My Approach
The brand process I use is tried and tested with big brands, and I’ve developed it so that it works for businesses just like yours. You'll walk away with a brand that not only looks great but that is also built to perform.
Build a brand that attracts a buying audience
Building a brand is a big deal, and making uninformed guesses about your marketplace and audience is a massive risk.
I’ve been building brands for years using a process that is proven in creating brands that perform and last. I go deep on every level –
Looking at the YOU in your brand, the people you want to reach and figuring out what’s happening in the marketplace to ensure you have standout.
It’s not enough to just know who your target market is, but what motivates them, so you connect with them on an emotional level so they buy.
This deep work pays off to give you and your buyers clarity, and the meaningful insights you gain help shape your business to ensure you’re building it on solid foundations.
“A brand is finding your true essence and encapsulating it into words and pictures that attract the people you want to work with”
Deborah O'Grady, The Brand Coach™
What is a brand?
Your brand is a feeling, it’s the essence that calls to your ideal clients. It’s what makes them have to work with you and your business. It’s what makes them tell everyone about you – whether they’ve worked with you or not.
But building your brand isn’t all gut instinct and asking the universe to deliver dream clients at your door.
To create – and grow – a successful brand, you need hard facts and market knowledge. You need solid research and the know-how to uncover valuable insights that help shape your brand.
And that’s where I come in.
I get it, we all want to jump to the fun bit, choosing colours and deciding on fonts.
But without a brand strategy, your logo and palette are based on pure luck.
Big brands wouldn't dream of cutting out the research, planning and strategy stage – so why would you?
And I have the business experience to coach you through the branding process and to ensure that your business is positioned perfectly to grow and scale.
Throughout my career so far, I’ve managed 1,000s of creative multi-channel campaigns and I also:
- Created the original First Direct brand
- Brought Irn-Bru to kids
- Ensured Silentnight Beds was the UK’s number one leading bed manufacturer
- Created Nivea for Men
- Worked on all of the Hugo Boss fragrance brands
So yes, I can hand draw you a bespoke font, and I can create a stunning colour palette. But that font and palette will be just parts of the overall picture.
The design aspect of your brand will be based on a thorough and deep understanding of your business offering, where you sit compared to your competitors and, most crucially, what it is that your customers want from you.
Together, using my expertise and your vision – we will build your brand and design it for success.
What you can expect from me
- An expert, no-nonsense, straight-talking approach.
- A clear step-by-step process with guidance, support.
- Plenty of ‘a-ha!’ moments and valuable insights.
- Clarity on your business offering, vision and help with your brand goal.
- A detailed brand strategy to understand your brand truth, value proposition, values and personality to be able to tell your story.
- Visual branding that truly reflects your business and appeals to your target market.
- A framework for marketing your business and communicating with clients and prospects.
- Mentoring based on 20 years’ experience working with brands big and small.
Together, we’ll get clear on your brand. We’ll figure out exactly who you are, what you stand for and where you’re going – and then we’ll create the roadmap to get you there.
“My brand strategy ended up in tears; happy tears. Deborah got me from day one and has somehow reached into my soul and translated me into my brand. Something I had failed to do on my own. I have been in business for 18 months and feel like I am just starting.
The brand strategy sessions and feedback was amazing, she then translated that into a beautiful logo, colour palette and strapline.
I feel clear and confident, ready to scale and grow and I’m seeing a return on investment.
That is priceless! I cannot recommend her highly enough!”
Charlotte Pridmore
Transformation Coach
“When I first spoke with Deborah about my brand I had no idea of the depth of work or the depth of the results I would get . When she first presented her strategy to me I cried. She’d pulled out things I hadn’t even vocalised as they weren’t yet clear to me, things that I stand for, things that mean a lot to me. It takes talent to do that, and a true understanding of ‘brand’. To others looking at the update you may just see the new logo and design elements, but it’s in the brand positioning and essence that the real change comes. This will flow through my marketing and content and, hopefully, connect with my community and clients on a deeper level.
She bloody gets it! And she brings in a depth of strategy you don’t tend to find with her competitors. It helps that she has a proven agency background and that she totally gets me.”
Gemma Went
Business Mentor
“Working with Deborah has been an incredible process. She has perfectly crafted a brand strategy that encompasses everything.
I learned many valuable insights along the way from the in-depth research that Deborah provided. This research helped shape the vision of my business and define my brand.
After working with Deborah, I have a brand that appeals and attracts my ideal clients as well as a strategy for growth.
Previously my tone of voice and brand identity wasn’t attracting my target market, yet after my rebrand I have been attracting my ideal clients; females millennials and its awesome.
Nicole Prentice
“Deborah has been incredible to work with!
She’s a pure genius at what she does.
My brand really wasn’t an easy one to pull together and she did it! In fact, she smashed it!
It’s hands down been the best money I have spent on my business.
In the first two weeks of relaunch I had four new client enquiries and 6 collaboration requests, this hasn’t been the case previously.
I feel so confident in my brand and I’m attracting far better clients. I have enquiries every weeks from awesome women wanting to work with me.
Thank you Deborah”
Rose Kirby
Wealth Coach & Business Strategist
“I can highly recommend Deborah. She has a professional but friendly approach and really gets under the skin of your brand.
Having experienced her brand planning experience first hand I can say it is worth every penny. Deborah has an extremely thorough process in place and takes you on a real journey. The information she presented back to me was spot on and gave me the clarity I needed to make my brand bigger and better. I say journey as it is just that.
The process made me look carefully at my goals, my positioning, the competition and my branding. I am now in a position where I am crystal clear on my brand model as well as having a shiny new logo that I can’t wait to unveil soon.
Deborah brings her expertise to the process but ultimately empowers business owners to drive their business forward and go after their goals.”
Ruth Charlton
“As I was just starting out I had no idea where to begin creating a brand. The initial consultation was time consuming but it’s so true that spending time and money to get things right from the start is what really matters. I now have a brand that is a true reflection of me and so many people reiterate that when I tell them about The Food Boss. I couldn’t have asked for anyone else to share this great experience with and it will firmly remain in my business history as the very starting point!”
Kate Law
“Deborah is super talented and extremely professional.
The brand process was a wonderful experience that made me dig deep into my soul to find out who I am and what I can offer the world.
I’m SO happy with the end result and with my new logo. I feel a lot more confident too now which will help me take my business to the next level.
The last 6 weeks has felt very positive for me and I feel grateful that I was able to work with such a great lady, that I trusted completely to produce such a fab design.
Thank you Deborah, you are an inspiration.”
Mandy Laing
“Deborah really got to grips with what I wanted to achieve and made it happen.
We explored every possibility so that I got clear on my business and understood who I needed to appeal to. I have a brand that feels true to me and know it will last as the business grows.
Deborah is extremely business minded and I felt safe in knowing she’d worked with big name brands for over 20 years. She’s also very creative.
I would recommend Deborah to anyone who needs help in creating a brand.”
Ria Ingleby
“Working with Deborah has been a business-changing experience – and I suspect that the long-term effects will be life-changing.
I was blown away not only by her marketplace analysis and insights, but how Deborah then coupled those with spot-on insights and observations about me to arrive at conclusions and solutions that are exciting, to say the least!
Throughout the process Deborah completely guided and supported me and made me feel confident that myself and my business were in the hands of an experienced professional.”
Rachel Forcella
“Deborah has magical powers when it comes to identifying the perfect messaging for your brand.
Not only does it feel completely aligned with you, but it also attracts your dream-boat clients too!I was struggling to create content for my audience because I wasn’t 100% clear on my brand messaging.
Deborah has tapped into my zone of genius and created a brand strategy that has blown me away.If you seek clarity with your branding, you absolutely need THE Brand Coach™!”
Rebecca Thatcher