Know-How Exchange : Branding

Well, that is the most crucial step in any base of a company. The success of any company is mainly based on it's image and the image it derives towards the public. Now before you assess the quality and standard of the agency it is important that with every offer you receive a delgated individual from the agency who should come and present their visions. It is extremely essential that the company understands:-

1. your objectives clearly,
2. your Single Minded Message,
3. Unique Selling Point and
4. has your Target Audience well defined ...

with any branding development there has got to be defintely a proper structure and understanding of the market well, to promote your services in a unique way; which is the breaking line between you and your competitor. Experience of a company is a plus but it's not always about the name of the company that will boost you to success. I've personally worked with big Corps and small ones, and surprisingly in some situations the small ones turn out to be the better choice.

Your key indicator in your choice is simple, the availability of good and strong marketeers, and as well a very into depth understanding of your company's initiatives and it's services.
Price wouldn't be the main variant of choice, but if you have a good and clear understanding with a vision, what ever follows are the minors.

Good Luck and sure hope my input helps in anyway.

The advice given by virago and shadysamy is right on.

Perhaps the most important thing you need to do (with your branding consultant) is develop the up-front "spec sheet" for the project. If you don't have a clear definition of your primary target audience, and a carefully considered Positioning Statement, then those have to come first.

And when you judge the recommendations of your consultant, you should compare their ideas to the "spec sheet" very literally to be sure they deliver what you both agree on up-front.

As you evaluate the project proposals, you should look carefully at how rigorous the candidates are about the up-front strategic thinking, as well as how creative they've been for other clients. A creative solution that is off-strategy is almost worse than no solution at all.

You'd probably be well served to learn all you can about positioning, because it's central to the whole project. You can read Positioning: The battle for your mind, by Ries and Trout. It's a fast read, and it does an excellent job of explaining positioning.

There's also a section in the appendix to Rasputin For Hire : An inside look at management consulting between jobs or as a second career with notes from a seminar on positioning. It explains the role and structure of a positioning statement, the various approaches that have proven successful for positioning different companies/brands, and the important criteria for evaluating positioning statements.

Both books are available through Amazon.com, bn.com, and most bookstores in the US. Rasputin For Hire is also available at www.rasputinforhire.com , where you can preview the table of contents, introduction and chapter 1 online.

I guess you have some propoals from these 5 companies, did none of the concepts get you excited as soon as you saw it ?
Did anyone of them understand your business and brand values immediately?
Did any of them get under the skin of what you are after?

Sure I agree with whats been said above about past experience etc etc, but what really matters at the end of the say is did any of the concept leap out at you, grabbed you tight and said "I'm here!"?? If they did, your search is more than likely over, finding the agency that understand you in sure a deep and meaningful way is what your search is all about.

Good Luck

ps. I would test the concepts on some customers and prospects to see what they think too :-)