Brand strategy for consumer brands, sharp enough to act on.

• /Consumer brands where every team describes the brand a little differently, and the work has drifted apart.
• /Companies with a growing portfolio of products or sub-brands that no longer fit a single story.
• /Founders and marketing leaders heading into a relaunch, a new category, or a new owner, who need the position decided before the creative starts.

1. 01

   Discovery

   Interviews with 4–8 people across founders, sales and product, an audit of everywhere the brand speaks, a read of the category and competitors, and whatever customer evidence exists. Ends with a readout of where the teams disagree and the decision the strategy has to make.

2. 02

   Positioning

   A draft position sharp enough to exclude things, tested against a real product attribute, a page title and a sales line. Nothing downstream starts until the decision-maker signs off on it.

3. 03

   Build

   Brand architecture, naming and the messaging hierarchy built on the approved position, with weekly working sessions and written notes every Friday.

4. 04

   Rollout

   The brand platform, architecture map, naming system and voice guide, handed over in an enablement session with the wider team, plus 30 days to ask questions as it gets used.

• Positioning and brand platform
• Portfolio and sub-brand architecture
• Naming and nomenclature systems
• Messaging hierarchy and voice guidelines
• Internal rollout and enablement

From $4,500

$4,500 is a half-day working session with written findings, often enough to find out what's actually in the way. A full brand strategy engagement is typically around $34,000 over 6–10 weeks, 20% less for brands under $5M in revenue.

• One vocabulary for a brand sold in forty countries Product technology described four different ways across engineering, marketing, retail, and web — rebuilt as a single system everyone could use.
• Making the case for replacing petroleum-based components A materials substitution proposal built to survive contact with manufacturing reality, cost structure, and the marketing claim that would follow.
• Helped start the brand, then built the system to run it Season sells snowboards and skis designed not to expire. Founding-team work at launch, then a return five years later to turn the founders’ thinking into a live operating system.

• Ori: bringing a print travel magazine to market Craft Grow founder Josh Malczyk co-founded Ori, a twice-yearly print magazine about travel told from the source, and took on the publisher's job of getting it to readers.
• Season Eqpt: helping launch a ski and snowboard brand built not to expire Craft Grow founder Josh Malczyk was on Season's founding team in 2020, shaping the brand thesis that durable goods only expire because marketing tells them to.
• Welcome to the Craft Grow blog This is where we write about brand strategy and the systems that make it run, and where every newsletter and longer social post links back to.

How much does a brand strategy consultant cost?

A full brand strategy engagement with Craft Grow is typically around $34,000 over 6–10 weeks, covering positioning, architecture, naming, messaging and rollout. Brands under $5M in revenue pay 20% less. A half-day workshop with written findings is $4,500 and is often the right first step.

What's the difference between a brand strategy and brand guidelines?

Strategy decides what the brand is for, who it's for and what it won't do; guidelines describe how it looks and sounds once that's decided. Guidelines without a strategy tend to be followed in the letter and missed in spirit, because nobody wrote down the decision they serve.

How long does a brand strategy project take?

Six to ten weeks for the full scope. The positioning is usually agreed by the midpoint; architecture, naming and messaging follow from it.

Who will I actually work with?

Josh Malczyk leads every engagement and stays your point of contact throughout — no account team in between. When the work calls for it, we bring in specialists from our network: creative directors, designers, animators, filmmakers, copywriters and software developers. Josh has held global brand and marketing director roles across K2 Sports' brands (K2, Völkl, Marker, Dalbello, Line and Full Tilt) through their ownership by Jarden, Newell Brands and Elevate Outdoor Collective, was brand architect on Season Eqpt's founding team, and co-founded and publishes Ori magazine.

Do you only work with brands in Seattle?

Craft Grow is based in Seattle and works with consumer brands across the US. Most work runs remotely, with on-site days for workshops, sales meetings and launches when they matter.