Branzas, after 16 years of branding

How profitable is branding? Are there safe ways to win or to lose a client? Why wouldn’t Branzas relocate the agency to Bucharest? This I just a part of the questions to which Daily Business received the answer from one of the first people who developed local branding, Bogdan Branzas, CEO and Creative Director of the agency named after him.

Branzas came into contact with advertising and branding industry in 1992, when he activated as Art Director at Vitrina Advertising, an advertising agency from Cluj. After one year at Vitrina, and another one as freelancer, he put the bases of his own branding agency: Branzas Design, which he considers to be one of his biggest professional successes so far: “ I had the good intuition to base a branding agency in 1994, when everybody sold jeans. And I managed to run it until now. I can be proud that I have raised this market” says Branzas.

DailyBusiness.ro: With what objectives doe Branzas Design enter in 2009?

Bogdan Branzas: My objective are not necessarily money connected, but having interesting clients. Money interest me in order to pay my whole in an honorable manner, and to do a good job. Branding is not yet an industry in which you make money, and you can not afford the spectacular margins you have in advertising, for example. This is my entire business philosophy.

DB: Will you further participate to pitches, new clients, or do you refer maintaining the relationship with the actual clients? BB: The relationship we have with the actual clients still continue, with some for 3 years, 4 years, or 6 years, with Ursus for almost 14 years, but of course we are interested in new clients.

DB: Coming back to the relationship with Ursus, you’ve working for them for 14 years. BB: Yes. But this year less.

When will the need for a Ursus refresh be felt? BB: We have won the Ursus re branding 2 years ago, we made it together with Interbrand. There has been a series of projects after, in order to help them, and that was about all. Otherwise, it is highly communicated, market activations are made, event, things that have nothing to do with us.

DB: How is a long term relationship with a client maintained?

BB: Just proactive. You try to see what he needs, you try to explain, to argue, and , if possible, offer him potential solutions. And this means a positive attitude from your behalf, and they (the client), invariably sense it as a positive thing, because they see they can count on you.

DB: How does a client behave in this kind of collaboration, what is his behalf?

BB: We work in a simple manner. The moment we have a contract of this kind, and they are usually annual, the evaluation of possible project for that year is made, a planning is done, and everything goes by the book. Everyone knows what they have to do, the internal team, the client, the meetings, the presentations, the solutions, the further implementation stages.

DB: What does the agency win from a long term collaboration? BB: Two main things. One is strictly business connected, to have a certain amount of money, negotiated, that you can count on during one year. The contracts are negotiated according to our fees, the annual charge from our behalf, estimated, etc, and we get to a um of money, that I aid regularly, or at the end of the project. There are different type of situations. You can evaluate at one year’s level, and then divide into 12 months, or evaluate each project, and receive the money accordingly.

DB: And the second benefit? BB: The second benefit, our and theirs, and the most important, I that you ensure the brand’s continuity. Because long term clients are usually the ones we have raised from the beginning. Actually we do a lot of brand management. We observe what I going on in the market, we adjust, we adapt…It happens that some of the projects we have planned for one year to be taken out of the contract and introduce others, because the market changed, or the company’ level requires something different. Consequently it is a very good bivalent relationship, that implies a lot of responsibility, answer, and the organizing power to solve all the issues. You must have people that can handle this.

DB: How many people are you working with now? BB: 14. This year I have employed a designer, who will start working from November, and we have another one working for more than a month already. Last year we’ve grown the implementation department, because we have realized that many of the companies also need implementation. Besides consultancy, brand identity, no matter which, packaging or corporate, marketing directors need someone to help them implement it, from all points of view, either print, web design, fairs. Brand implementation becomes more and more important.

DB: Which are the most efficient methods to win a client? BB: just one: cards on the table. And it is, at the same time, the most efficient method to lose a client. The balance I never equilibrate. This is the way we work, think, talk and do things. I tell him: “This is the problem that you have, tells me how soon you need it done, and what is your budget”, if he answers” I do not want this, I do not think this is ok”, than I tell him our version once more, I argue it once more, but he might turn it down. Maybe he believes something else, maybe he wants: red in the upper corner”

DB: What compromise can you make in front of the client? BB: We try to make them as little as possible. And usually, we make compromise in what timing is concerned. According with a work method and stages, probably something can take 2 months, the client need it done in a month and a half. Ok, we try to do this. But, even at this, there are limits: if it takes for a washing machine to do the laundry in 4 hours, than you can’t possibly do proper laundry in half an hour.

DB: Do client make compromises? BB: I do not think so. They do not have to. Because we are the ones that must solve their problems. First of all, it has to be clear that they call us, as specialists, and when we bring arguments, they usually listen. From this point of view, they do not have to compromise, because this is what we are paid for, and, at the same time, this is why we are not paid, because they might no accept what we say.

DB: What does a provincial branding agency lose in front of an agency from Bucharest? BB: An agency from Cluj is not present all day long in the media, publishing, advertising. This is probably the only disadvantage. This being so, you do not have the same connections that could allow you to knock at some doors. On the other hand, this could be an advantage. You are seen as an independent, that does his job, and that is all. You have no economic or political influence from anyone, you do not belong to a certain group, you have no affinities with a certain advertising agency, or a media one that you recommend, or that recommends you. And than, we had cases in which we were called, searched, just for this reason: they wanted someone independent.

DB: Are there price list differences? BB: We have taken part to pitches, at which we’ve noticed that some Bucharest agencies have their prices with 20 or 30% lower than ours, just to take the project, I do no completely understand the reason. But at the same time, there were prices that doubled ours. So, there is no constancy. We have a very simple estimate pattern, and is the same for everybody. So there are no opportunistic barriers: I sense someone and I know I can get 3 lei out of him, but to the other one I take 6. We might lose something out of this, but life seems easier for me this way, and for the clients, from this point of view.

DB: Have you ever thought to relocate to Bucharest? BB: Never, and I do not think it will happen. At most, I will open an office there.

DB: How do you persuade a person from Bucharest to take a job in your agency in Cluj? BB: People from Bucharest do not want to move from Bucharest. They think Bucharest is the center of Romania, and in a certain way, it is. All the opportunities and all the interesting things happen there, probably the incomes are higher, but so are the costs. On the other side, starting from November, I will have a designer from London, so this is not cot related necessarily. There is a young Romanian-German lady working with us now. Other people is more mobile than the ones in Bucharest.

DB: Did it happen to lose people , attracted by the mirage of Bucharest? BB: Just one, who worked in client service, and left for personal reasons.

DB: One of the most communicated re branding processes was the one of CECBank? Do you think it is a successful one? BB: As a person who is not on the inside, and not aware of any detail, everything I see from the outside is a new identity and a communication campaign. But knowing that it is a state institution, and unfortunately I have many examples of things done by the state, that I consider useless. I do not know if it is the case of CEC, I couldn’t tell. But the work with the state is a delicate thing, where most of the compromises appear, and where it I possible to earn nice money.