Brand Strategist

With a background in design and business development.

Brand is the business of emotion.

People rarely choose a brand for functional reasons alone. They choose what it says about them, how it makes them feel, and what it lets them believe about themselves.

I merge an aesthetic eye, a design background, and commercial strategy to build brands that are distinctive and built to perform.

At the centre of every great brand sits one enduring truth. We define it first, then build a distinctive world around it, a world your whole organisation can return to and express through. Brand isn't just a marketing function. It's how your company thinks, decides, and shows up, everywhere.

Everything on the outside can evolve. Campaigns, websites get redesigned, products launch and retire, culture shifts, but the truth at the centre never moves. That consistency the brand world can orbit and evolve around. The synergy of this steadfast truth and evolving brand world is makes a brand recognisable, trustworthy, and desirable, over time.


Ways We Can Work Together

We align technical insight with disciplined execution to provide measurable gains across operational, financial, and strategic domains. Our integrated methodologies streamline multifaceted workflows, enabling organizations to deploy resources efficiently and capture emerging opportunities.

What We Can Work On

  • Brand Strategy + Development

  • Creative Direction

  • Market Positioning

  • Research + Insights

  • Brand Architecture


Contact

Currently advising a small number of brands each quarter.

Email hi@harrietfrancis.com‍ ‍

LinkedIn harriet-francis

Read my newsletter www.slowfasthorse.com

“More than a product,
we were trying to sell
an idea, a spirit.”

— Phil Knight, Nike.

My philosophy

Brand is the strategy of emotions.

Unless you are selling something purely functional, you are in the business of emotion. People choose brands for reasons that extend beyond product quality, they subconsciously choose them for what they represent, how they make us feel, and what associating with that brand says about them.

“The most important word in
our business is desire.
How can we create desire?”
— Bernard Arnault

“More than a product,
we were trying to sell
an idea, a spirit.”
— Phil Knight

Contact

Currently advising a small number of brands each quarter.

Contact

Currently advising a small number of brands each quarter.

The most important word in
our business is desire.
How can we create desire?”

Bernard Arnault, LVMH.

Integrated Solutions for Complex Needs

We align technical insight with disciplined execution to provide measurable gains across operational, financial, and strategic domains.

Brand Strategist

Brand is the emotional relationship
between your business and customer.

I help businesses identify what makes them uniquely valuable, then organise the brand around it. My approach combines creative instinct with commercial understanding, turning that clarity into an enduring idea that business decisions across the company can orbit.

My background spans nearly eight years in design and business development at Sotheby's, and experience building a health tech startup. The former taught me the principles of trust-building through brand; the latter, commercial strategy under pressure.

At the centre of every strong brand is an enduring truth. We define that nucleus, then build a distinctive world around it, one that stays recognisable and desirable as everything else evolves.

Brand is ultimately the business of emotion. My role is to shape how your customers feel, and give them a reason to choose you over the alternative, time and time again.

Ways We Can Work Together

Consulting
A defined project with a clear brief and outcome.

Embedded
Working inside your team for a set period, close to the day to day.

Workshops
A single focused session to align a team around a brand challenge.


What We Can Work On

  • Brand Strategy + Development

  • Creative Direction

  • Market Positioning

  • Research + Insights

  • Brand Architecture


Engineered Precision, Delivered

We align technical insight with disciplined execution to provide measurable gains across operational, financial, and strategic domains. Our integrated methodologies streamline multifaceted workflows, enabling organizations to deploy resources efficiently and capture emerging opportunities.

Contact

Currently advising a small number of brands each quarter.

My newsletter on topical brand and culture news:

BRAND STRATEGIST &
CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Brand is an emotional response.

I help businesses define what makes them valuable, distinctive and worth caring about, then organise the brand around it.

My approach combines commercial understanding with creative instinct. We start by identifying the enduring idea at the heart of the business, your unique value, what you stand for, and why your customer should choose you. That becomes the nucleus from which positioning, product, communication and creative expression can grow.

With a background in design, including seven years at Sotheby’s, followed by experience building a tech startup, I work across strategy and creative direction to form distinctive brand worlds.

Ways We Can Work Together

Advisory · Consulting · Embedded · Workshops

How to find your way forward

Market Positioning

Research + Insights

Business Strategy + Development

Brand Architecture

Executive Alignment


[ Ways I Work ]

My newsletter on topical brand and culture news:

My philosophy

Brand is an emotional response.

Unless you are selling something purely functional, you are in the business of emotion. People choose brands for reasons that extend beyond product quality, they subconsciously choose them for what they represent, how they make us feel, and what associating with them says about us.

Ways We Can Work Together

Advisory · Consulting · Embedded · Workshops

How to find your way forward

Market Positioning

Research + Insights

Business Strategy + Development

Brand Architecture

Executive Alignment


[ Ways I Work ]