist three, not eight. Give each the same brief and the same hour with the same people. Ask the ten questions above and score the answers before you look at any creative work. Then, if you are still unsure, buy the smallest thing each will sell you: a diagnostic, a single brief, a paid workshop. Real work on a real deadline tells you more than three pitches. Pivitt's version of that is the Brief, one live job at a fixed fee, and the Brand Alignment Diagnostic, the brand scored against the business in ten working days; both exist so you can judge the standard before you commit to a programme.
