Lippincott: Brand Strategy, Identity, and Experience Consulting

Overview

Lippincott is a global brand consulting firm that has operated since 1943, offering services focused on strategic brand development and implementation for large organizations. The firm assists clients in areas such as defining core brand purpose, designing visual and verbal identities, optimizing customer and employee experiences, and aligning internal culture with brand values. Lippincott operates under Oliver Wyman, a business unit of Marsh McLennan (Crunchbase profile for Oliver Wyman), positioning it within a larger network of management consulting services.

Lippincott's methodology typically involves a multi-phase approach, beginning with in-depth analysis of market positioning, competitive landscape, and internal capabilities. This diagnostic phase informs the development of a brand strategy, which encompasses elements like brand architecture, value proposition, and messaging frameworks. Subsequent phases often involve creative development for visual and verbal identity systems, including logos, typography, color palettes, and tone of voice guidelines. For instance, a complex rebranding initiative might involve developing a new corporate identity that needs to be consistently applied across international subsidiaries and diverse product lines.

The firm serves a client base that primarily includes Fortune 500 companies and global enterprises across various sectors, including technology, finance, consumer goods, and healthcare. Projects often aim to address challenges such as market disruption, mergers and acquisitions requiring brand consolidation, or the need to revitalize an established brand for new generations of consumers. Companies seeking to undergo significant strategic shifts or enhance their competitive differentiation through brand-led initiatives often engage firms like Lippincott. For example, when a company like General Electric needed to simplify its brand architecture, a firm specializing in brand strategy and identity would be engaged to manage the complexity of such a project across numerous business units (Lippincott's case study on GE Digital).

Lippincott's services extend beyond traditional branding to include aspects of customer experience (CX) and organizational culture. This integrated approach recognizes that a brand's promise must be delivered consistently at every customer touchpoint and supported by an internal culture that embodies the brand's values. For instance, designing a new digital product experience for a bank would involve not only user interface design but also ensuring that the bank's operational processes and employee interactions align with the desired brand perception. This type of comprehensive engagement distinguishes firms that focus on strategic brand consulting from those that primarily offer creative execution.

Key features

• Corporate Brand Strategy: Development of foundational brand frameworks, including purpose, vision, values, positioning, and messaging architectures for enterprise organizations. This involves extensive research and stakeholder alignment to define the brand's strategic direction.
• Brand Identity Design: Creation of visual and verbal brand systems, including logo design, typography, color palettes, imagery guidelines, and tone of voice. This ensures a consistent and distinctive brand expression across all platforms.
• Customer Experience Strategy: Designing and optimizing customer journeys and touchpoints to deliver on brand promises. This includes user research, service design, and digital experience strategy to create cohesive and impactful interactions.
• Organizational Culture Alignment: Initiatives to align internal culture, employee behavior, and organizational structures with the defined brand values and strategic goals. This often involves change management and internal communications programs.
• Brand Architecture: Structuring complex brand portfolios for clarity, synergy, and market impact, particularly relevant for companies with multiple products, services, or subsidiaries.
• Brand Valuation: Methodologies to assess the financial value of a brand, providing insights for investment decisions, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic planning.
• Naming and Nomenclature: Development of new company, product, or service names, along with comprehensive naming systems and guidelines to ensure distinctiveness and legal viability.

Pricing

Lippincott operates on a custom enterprise pricing model due to the tailored nature of its consulting services. Project costs are determined by factors such as the scope of work, complexity of the organization, duration of engagement, and the specific expertise required. Detailed proposals are developed after initial consultations to define client needs and project objectives.

For specific pricing inquiries, direct consultation with Lippincott is recommended (Lippincott contact page).

Common integrations

As a brand consulting firm, Lippincott does not offer direct software integrations. Its services are strategic and creative, leading to outputs that inform or guide the implementation of various business systems and platforms. These outputs include:

• Digital Asset Management (DAM) Systems: Brand guidelines, logos, and creative assets are delivered in formats compatible with DAM systems like Adobe Experience Manager Assets or Bynder, ensuring consistent asset management across an organization.
• Content Management Systems (CMS): Content strategy and tone of voice guidelines influence content creation and deployment within CMS platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, or Salesforce Experience Cloud.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: Customer experience strategies and user journey maps inform how CRM platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Microsoft Dynamics 365 are configured and utilized for customer interactions.
• Marketing Automation Platforms: Brand messaging frameworks and campaign strategies are implemented through marketing automation tools such as Marketo, Pardot, or Mailchimp, influencing email campaigns and lead nurturing.
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems: Organizational culture alignment strategies can influence internal communications and training programs managed through ERP systems like SAP or Oracle, ensuring consistent internal messaging.

Alternatives

• Interbrand: A global brand consultancy known for its annual Best Global Brands report and expertise in brand strategy, valuation, and experience.
• Wolff Olins: A brand and innovation consultancy focusing on creating transformative brands, often recognized for its distinctive visual identity work and strategic thinking.
• FutureBrand: A global brand transformation company that focuses on creating brands that drive future growth, with services spanning strategy, experience, and innovation.
• Ogilvy: A well-known global advertising, marketing, and public relations agency network that also offers brand strategy and identity services as part of its comprehensive offerings.
• R/GA: A global innovation company that integrates strategy, design, and technology to create products, services, and communications, often engaging in brand experience and digital transformation projects.

Getting started

Engaging with a brand consulting firm like Lippincott typically begins with an initial inquiry and a discovery phase to ascertain project needs. While there isn't a direct "getting started" code block as with software services, the process can be conceptualized as a series of strategic steps:

// Step 1: Initial Consultation
FUNCTION engageLippincott(clientNeeds, desiredOutcomes) {
    PRINT "Initiating discovery call with Lippincott's engagement team."
    meetingRequest = { subject: "Brand Strategy Inquiry", client: clientNeeds, goals: desiredOutcomes }
    SEND_EMAIL(lippincottContact, meetingRequest)
    RETURN "Awaiting response and scheduling of initial consultation."
}

// Step 2: Project Scoping and Proposal Development
FUNCTION developProjectProposal(discoveryFindings) {
    PRINT "Analyzing client's market, competitors, and internal capabilities."
    strategyBrief = ANALYZE_DATA(discoveryFindings)
    proposedServices = DETERMINE_SERVICES(strategyBrief)
    estimatedTimeline = CALCULATE_TIMELINE(proposedServices)
    estimatedCost = CALCULATE_COST(proposedServices, estimatedTimeline)
    RETURN { proposal: { services: proposedServices, timeline: estimatedTimeline, cost: estimatedCost } }
}

// Step 3: Strategic Brand Development Phase
FUNCTION executeBrandStrategy(approvedProposal) {
    PRINT "Commencing brand research, workshops, and strategic framework development."
    brandPlatform = CONDUCT_WORKSHOPS_AND_RESEARCH(approvedProposal.services.strategy)
    brandArchitecture = DEVELOP_ARCHITECTURE(brandPlatform)
    messagingFramework = CREATE_MESSAGING(brandPlatform)
    RETURN { brandPlatform, brandArchitecture, messagingFramework }
}

// Step 4: Identity Design and Experience Definition
FUNCTION designAndDefine(brandStrategyOutputs) {
    PRINT "Translating strategy into visual identity, verbal guidelines, and experience principles."
    visualIdentity = DESIGN_VISUALS(brandStrategyOutputs.brandPlatform)
    verbalIdentity = DEVELOP_VERBAL_GUIDELINES(brandStrategyOutputs.messagingFramework)
    customerExperienceGuidelines = MAP_CX_JOURNEYS(brandStrategyOutputs.brandPlatform)
    RETURN { visualIdentity, verbalIdentity, customerExperienceGuidelines }
}

// Step 5: Implementation Support and Rollout
FUNCTION supportImplementation(designOutputs) {
    PRINT "Providing guidance for consistent brand rollout across all touchpoints."
    deliverables = PREPARE_GUIDELINES_AND_ASSETS(designOutputs)
    PROVIDE_TRAINING_AND_CONSULTATION(deliverables)
    RETURN "Brand implementation roadmap and support provided."
}

// Example of initial engagement
clientObjective = "Revitalize our corporate brand for digital transformation."
desiredOutcome = "Clear brand purpose, modern identity, aligned customer experience."
engageLippincott(clientObjective, desiredOutcome);

This pseudocode illustrates the sequential, consultative steps involved in engaging a firm like Lippincott, from initial contact through strategic development and implementation support. Each step generates outputs that inform subsequent phases, ultimately leading to a comprehensive brand asset and strategy package.