FAQs

The main objective of an advertising agency is to publicize a product, service, or company. To do this, it uses traditional channels – television, radio, press – or digital channels – web, social networks, blogs, programmatic formats – with the aim of positioning a message in the consumer's mind.

The focus of an advertising agency is communication: what to say, how to say it, and where. It rarely intervenes in the definition of who the company is or in the real value it offers to the market.

A marketing agency works more globally. Before creating a campaign, draw up a strategy that starts with the definition of customer segments and specific objectives. This plan includes channels, messages, formats and indicators of success.

The role of the marketing agency can be more strategic and intervene in the positioning of the product or service. However, its focus is still mainly on external communication.

When what you want to communicate is not a specific product but the brand in its entirety, we speak of branding. A branding agency is, in essence, a marketing agency specialized in the construction and management of brands.

Their work includes defining the brand's purpose, promise, attributes, and positioning, as well as its visual and verbal expression: logo, corporate identity, tone of communication.

The branding agency builds. But usually it does it on a project basis, on a one-off basis, and then it leaves.

A Branding Atelier is a studio specialized in brand strategy and identity, with an artisanal approach: few projects, a lot of craft, attention to detail and strategic rigor. Without the industrialized processes of large agencies.

The term atelier defines our way of working. A studio where each project receives the time and criteria it deserves. For more than ten years, dlab_ has developed and applied this concept.

Before building, we listen and diagnose. Because in most companies, the value already exists. The problem is not that they lack something. The problem is that what they have is not being explained: neither by themselves, who take it for granted, nor by their market, which cannot find the words to choose and recommend them.

"What makes you the best option in your market already exists. The problem is that they don't know it yet."

• When there is a distance between what the company is and what the market perceives of it.

• The company is at a turning point: generational change, expansion, repositioning, significant anniversary.

• The sales team has a hard time articulating why they're the best option, beyond the price.

• You compete on price when you should compete on value.

• A strategic brand partner is an external partner who integrates into the company with the commitment and objectives of an internal team, but with the perspective and objectivity of someone looking from the outside.

A brand is not a logo. A brand is not packaging. A brand is not an advertising campaign. A brand is what others think you are.

It is the perception that people build from all the impacts you generate: what you say, how you say it, how you act, what your products or services deliver, how they remember you when you are not present.

Brands are, therefore, in the hands of people. Not companies. And that is why managing them requires diagnosis, listening and criteria – not just creativity.

The brand is the most valuable asset of any company. And also the most difficult to see from the inside.

To work well with a brand, it is necessary to understand the concepts that define it. These are the most relevant:

Purpose is a company's reason for existing. Not what it does, but why it exists. It's the starting point of any strong brand strategy.

An authentic purpose is not invented: it is discovered. Looking back at the founders, at what motivated the creation of the company. Often, this purpose was already there from the beginning, but had never been clearly articulated.

If you're struggling to identify your company's purpose, listen to your best customers. Ask them what working with you changed them. Their answers often contain purpose better than any internal exercise.

The promise is the commitment that the brand acquires with its customers. It is the purpose made tangible: if the purpose responds to the 'why', the promise responds to the 'how'.

Promise is what customers can expect from you, always. It's the foundation of trust.

Attributes are the characteristics that define the brand: values, way of working, way of communicating, decision-making criteria. They are non-negotiable.

Attributes give consistency to the brand. They are what makes the brand recognizable regardless of channel, format, or context.

Positioning is the place that the brand occupies in the mind of the market: how it differs from the competition and what space it occupies in the customer's perception.

Clear positioning answers these questions: who are you the best choice for? Why are you better than the alternatives? What makes you unique?

Positioning is not declared: it is built with consistent actions over time. And the first step to building it well is to understand what real value the company has, beyond what it believes about itself.

The voice is the brand's personality expressed in language. It is constant: it defines how the company always speaks, regardless of who writes or who it is addressing.

The tone, on the other hand, is adapted: you don't speak the same in an institutional presentation as in social networks, even if the voice is the same.

A well-defined brand voice is one of the most powerful differentiating elements. And also one of the most frequently neglected.