By the time Sondra called me, she was frustrated and scared.

She had a startup in Napa Valley (making some of the most addictively delicious shortbread cookies I would ever taste).

Her cookies were, in a word, amazing.

But sales were low, and she couldn’t get the attention of her ideal customers. Yet people were buying her competitors’ products, so WTF?

“David, our product is better than the competition and people don’t know it. We’re not getting the attention and recognition to attract more customers. Can you help?”

Sondra didn’t have the time and money to guess what she should do next and social media likes and all that didn’t matter.

Sondra made two points immediately:

• She has a new company
• She simply didn’t have the luxury or the deep pockets to continue with her brand as it was.

From face-to-face sales, Sondra knew this: people loved the product once they tasted it.

But getting them to notice it on shelves and thus buy it was seeming insurmountable.

(FACT: 97% of the companies and brands I start with use this sequence incorrectly costing business and preventing growth.)

Sondra asked me several key questions:

• “How do we stand out?”
• “How do we make it clear we’re better?”
• ”How do we present our brand so people want to try our product and make that first sale to new customers?”

In short, Sondra was working her butt off and suffering from growing pains.

Being told this was a combo-platter of trepidation and excitement with a generous portion of “the jitters” on the side.

It killed me to hear this.

But by January, after overhauling her brand and packaging within a matter of weeks to meet the January Fancy Food show deadline, everything changed.

It was exactly how we incorporated this into how she presented her brand (breaking several sacred “how you do things things” in her space) to have maximum appeal to her audience.

Yes, she got featured in the New York Times and on the influential culture blog, Cool Hunting, but here’s the real test:

Fast forward 12 months: sales increased 300%

Fast forward 24 months, sales increased another 300% totaling 900% in 24 months.

It turns out this type of situation Sondra struggled with is not uncommon. 

In fact, it’s a problem many businesses face — whether new or old — like the Midwest chocolatier whose business was flat-lining, or Joanna who has one of NYC’s top-rated skin care salons, or Stu who has a technology company in Florida or Linda who was responsible for tourism in her city (all actual clients).

And this is not an isolated incident impacting a certain size company nor one type of industry.

I soon realized this wasn’t about any one type of company or industry, but was a widespread concern amongst business owners of any size whether a new company of one generating 7-figure revenues, “How do I get the attention we should be getting and attract more business?”

In short, every call like this shares these three traits in common:

1. They each want amazing success for their “babies” — the companies or brands they’ve started,
2. I almost uniformly haven’t previously worked on a brand or a company in that industry, and
3. I have no preconceived idea how I would solve and fix their brand.

Each has the same desire: help us grow our brand, increase sales and persuade those who haven’t tried our product or service to try us. The needs are the same, no matter the size of the company I speak with — from startups to $150 million companies.

My job?

To transform your business into an impossible-to-ignore brand that gains attention and attracts more business.

I’d just finished a presentation to a group of business owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs.

As soon as I was done, I closed my 15-inch Macbook Pro, and turned around to be facing a tall gentleman (a complete stranger at the time) named Stu. (I’m 6’ tall and Stu is 6.3.)

Stu had a technology company that was doing OK, but like any worthwhile business owner, his attention was on one thing: growth.

Stu wanted to schedule a lunch with me.

A day later over lunch, Stu and I discussed if he could get not only more attention but better attention from a better quality customer.

Listening to his needs, looking at his space and seeing what his competition was doing, I knew I could help him.

Here’s what happened the next 4 years after we implementing our new strategies to overhaul his brand message and do things none of his competitors were doing (FYI: when we started, Stu’s company was already a 7-figure business):

Like Sondra and Stu, everyday, hardworking businesses make various attempts to attract customers investing money on the latest “marketing solution” and see way too little return.

Each wants to be seen as valuable, standing heads and heels above every- one else instead of blending in.

Unknown to each of them, these business owners were using outdated techniques and strategies that were costing them business and failing to get their companies the recognition they deserved.

And because I immediately start to isolate what isn’t working for your brand and throw it out (before we’ve even agreed to work together), here is what you can expect to happen:

1. You know you aren’t talking to some “account rep” in some overpriced agency who delegates your brand’s future to some new intern,
2. You know I am honest and won’t sugar-coat the truth, and
3. You immediately see that I ask questions that aren’t asked to serve my interest in “selling you” but instead ask questions to really help you out of this problem that’s holding down your business.

And this is all on the introductory phone call, before we even decide to work together.

Cracking the code to creating brands that people simply can’t ignore

What you need to know about me…

I started out as a designer in NYC working on brands like Estee Lauder, Revlon, Rolling Stone Magazine, New York Times Magazine and Jim Henson.

I then branched off and began working with smaller companies (I like working directly with CEOs and owners to really get a totally precise picture of what we need to achieve) and found the same principles that worked for the big brands crushed it when applied to smaller brands.

So, I spent over 20 years studying the great brands of the world:

• What made them tick?
• What made them irresistible to the masses?
• How did they stand apart from the competition, define their value and avoid the price-driven “race to the bottom”?
• How did they used design to stand out, cut
  through the clutter and attract the attention that drives sales?

I tested my findings with clients. From high-tech clients to supplements to health and beauty products to gourmet food items and restaurants.

The result? I somehow cracked the code. 

One client in the Midwest, who was convinced price-reduction was the only way to increase sales, finally (after months of sitting on the fence) decided he had little to lose and commissioned me to do what I do. The result? In the first month with only one change made introducing the newly branded product line, he saw his boutique store increase sales 300% in 30 days.

No new products were introduced, no new flavors, or attractive sales personnel or extended hours or other sales incentives were employed. No.

Only the newly branded product using the insights I had unearthed.

The next month was even higher.

The next month was even higher, even outperforming the industry’s annual “best month” of the year.

And this is not an isolated incident…

Big Brand Strategies that Work for Companies of any Size

In a totally different industry (technology), the same method and formula was used for Stu (mentioned above) to double sales 4 years in a row getting them on the INC 500 list. And now, I’ve helped Stu with his newest company and brand getting onto an INC list again with sales crushing it and the company exploding to over 300 staff.

The same approach resulted in an 800% increase in new customers for a leading skin care salon in NYC (they just opened their first store in Los Angeles). They even got mentioned in a Saturday Night Live skit about 18 months after the rebrand (“I’ve never felt so moisturized in all life…” ).

And I applied the same methods to a Midwest city increasing their tourism 500% in 12 months.

This is why Forbes, Business Insider, Huffington Post, ADWEEK and Fast Company (and others) have each quoted me or written about or featured me and the brands I’ve created.

Any combination of these will function like a disease leaving your brand weak, compromised and not functioning at optimum capacity.

I don’t confuse pretty with effective.

The worst enemy of getting excellent ROI and creating an extraordinary brand is what’s known as “the cosmetic approach” to branding.

I am not doing this for my “portfolio.” I stopped doing that after I received my 325th award for branding years ago.

That means you’re not dealing with another “make it pretty” branding approach based on “instinct” and cosmetic appeal (or some trend du jour that everyone’s copying from one another).

Instead, you’re dealing with an exact proven method (and working directly with a no-nonsense NYC branding veteran) of isolating why people should take notice and care about your brand. An approach that has proven itself in so many different industries, it may be the reason this happened…

Shark Tank star and NY Times bestselling author Daymond John wrote,
“David Brier is brilliant with branding.”

If You’re One of These,
We Shouldn’t Speak:

Some feel they already have a working, effective brand.

If you do, stop right here and go do more selling!

Seriously. If you’re smoking hot, streamline what you’re doing and stay focused so you can do more of it.

It comes down to this. If you:

• Have a good reputation with a name people know and respect
• Have plenty of new customers coming in
• Have prospects who clearly understand your service or product that you’re offering (and you’re not dealing with irrelevant questions about sweaters when all you sell are shoes)
• Clearly stand out above your competitors so you’re not in a “race to the bottom” for lowest price, and
• You have solid relationships with repeat customers

If you have all that going on, first of all, congratulations.

That is a stellar achievement. You know your sweet spot, found your voice and correctly isolated an audience that you are servicing well with a need you fulfill.

We don’t need to speak. It would be a waste of time and I respect your time (unless you have a new brand you’re launching).

But if you do not have one or more of the above things going on,
then we should talk.

Why? Because your brand is costing you money and not making you money (or at least you’re leaving money on the table).

Exceptional brands aren’t born. They’re created.

In today’s business, you need a voice that makes people stop in their tracks.

Because practically every week, there’s some “new and shiny” competitor.

That’s why I have spent the last 20+ years isolating what makes certain brands fly off the shelves and what makes others sink back into the shelf (and these same principles apply to events, non-profits and services as they do to physical products).

Branding is a battle.

If you’re not properly equipped with sufficient intelligence on what the opposing team will do and what assets they have, you are ill-equipped to build a strategy that will outperform them and one thing happens. You lose.

And this isn’t some cookie-cutter solution with one “template” or “look.” It’s designed exclusively for you with your specific brand and your audience in mind.

When we work together, our goal is simple:

If You’re a CEO Whose Brand Has Not Gotten the Attention it Deserves

We isolate how you’re different, develop your unique story, your distinct visual look and style, your packaging, etc.

In other words, we tackle the first points of contact that either attract or repel your future customers.

Eliminate the guesswork.
Finally know what your marketing dollars are doing for your brand:

ISOLATE OVERLOOKED GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES

Instead of treating all business goals as equals, we first discuss and focus on what is important to your company’s GROWTH by isolating your key point(s) of difference and what your customers want and will consider valuable enough to pay for.

IDENTIFY WHO REALLY CARES

We identify your audience to build a brand around them so it doesn’t miss the mark and waste time (and money) talking about things your audience simply does not care about. The end result? Your audience feels that your brand “gets them” and is perfect for their needs and desires.

DETERMINE YOUR SPECIFIC “NOISE LEVEL” NEEDED TO CRUSH IT

We assess the “noise level” in your industry. For some industries, the noise is deafening. For others, it’s not as noisy. With this achieved, we isolate the exact correct level of how loud to shout or softly to whisper so your brand stands apart, cuts through the noise and (with the above streamlined brand story) actually gets heard (possibly for the very first time)

KNOCK OUT “INVISIBLE ENEMIES” THAT PREVENT GROWTH

We isolate and eliminate misconceptions prospects have about your industry so you stop losing prospects before you’ve shared your story and delivered your powerful message. (If you were a lawyer, people have preconceived ideas. If your a contractor, they have preconceived ideas. If you’re a car salesman, people have preconceived ideas. We eliminate those types of ideas so they don’t kill your brand’s impact.)

ELIMINATE THE FAT HOLDING DOWN YOUR BRAND

We isolate which parts of your brand story are useless and diluting your brand’s clear value (eliminating the fat) leaving only the most tasty morsels that leave prospects wanting more and ready to pay for it.

In short, we protect what’s working for the brand and eliminate what’s eating away at brand clarity, growth and customer appeal (so you’re not going blind without a roadmap).

UNIFY AND AMPLIFY

We then craft a brand so all the pieces of your brand work together, building value with each element, desire with each message and sales with each syllable your brand communicates.

From brand story, to differentiation to a spectacular brand logo as well as package design and other key tools necessary to create a brand that commands the right type of attention yto your specific audience.

With only the most relevant parts isolated and the useless ones tossed in the garbage, we build a brand with only the best “materials”: insights designed to make your brand a magnet for new customers and a delight for repeat customers who are loyal and no longer searching out for a similar product or service.

THE “SECRET SAUCE” BRAND INGREDIENT DESIGNED TO 10X CUSTOMER LOYALTY WHEN THEY LEAST EXPECT IT

Discover and isolate which of the 3 phases of branding (something we get into when building your brand) is helping or hurting your your brand’s growth and sales. Then get it so each is working at full capacity so your brand nails it at every point of your relation- ship from first-time prospects to new customers who are now loyal to you (and no longer have a wandering eye for other similar products or services).

Schedule a 30-minute complimentary phone call with David Brier

It’s simple.

We have a select list of clients that is comprised of companies, organizations and startups that we feel we can honestly help.

Not all companies are a good fit.

But those that are, watch out.

The best way to start this conversation is by a short phone call. David will be honest and direct if he sees how he can help your company elevate its growth using our techniques for creating an extraordinary and effective brand.

If you say yes to any of these questions,
schedule your call with David today

Question #1: Are you looking to start – and grow – a business that sells a service or product in a highly competitive space?

Question #2: Has a potential customer ever exclaimed “you’re too expensive” before they disappeared never to be heard from again?

Question #3: Are prospective customers confused about what you’re exactly offering?

Question #4: Do you find people buying your competition’s inferior products because they don’t understand your value and why you’re the better choice?

Eliminating Risk 100%

Unlike other companies that pitch “creating brands,” once we determine we can help you, we develop an itemized budget to maximize your investment. We make every dollar earn its keep, and we do it differently to ensure we’re all on the same page.

By differently, we establish the exact scope of the project, and develop a budget.

Even more differently, we don’t then circle back with “hidden fees” or tricky clauses written by some confusing legal team. Nope.

We do what we say we’re going to do, so you know upfront what you’re getting and your investment.