4 questions
Working with JOHN LUKE
What kinds of companies do you work with?
Challengers. Wealth managers and RIAs at institutional scale, consulting and professional services firms, private equity, mature B2B tech, challenger CPG. If you're the incumbent, we're probably not your call.
How much does branding cost?
Depends what we're touching. Engagements start around $24K a quarter and scale with scope.
Do you work with early-stage startups?
Sometimes. You need to know your category, have product-market fit, and be hitting an inflection point. Pre-product or pre-funding, we'll point you somewhere better suited.
Where are you based?
Brooklyn. Covid pushed us remote and we kept it. Team and clients are international now. We still fly out for kickoffs when it matters.
4 questions
Strategy & Positioning
Should we hire a positioning agency before a creative one?
Almost always. Position gives power to creative. We're both, which is why people know us for the creative and keep us for the strategy.
What is brand positioning?
The space you own in a buyer's head relative to everyone else. It decides how you're remembered and whether you get compared at all. Get it wrong and a good product still loses.
What's the difference between brand strategy and a rebrand?
A rebrand changes how you look. Strategy decides why you exist and who you're for. Do the second one first, or you're paying to redecorate.
How long does this take?
Four to eight weeks for the foundation. The positioning sprint is four to five. Full repositioning at a complex firm runs longer, and you'll hear that on the first call, not at month three.
4 questions
Cost & Scope
How much does a rebrand cost?
Starts at $50K, over four to six months. Depends how many surfaces change and how fast it has to be live. If it's really the positioning that's broken, that's a $25K sprint on a much shorter calendar.
What's the difference between branding and marketing?
Branding decides what you stand for and why a buyer picks you. Marketing takes that decision to market. Get the order wrong and you spend media dollars teaching people something you haven't decided yet.
What does a branding agency actually do?
We decide what the company stands for and who it's for. Then we build the identity that carries it, the name, the marks, the type, the language. Then we hand over the system so everything you ship stays recognizable. We don't run the ads. We decide what the ads are supposed to say.
How do you price?
Fixed scope, fixed timeline, fixed price. No hourly billing, no scope-creep clauses. We don't pitch to play and we don't price per deliverable. Retainers carry a three-month minimum.