Brand Strategy Consultant
for B2B Manufacturers.
A brand strategy consultant decides, with you, which buyers you serve, why you cost more, and how to prove it, then builds the message that carries it. Jon Czeranna does this work weekly with owner-led B2B manufacturers at $1,500 a month, month to month, or as a $40,000 full brand package. Both prices are on this page.
What a brand strategy consultant does
Titles are loose in this trade. Brand strategist, positioning consultant, brand consultant, and fractional brand director describe the same job when the job is done right. The job is a set of decisions and the evidence behind them.
Who you serve. The segment you serve better than anyone, chosen from the customers who are already your most profitable and most satisfied, and named specifically enough that your sales team knows who to call.
Why you cost more. The one thing you do that competitors structurally cannot, and the proof that backs it, gathered so an engineer and a purchasing manager can check it.
What you say. The positioning statement, the messaging matrix your reps and your website work from, and the category you compete in on your own terms.
What you own when it ends. A strategic positioning document your sales team can use on Monday morning, and a leadership team that can explain the company's value without the consultant on the phone.
A consultant sits differently from the two firms you will also find on a shortlist. A branding agency sells what it makes, and its first month tends to end in logo directions. A marketing or pipeline agency sells leads into the position you already have, and if that position is unclear, more leads mean more price fights. A brand strategy consultant works upstream of both. The decisions come first, then the design and the demand generation have something to carry. We drew the full line between the three kinds of firm in How to Choose a Branding Agency for a Manufacturing Company.
Why a manufacturer hires one
Your competitors run the same machines and hold the same certifications, because the customer's spec sheet demands it. When every bid reads the same, the spreadsheet does the choosing and price is the only column left. That is the commodity trap, and it is a positioning problem before it is a marketing problem. The mechanics are on our page for brand positioning for manufacturers.
The owners who call us usually call at a moment. They just bought the company and the announcement has to go out. The next generation is taking over and the brand still lives in the founder's handshake. An exit is two to five years out and the company needs to be worth more than its customer list. Or the biggest account started shopping around and nobody in the building could say why the company was worth more. A consultant fits those moments because the work is done with the owner, at the pace of the business, and it starts the week you call.
How the engagement runs
This is Executive Brand Coaching, Wit & Craft's private, weekly engagement for founder-led B2B companies. Jon delivers every engagement personally, which caps it at five clients at a time.
A weekly 60-minute strategy call. You and Jon, every week. We keep the project moving between calls.
The Positioning Roadmap, nine steps in sequence. Competitive analysis, SWOT, your ideal client, your real differentiators, brand personality, market category, positioning statement, Golden Circle, and your brand story, finished as a declaration and a one-page positioning sheet you run the company on.
Real work between the calls. Competitive research, audits of your live products and channels, and drafts you react to. You bring the truth about your business. We bring the strategy work done.
Your own Brand Portal. A private, password-protected site at your own address that fills in room by room as the work gets done, so the positioning lives somewhere your whole team can walk through instead of in a PDF nobody opens.
The room and the tools. Membership in the Brand Lab Collective, plus Pro access to Brand Voice Engine to turn the finished positioning into on-brand content.
Every step is a working session, and some take more than one. Some founders finish the roadmap in two months. Leadership teams and complex businesses take four or more. When the roadmap is done, we hold a checkpoint, look at what is live in your business, and decide together what the next arc is for. Some clients are done at that point. Most keep going, because the business keeps facing brand decisions and now there is a strategist in the room who knows the whole story.
The work is done with the owner. An engagement that gets handed to a marketing coordinator does not survive the handoff, and we say so before we start.
What it costs
Almost nobody in this category publishes a price. Ours is here.
Executive Brand Coaching
For the owner whose year-one cash is committed to the business, Executive Brand Coaching runs the same positioning work weekly, with you.
$1,500/mo.
month to month, with no minimum.
Brand Foundations
The full brand package, covering positioning, messaging, identity design, and a launch plan.
$40,000
If you only need the positioning,
we scope it on a call.
Most consultants quote a project fee after a discovery call. We would rather you know the number before you book, so the call can be about your business instead of our rates.
Owner-led B2B manufacturers and commercial trades companies, roughly $5 million to $50 million in revenue and 20 to 150 people. Founder-led, family-owned, or newly acquired, with the owner in the room.
Companies whose product is better than their win rate. The quality is real and the sale still comes down to price.
Owners at a transition. The new owner in the first year, the next generation taking over, or a founder building toward an exit.
Founder-led B2B companies outside manufacturing, too. Fabricators, professional services, specialty trades, and mission-driven organizations run the same engagement.
Who this is for
This is not for you, and we will say so on the call, if you need leads by Friday, if you want to hand the work to a coordinator and check back in a quarter, or if you are listing the company for sale within the year. Demand generation is a different purchase, delegation breaks this one, and broker doctrine says change nothing visible before a sale.
What it looks like when it lands
Croze Nest is an artisan barrel maker that came to us set up to compete with large barrel factories on volume and price, a game a workshop loses every time. The repositioning moved the brand toward craft and micro-distillers, the market the giants ignored, and Croze Nest grew from selling one barrel to one customer to handcrafting more than 500 custom barrels a year. The owner later turned down a generous buyout offer because, in his words, “it just wasn’t good for the brand.” The full story is in the Croze Nest case study.
“You can feel his genuine investment in your success. He’s given me the confidence to finally charge what I’m worth and attract the clients who value our expertise.”
Reid Lambright
“They listen well and really take the time to get to know your business and your market. They teased out not only where our business is today, but where we are headed.”
Christopher Harris, Simple Automations
“Wit & Craft didn’t just help me build my brand. They helped transform my business. I never make any decisions without considering how it will further the brand.”
Joe Smith, Croze Nest
Consultant, agency, or coaching? Five questions.
Answer yes or no.
Can two people on your sales team give the same answer to "why should we pay more for you?"
Do you know which of your customers are the most profitable, and do they look like the ones your marketing attracts?
Has an agency already produced a website or a logo for you that did not change how deals close?
Would you rather decide the position yourself, with help, than have it delivered to you in a deck?
Is the budget for this year a monthly number rather than a project number?
A no on either of the first two, or a yes on any of the last three, and a consultant working weekly with you is the right shape. If you already have the position and need the identity built, the full package is the shorter path. If you have the position and the identity and need leads, hire a pipeline agency, and we will name a few.
About the consultant
Jon Czeranna is the Co-Founder of Wit & Craft and the creator of The Brand Lab, and he has spent more than twenty years helping businesses uncover and articulate their competitive advantage. His Brand Positioning Framework is the method behind every engagement on this page. He studied at Kendall College of Art and Design, works from Grand Rapids, Michigan, with clients across the country, and has talked about positioning on Traffic to Leads, NWFA Real Answers, Legal Marketing Radio, Just Ask Jody Live, and Takin It Next Level. His co-founder, Lissa Engleman, brings twenty years of building brands for global companies to the messaging and campaign side of the work. The studio has been at this since 2015 under one line,
Brands Made Different.®
More on the About page.
Schedule a call
Thirty minutes with Jon. Bring the price objection that ends the most quotes, the three accounts that are the business, and the last agency story if there is one. You will leave with an honest read on whether positioning is the constraint, which of the two engagements fits, and whether you should wait. If the answer is a pipeline agency or an operations fix, you will leave with a name. No deck, and no proposal you did not ask for.
FAQs
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A brand strategy consultant works with the owner to decide which buyers the company serves, why it costs more, and how to prove it, then builds the positioning statement, messaging, and category language that carry those decisions. The deliverable is a strategic positioning document the sales team can use, and a leadership team that can explain the company's value without the consultant in the room.
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Most consultants quote a project fee after a discovery call. At Wit & Craft, weekly coaching with Jon Czeranna is $1,500 a month, month to month, with no minimum and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The full brand package, covering positioning, messaging, identity design, and a launch plan, is $40,000. Positioning alone is scoped on a call.
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A branding agency sells what it makes, so the engagement tends to start with design and end with a logo reveal. A brand strategy consultant works upstream, deciding the position and the proof first, so the design and the marketing have something to carry. If you already have a clear position and only need it expressed, an agency is the right call. If your leads still buy on price, decide the position first.
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No. Manufacturers and commercial trades companies are where most of our work is, and the guides on this site are written for them. The same engagement runs with founder-led professional services firms, specialty trades, and mission-driven organizations. The common thread is an owner whose name is on the line and whose company wins work it deserves but loses attention it deserves more.
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Yes. The engagement runs on weekly calls, and the work between calls is research, audits, and drafts, so distance does not change it. Wit & Craft is based in Grand Rapids and works with owners across the country.
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Coaching runs month to month at the pace of your business. Some founders finish the nine-step roadmap in two months. Leadership teams and complex businesses take four or more, and many continue past it. The full brand package takes about a month for positioning and about three months through a finished identity system.
