FAQ

1. Why does JAM exist?

JAM exists to help businesses realize greater value and purpose by combining business objectives, customer insights, and market opportunities into measurably effective brands humans love. 

2. What are JAM’s core services?

JAM’s core services fall into three buckets: i) strategy: turning insights and analytics into ownable brand opportunities; ii) expression: bringing brands to life through naming and identity; iii) integration: activating and leveraging brands for businesses and customers. Full details can be found on jam-branding.com/services. 

3. When will clients engage JAM?

Clients will engage JAM when they have a project that aligns to one or more of our core services (see FAQ 1). The most common reasons clients give for engaging JAM are i) “I’ve got a thing that needs a brand.” (30%); ii) “I’ve got a brand that’s stalled.” (26%); iii) “I’ve got a brand that’s become fragmented. (22%)”; iv) “I’ve got a brand that needs a business case” (20%); v) “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts” (2%). 

Why will clients choose JAM (AKA ‘reasons to believe’)?

Clients will choose JAM because of our winning personality and these compelling ‘reasons to believe’: 

Insider experience with outsider perspective. JAM is operated by senior leaders with over 60 years’ experience in the business, creative, and strategic sides of branding.¹ We understand and support more parts of the process than other agencies, creating a stronger thread from strategy to execution and reducing the churn inherent to working across multiple teams. 

Creative acumen. JAM works closely with client teams to develop best-in-class brand expressions that are not only aligned to the underlying strategy and business goals of the brand, but also cut through competitive clutter while building distinction and recognition. 

Data and analytics expertise. JAM has deeper experience leveraging large data sets and measurement tools to craft, launch, and assess the impact of brands for some of the most demanding companies on Earth. 

Dress code. JAM’s refreshing take on sartorial elegance provides a uniquely tasteful addition to conference calls and board meetings. Especially John’s hats. 

5. What opportunities can JAM uniquely address for clients?

JAM’s can uniquely help clients i) develop business cases for strategic brand investment; and ii) fill skills and fixed labor resource gaps for specialist, low frequency brand programs and initiatives. 

i) While most businesses are aware of the importance of brand, many lack the expertise to define and communicate its value to build internal consensus and define proportional investment. JAM leverages their extensive leadership experience to help clients develop more compelling business cases and brand strategies that better align to growth objectives, customer insights, and measurable outcomes. It’s like having a fractional Chief Brand Officer, but they have three heads and a terrifying number of limbs. 

ii) Businesses are under increasing pressure to reduce fixed labor costs. Large scale brand identity projects are infrequent with a shelf-life of ~5 years and require specialist skills not commensurate with those needed in most evergreen marketing positions. JAM addresses this gap by providing access to senior brand and creative leadership on a temporary basis, ensuring clients only pay for the skills they need on the projects that need them. We’re also just nice to have around the place. 

6. Who are JAM’s preferred clients?

JAM enjoys collaborating with a diverse range of results-oriented, data-driven clients invested in maximizing brand value on behalf of customers. With that said, the clients JAM would most like to work with, and who will get the most out of working with JAM, are: 

The Private Equity Partner: Decision makers within Private Equity Groups. This client has i) vested interests in a diverse range of dynamic, scalable businesses; ii) requires support in assessing proportional brand investment levels and outcomes; iii) values evidence-based results and creative excellence. These needs are a strong match for our strategic and analytic credentials and may allow us to flex some of our favorite muscles: defining new products, categories, and industries. 

The Brand & Marketing VP / Director: Experienced Marketing leader accountable for brand development within a large organization. This client values accountable partners with a proven ability to: i) deliver results of the highest standard on C-Suite level initiatives; ii) work backwards from business objectives to customer-obsessed solutions; iii) dive deep on insights and think big about their applications. This is a preferable client for JAM of our ‘behind-the-scenes’ business experience, and the added confidence our vetted experience inspires with leadership. They share our deep passion for insight-driven brands that create real value for customers, while demonstrably contributing to business growth. 

The Purposeful Pioneer: Founder of a purposeful start up in search of a brand to bring their big idea to life. They know the value of establishing their brand early to define and communicate value and purpose to customers, investors, and internal stakeholders. This is a preferable client for JAM because of our shared belief in early brand integration to better inform product roadmaps, business objectives, and create a more consistent, compelling, and valuable proposition for customers. 

The clients JAM would not like to work with, or who will not like working with JAM, are missing out. 

7. What does an ideal JAM engagement look like? 

JAM exclusively focuses on engagements and opportunities we’re proud to be associated with and are confident we can deliver on. The ideal engagement for JAM involves the strategic development, execution, and implementation of a purposeful brand for a meaningfully differentiated product or service in an emerging category or industry. It’s backed with a deep repository of relevant customer and industry data and supported by a strong internal partner with excellent time management skills and impeccable grammar. This end-to-end scope is ‘ideal’ because it allows JAM to build stronger connective tissue between business objective and brand, defining a purpose that can be delivered more consistently and effectively to customers across all touchpoints. The length of an ideal engagement is 8–12 weeks, but we define the process to do what you need (not fit what we do). Learn more at jam-branding.com/services. 

8. What will working with JAM be like?

JAM does not think, work, or behave like a typical brand consultancy. That’s by design. While we’re serious about our work, experienced in our thinking, and passionate about the results, we strongly believe that if you’re not having fun, you’re probably doing it wrong.² We don’t pretend to be the right fit for everyone, but it feels good when we are. If we had to describe ourselves in five points for a fictional PR FAQ we’d say we were: i) Candid, but not cocky; ii) Invested in the details (because that’s where the good stuff often hides), iii) Experienced enough to have been around several blocks, but still passionate and nerdy about the work; iv) Skeptical of easy answers, yet still in love with simple solutions; v) Demanding of the work, but still fun to work with. 

9. How will clients learn about JAM? 

Initially clients will learn about JAM from LinkedIn and a local ‘word of mouth’ campaign among our peer network. Following pre-announce (12/22/22), we will launch our official website jam-branding.com on 2/1/23, driving awareness through organic LI posts and a flurry of WhatsApp messages. We’ll also host a happy hour where we’ll throw cocktails at the problem. In the future, clients will learn about JAM through the advocacy of previous clients and our impressive yet utterly meaningless collection of pay-to-play industry awards.  

10. What’s the future vision for the growth of the company?

JAM is focused on growth in project quality, scope and impact; client satisfaction (80+ NPS), and employee wellbeing (internal satisfaction survey). Performance against these three KPIs trump maximizing annual revenue beyond our minimum viable threshold ($█████ p.a) Our year three target is to be supporting ██ clients p.a. at an avg. cost per engagement (CPE) of $█████ for a gross business revenue of $█████ p.a. JAM will not be scaled for acquisition or to increase client throughput rate: our vision is for it to remain a conduit for doing more of the work we find most valuable, and less of the work we don’t. 

11. What data supports our thinking? 

We live, as always, in uncertain times. Historic inflation (USA 2022: 6.5%, 2021: 7.1%),³ and low consumer spending may portent declines in brand marketing budgets, but companies continue to increase spend y/y (+8.2% ‘19-’20; +9.2% ‘20-’21),⁴ alongside marketing budgets as a % of total revenue (+310 bps y/y; 6.4% ‘21 vs 9.5% ‘22).⁵ This data correlates with expert opinion (McKinsey, Interbrand), that brand marketing remains a highly effective channel even, and especially, when the cost of goods and services increases. JAM’s revenue model requires us to obtain an achievable ██% share ($█████ p.a.) of the Global Brand Consulting Services market segment,⁶ within ██ years. 

12. What would happen if JAM didn’t exist?

If JAM did not exist, John, Ali, and Matt would really struggle to explain to their families what they’ve been doing with their lives for the past three months. We’d also have wasted a lot of time and money on a photoshoot throwing preserves at each other for absolutely no reason.  

1.  Let that really sink in for a minute: 60 years. Truly extraordinary. 

2.  To quote David Ogilvy, “The best ideas come as jokes, make your thinking as funny as possible.”

3.  U.S. Labor Department data, Jan. 12. 2023

4.  Association of National Advertisers, 2021

5.  Gartner CMO Survey, 2022

6.  Segment forecast to reach ██ bn by 2027, Market Study Report, Apr 2022