How to get into branding?— advice from experienced strategist
As someone that struggled to enter into branding and strategy in the beginning, I want to help young talent demystify the industry and clarify your path. School is great in preparing you for the different challenges and career paths, but I find that the initial step into branding is not easy for a new grad. In this article, I’m going to cover a few key things:
- Roles you should be targeting
- Companies to consider
- Job hunt tips
- Must-have and nice-to-have skills
I’m Kristine and I’m a NYC-based brand strategist with 5+ years of experience in the industry. I wanted to take my learnings and share with you to help you ease that journey getting into branding and advancing into the first few years of your career. The things I share are observations from looking at the different job postings, talking to different recruiters, and being a part of the interview process. They also include things that I found helpful in successfully getting promoted and receiving new offers.
I also filmed a video on this (same content, just in video form), check that out here: https://youtu.be/5JUW874D3N0
If you’re interested in branding, I also recorded other related videos, such as ‘A day in my life’ style videos to help you get a glimpse into what the day-to-day is like working as a brand strategist. Additionally, I share some how-tos and tips and tricks. I’d love your thoughts if these are helpful for you.
Roles to Target
The complicated thing about searching for opportunities for “entry-level” branding roles are threefold.
- Openings are extremely limited. Many ask for at least 3 years of experience for relatively-entry-level roles.
- No standard ‘role name.’ Every company calls it different things, so how do I search efficiently without missing out on potential opportunities?
- Role titles with different meanings. Yes, brand strategist is the job that I’m looking for, but the job descriptions for ‘brand strategist’ can vary from company to company.
Limited openings.
There might only be a handful of entry-role brand strategy roles per recruiting season. Branding agencies / consultancies are small. What do I do?
A workaround on this, albeit not ideal, is to apply for roles in other departments. You might have a higher chance of finding a job in account management / client management / client services starting out because there’s more available roles open and often they’re looking for less “experience” than strategy. Once you have ‘some agency experience’, it’s easier to transition to other departments, such as Strategy. This was the path I took when I first graduated. Although it is a bit of a less linear path, the skills you learn in other functions are invaluable.
No standard role name.
Every company calls these roles different things:
- Junior Brand Strategist
- Junior Strategist
- Junior Brand Consultant
- Junior Consultant
- Associate Brand Strategist
It can be summed up in one “equation”:
(Associate / Junior) + (Brand) + (Strategist / Consultant)
For some companies, Brand Strategist might be the most junior position in branding. You might have to do some investigation on the company website or LinkedIn, but you get the rough idea to look for titles with ‘junior’ or ‘associate’ in it.
Consider ‘fellowships’ and ‘internships’ too. It might be lower than the seniority that you’re looking for. But, because these roles are so hard to come by, it might help you get your foot in the door. Apply for roles that you’re qualified for and overqualified for. It’s easier to get interviews as an overqualified candidate, especially when there’s so much competition. You may be able to negotiate your seniority once you get the offer. Or, you can get promoted quicker after you get in the organization and prove yourself.
Taking a role lower than my target was also a strategy I adopted in my job search. At the time, the recruiter didn’t think that I had proven myself yet. But, I advanced pretty quickly after joining because my managers and teammates saw my skillsets. I took a tradeoff in title to get into the company I desired, and I think it was a decision that made sense for me and paid off in the long run.
If you’re really passionate about this industry, don’t be afraid to take a step back in the beginning.
Role titles with different meanings.
Because a single job title carries so many different meanings and tasks associated, take a deep look at the job descriptions in your search.
Some “brand strategist” jobs are entry-level looking for 1–2 years experience, others may be requiring at least 8–12 years.
Some brand strategists are more creative-driven, some more strategy-driven, and others more management-driven. Keep those in mind when you’re looking and interviewing to see which is the right one for you.
Companies that might have these jobs that you’re looking for
As someone that is starting out in this industry, it can be hard to understand the specific companies to consider. Strategy is a broad practice. Every company has a slightly different methodology. Layered with the different “positionings” of specific companies, it’s a mess to decipher.
- Integrated marketing agencies or 360º marketing agencies:
Some have a branding department. This is actually how I got started in branding. The integrated and 360º marketing agencies are more diverse in projects, so they’re also looking diverse talent. People that don’t only know branding, but are also familiar with different aspects of marketing.
I was in the branding function as a brand strategist, but I was working very closely with marketing strategists, PR, social media, web, and others. I wasn’t doing those jobs, but I had projects that touched those areas so I needed to be familiar with them to brief them and work effectively with these teams. - Design shops / the branding agencies
This is the type of company that I’m currently at. These companies are often smaller, and there’s fewer of them around as compared to the tens and thousands of companies that exist. I compiled a mini list of the top design and branding agencies, which you can find here.
It’s a non-exhaustive list. If you come across a specific agency and wonder whether it has a branding focus, feel free to leave it in the comment and I can give you my thoughts. - Brand side, the client side, the actual brands
These are companies like Facebook, Meta, YouTube or Google. They also post openings for brand strategist. However, these shouldn’t be the type of companies you target at this point because the nature of these roles are to lead within the company, defining the strategies, and managing the agencies. Because of the nature of the work, they’re very senior talent (up to 8 to 12 years experience).
Job search tips
It’s kind of a mix and match process for the job search form there. There’s two main variables: the roles and the companies. So, you could look at the specific branding agencies for roles that they post. Or, you can search for the specific job titles in a job board and see if any companies open them up. When you’re inputting the roles into job posting boards, it’s easier to find those small, integrated, or 360º agencies. They don’t open branding roles every day because most likely their branding team is small. So, it’s easier finding these by searching within the job boards.
Personally, I adopted these two approaches when I was job hunting:
- I regularly checked job posting boards of the agencies I was interested in
- I had LinkedIn alerts on for Brand Strategist, Junior Brand Strategist, and Associate Brand Strategist roles in the cities I was open to.
Consider both types of ‘brand strategist’ paths
Within the general name of “brand strategists,” there’s two main types. The first type of brand strategists are more focused on a corporate view, redefining what the new brand is and reframing the company strategy from the brand realm. The second type of brand strategists are more focused on executing and articulating the brand strategy in the real world. These brand strategists are a bit closer to marketing strategy and creative strategy.
In your search, it’s good to get an idea of what the job is like on both sides. Some people prefer to be closer to executing and translating the brand strategy in the real world because there’s more creativity involved. Others like to be in the room with the CEO and CMO crafting and refining the actual strategy. Both require slightly different skill sets, making up slightly different worlds. Both are exciting and fun, it just depends on personal preference. I invite you to consider that when you’re searching for your next role.
Must have skills as a junior strategist
What skills should you highlight in your resume to get past the screener and secure an interview? What are skills recruiters and hiring managers look for? What are skills that your manager and company leadership evaluate you on to get the promotion you’re looking for?
Every company has slightly variance in their evaluation criteria, but there are a few general categories that are consistent. Many of them are soft skills I bet you already have. You just might not have clearly articulated them in your resume yet.
1. Research: Compiling information, taking notes, interviewing
Compiling information: How do you craft it into a cohesive and clear story as to where the brand, industry, customer / consumer, and culture is today? Being able to compile all information gathered––the reports, the Google searches, the interviews, qualitative and quantitative––into one narrative. There’s many ways you could show this skill. You could highlight how you summarized the business context for a school project or a report. You could film a video about your thoughts around a particular situation, issue, or trend. You can write an article. It’s about showing that you know how to compile large amounts of information into something digestible and compelling.
Note taking: In most practices, interview is a crucial piece of the process to understand what the consumer / customer and business leaders are thinking. Getting the first hand information and extracting them is essential, so being able to take great notes is key. To do that, it’s hepful if you’re a fast typer. The more detailed your notes are, the less you have to dig through the hundreds of lines of transcripts. Being able to organize information on the fly is also a nice-to-have skill. Because during the interview, it might not be linear thoughts the interviewee shared. Other times, the interviewer might jump around with their questioning depending on where conversation goes. Having verbatim quotes extracted in your notes saves immense amounts of time when you’re compiling a presentation or a report.
Interviewing: If you’re still in school, take a journalism class or consumer insights class to practice this. Writing the discussion guides and being a first hand interviewer are things that no one is good at starting out. It takes practice. So, practice it any chance you get. Practice active listening and probing for meanings within what they share.
This is a skill that people are continuing to sharpen throughout their careers. There’s lessons that you have to learn firsthand as you keep on interviewing.
2. Developing insights
From the actual research, how do you extract your findings into a succinct idea? How do you phrase the idea so it’s compelling and interesting for the creative teams?
Part of this is a little bit of word play–knowing how to use specific words and craft briefs in ways to inspire new ideas.
3. Presentation
As a junior strategist, you’re crafting the presentations under the guidance of senior strategy team members. There’s less opportunity to actually present when you’re first starting out.
But something that is very important is crafting a clear narrative
crafting a clear, beautiful, well organized, well formatted deck
you would be surprised how much of the actual work is making the decks look great
the content of course is going to be great
but half of the thing is in the presentation
people say don’t judge a book by its cover
but people definitely do
so when a deck looks good and beautiful
people already think very good of it
4. Collaboration
Emphasizing that you know how to work with cross functional team members — people that are more design-centric and more words-focused.
Being able to articulate feedback when it comes to design or language is critical for a brand strategist. You don’t have to be a designer and you don’t have to be a writer, but you have to know how the strategy manifests in design and language.
It’s being knowing how to provide strategic feedback. Not just saying that ‘I don’t like this color,’ but using the research or learnings from the client. For example, if research shows ‘red evokes undesired emotions among the audience,’ asking the team to tone down the use in red. Or, if the brand strategy calls for an open and welcoming brand, you may provide feedback on design being too busy or the letter-spacing of the wordmark being too close. In the writing, you may look at sentence breaks or word choices. There may be words that the client doesn’t like or that the industry frowns upon. Your knowledge in the industry, client, and the customer are how you can better work with your creative teams.
5. Business acumen
Get yourself familiar with different industries. It’s invaluable to not pigeon hole yourself into a specific industry when you’re just starting out. It’s more important to knowing many things about many industries than all things about one particular industry. It’s likely that you’re going to be put on many clients as the supporting strategist. If you’re too focused in a particular industry, that may limit the ability for your team to put you on different project. Be open to absorbing new information and aim to be a knowledge base of all information.
Business acumen is also understanding your client motivations. What is your main client’s position within their organization? What are things that they want to accomplish in their organization and how can you help them achieve that? This was something that I didn’t know early on in my career, but something I found to have helped me get more successful in recent work. Knowing what the client organization is like and helping your client navigate their company is something you’ll develop as you grow as a brand strategist, and something that will become more important as you advance.
All in all, that’s all I wanted to share about how to get started as a junior strategist or an aspiring brand strategist. I hope that you get the role that you want and secure the promotion that you want. If you have any other questions about any of the things I mentioned or things that I didn’t mention, please leave a comment for me. If you like this article, please don’t forget to give me a clap and maybe check out my YouTube channel!
I’ll see you next time bye! :)
