A brand decision often resembles the first tile in a row of dominoes.
The decision is taken to review the positioning. From there, however, comes a new brand architecture: Brand Advisory. Then a new identity. A website. New internal processes. Media. Production. The first move sets off a chain of investment far larger than it seemed at the outset.
That is why, when a CEO buys Brand Advisory, they should know which part of that chain they are entrusting to whoever sits on the other side of the table. And where it might lead them.
Unfortunately, though, this is precisely where the market is becoming ever harder to read today.
Let us be clear.
Advisory: a crowded word
In recent years the boundary between agency, consultancy and Advisory has become ever harder to read.
Firms built to handle creative work, branding, digital, media or production have begun to extend their remit towards strategy, positioning and decision support. An understandable evolution. After all, when companies look for partners able to hold several levels together, the market tries to respond.
The result is that today the word Advisory can cover very different services: brand strategy, design, transformation, execution, governance, management consultancy. Sometimes several levels coexist within the same project.
For buyers, then, the problem becomes very concrete: what exactly am I buying when I buy Brand Advisory?
The answer matters because each of these activities occupies a different point in the decision chain.
The Advisory domino effect
Advisory comes first in every sequence: because it is its recommendation that determines everything that follows.
We are talking about the first tile. The key piece in the row of dominoes. For this reason too, it deserves particular attention. A flawed diagnosis can spread along the entire chain and quickly turn into investments, processes and painful decisions.
When the same party oversees several links in the chain, the model can offer continuity, speed and greater consistency between decision and execution. Precisely for this reason, buyers need to understand how upstream decisions are formulated, validated and reviewed.
What they should really be buying
When a CEO buys a Brand Advisory service, they should receive at the very least a decision-making framework clear enough to guide what comes next.
A diagnosis: What is the real problem?
Alternatives: Which paths are available and what reasons lead to preferring one of them.
Selection criteria: Why one path is better suited than the others in that specific context.
Consequences: What changes economically, organisationally and reputationally.
Priorities: What comes first and what can wait.
Decision rights: Who should have the final say, inside and outside the organisation.
A transferable direction: The decision must be capable of being understood and applied even by teams or suppliers other than the adviser who shaped it.
The more these elements disappear, the more it is worth asking whether what we are buying is genuinely Advisory or another, perfectly legitimate, form of strategic advisory.
Seven questions before tipping the first domino
Before commissioning the first recommendation, these questions are worth putting to any adviser.
- Which decision, in concrete terms, will you help me make?
- Which alternatives will genuinely be considered?
- How do you distinguish between diagnosis, strategy and execution?
- How is a recommendation assessed before it generates further investment?
- Who checks that subsequent execution remains consistent with the original decision?
- How do you work with the teams and suppliers already in place within the organisation?
- At the end of the engagement, what decision-making capability remains within my company?
From direct experience, though, I would add one more question that I find just as useful as the others: can you advise me to do nothing? An honest answer to this question says something precise about how freely the recommendation is being made.
The category is moving up: the language must adapt
The fact that more and more firms use the term Brand Advisory shows that brand decisions are moving up a level. The economic weight of intangibles makes this shift even more evident. WIPO reports that in 2025 global investment in intangible assets exceeded 10,000 billion dollars, and devotes a specific part of its 2026 analysis to brands as strategic assets.
It therefore becomes even more important to give the word Advisory a precise meaning.
A CEO should be able to tell whether they are buying strategy, design, execution, governance or decision support. They will often need more than one of these capabilities. The quality of the model will also depend on how clearly roles and responsibilities are distinguished.
When the first recommendation can set in motion everything that follows, knowing who is pushing the first domino becomes part of the decision itself.
Because everything will depend on it. And with first-rate Brand Advisory, well begun is already half done.
Domande frequenti
Does Bliss do Advisory, Governance or both?
Bliss works across Advisory, Governance and Operations, keeping the moment of decision separate from that of execution. Advisory defines the problem, the direction and the criteria for the choice. Governance builds the system that protects that direction over time. Operations comes in when the direction is clear enough to be turned into activities, processes and outputs.
Is an integrated model always better than an independent adviser?
The answer depends on the type of decision. An integrated model can offer continuity, speed and coordination across several phases. An independent model can offer greater freedom in assessing the alternatives and in choosing who will carry them out. The choice becomes simpler when the company clarifies in advance which problem it needs to solve and which responsibility it wants to entrust to an outside party.
How is the quality of Advisory work measured?
The most useful measure is the quality of the decisions the work has made it possible to take. The number of deliverables tells only part of the project's story. An effective diagnosis identifies the real problem, the alternatives are genuinely different, the selection criteria are explicit and the direction can be applied even by teams or suppliers other than the advisor. The most revealing test comes months later, when you can see whether that decision has stood up to reality.