Five strategies to help private equity get the most out of a branding agency
Private equity demands precision. Unlike venture capital’s high-risk model, where one investment in twenty has to pay off, your firm needs consistent success across the portfolio. That puts real pressure on the brands of your portfolio companies—because a strong brand is what unlocks the full investment thesis.
The next logical step is often a branding agency. But how do you make that partnership impactful in the timeframe you need? Five strategies for maximizing the impact of your agency engagement, from securing buy-in to cultivating the relationship long-term.
Engage the right people to secure top-down buy-in
Successful branding initiatives are fueled by buy-in from the top. That starts with a CEO who recognizes the power of branding.
Your CEO doesn’t have to understand every typographic nuance. But they need to be invested in defining the company’s brand and value what a strong brand delivers for the business.
The flip side is a disaster. A CEO who clearly doesn’t buy in disengages, withholds ideas, and signals to the rest of the team that this work isn’t worth their attention. Without commitment from the top, the entire branding initiative—and your return on investment—falters.
Securing alignment between your private equity firm, the portfolio company, and the agency is critical. In our recent work with JustFoodForDogs, we’d already worked with the private equity investor and the CEO (who happened to have a branding background). All three sides understood what the engagement would look like, which made the partnership effective and the results rapid.
Get the timing right for your branding initiatives
No one’s arguing that you don’t need to see ROI ASAP. But you need to consider the multitude of other dates and deadlines on the calendar.
Before starting a branding project, factor in:
Key personnel hires, like a new CMO
Seasonal demands of the business
Scheduled board meetings and reporting cycles
Overall investment timeline and exit strategy
For example, in our work with boating supply retailer West Marine, we knew July 4th stood as a landmark on their calendar. Customers buy what they need to be on the water during the summer, so the work had to be completed in time to capitalize on it.
If a board meeting is scheduled for when your branding project is set to begin, consider pushing it back. Sharing work in progress isn’t ideal for creative work. Rescheduling allows for a more comprehensive presentation of your branding strategy in its final form.
The danger of over-preparation
To save time in the face of these deadlines, you might be tempted to complete foundational work before engaging with an agency. But that’s like sanding the floor before the contractor arrives—you’re doing work the expert was about to do anyway, often in ways the expert wouldn’t have done.
Save your strength. The right branding agency will want to see the actual situation, including the parts you’d rather not air. Bringing us into the foundational work lets us harness our experience and expertise to make sense of complex situations, rather than pursuing solutions based on incomplete information.
Prioritize positioning before diving into creative work
One of the core challenges for your firm is balancing the need for deep, thorough work with the pressure to move quickly. Skipping the necessary groundwork might seem more efficient, but it creates needless churn down the road.
You wouldn’t frost a cake before it’s fully baked. Similarly, diving into visual design and messaging before nailing down strategy and positioning is a recipe for wasted time and energy.
The momentum of a well-planned process
A well-executed branding process moves like a train. It may take time to get rolling, but once it gains momentum, it becomes incredibly efficient. That’s the goal.
Skipping crucial phases in strategy development leads to delays later. While there’s pressure to move quickly in private equity, going slowly in the right direction beats racing at full speed on the wrong track. Wrong-track speed means you have to travel that much further to get back to square one.
Trust the experts: empower your branding team
Once you’ve assembled the right team—both within your portfolio company and at your branding agency—step back and let them work. If you find yourself constantly babysitting the agency or your leadership team, it’s a sign you don’t have the right people in place.
The PE companies we’ve worked with understand what we do and how we work. Even when they’re closely involved during the sales process, once we get going on the engagement, they let us focus.
Your team excels in finance and numbers. We love communicating at that level when we’re discussing your vision and bringing us on board. But creative and branding aren’t typically your in-house expertise, and that’s a feature, not a bug. If you’ve chosen your teams well, every moving part of your project should spin like a top.
Cultivate a long-term agency partnership
When you find a branding agency that delivers exceptional results, the relationship doesn’t have to end after one project. An ongoing partnership yields significant benefits:
Built-in trust and mutual understanding between teams
Immediate rapport that streamlines communication
Skipping the vetting processes and pre-kickoff formalities
Going deep into strategic work faster
A shorter overall timeline with less stress
Our work with JustFoodForDogs is a prime example. Since we’d already worked with the private equity firm and the CEO, we leapfrogged the getting-to-know-you phase entirely. We visited the company’s facilities and got everything we needed to enhance the JustFoodForDogs brand in a single day. The full project was completed much faster than a typical engagement without sacrificing quality.
Unlock the value of a stronger branding partnership
Branding is more than logos and color schemes. It’s about doubling down on what’s working in the business while retooling areas with untapped potential. The right agency partnership is essential to seeing the greatest return on your investment.
The right branding agency is also an ally in ensuring that the purpose, vision, and culture of your portfolio company stay aligned. An efficient, streamlined collaboration delivers the results you need in the timeframe your business requires.
Sound like a way to get more from your agency partnership? Let’s find time to talk.
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