Winning Clients through Strategy: Key Findings
Top 20% of business organisations capture more than 80% of profitable growth in 2025, according to research by PwC, confirming the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) isn’t just a saying.
For the other 80%, the challenge is finding a way into that winning circle, and increasingly, brand authority is one of the levers that makes the difference.
Color alone influences up to 90% of an initial product impression, according to Adobe, which makes it a critical factor in whether a customer chooses to engage with your brand or not.
Top UK branding agency Saffron Brand Consultants has enabled platforms such as YouTube, Meta, and Amazon Ads to grow their brand reputation for helping organisations treat brand as a true business asset.
In an interview with DesignRush, Charlotte Black, chief strategy officer at Saffron, explains how the agency continues to earn the trust of global icons and what’s behind the foundation of Saffron’s growth since 2001.
Who is Charlotte Black?
As chief strategy officer and executive committee member at Saffron Brand Consultants, Charlotte Black helps shape the firm’s global direction. She leads the global strategy team across Saffron’s offices in London, Madrid, Vienna, and Tokyo. With a background in brand, customer, and employee strategy, she has helped organizations like YouTube, Meta, and Amazon Ads turn brand into a lever for growth and long-term success.
Known for combining rigorous strategy with a focus on lived experience, Black brings a global perspective to every challenge, having led projects for brands like Jaguar, Sony, and Loewe.
Black explained that while every project is unique, there are common steps her team consistently applies to build trust and deliver lasting impact. Among them:
- Lead with curiosity and humility
- Ground creative ideas in reality
- Focus on long-term partnerships
- Reframe surface-level requests into deeper solutions
- Avoid the common traps that derail brand strategy
Lead With Curiosity and Humility
Saffron doesn’t walk into a room claiming to have all the answers. For global brands with in-house expertise, that kind of bravado rarely builds trust.
What builds trust is showing respect for the client’s knowledge while still adding a fresh perspective.
Black explains the mindset her team brings to every engagement:
“We go into every project being curious and humble. Big brands have in-house teams that already know themselves quite well, so it doesn’t make sense to start off claiming we have all the answers. Instead, we listen closely and then challenge assumptions.”
Listening first shows clients that Saffron values their expertise, while the “how” comes through in the firm’s ability to reframe what a brand can be once those assumptions are on the table.
This approach transforms discovery from a transactional Q&A into a collaborative process, making clients feel like co-creators rather than just recipients of an outside solution.
Ground Creative Ideas in Reality
Creative work can capture attention, but if it isn’t connected to the client’s actual business context, it rarely sticks.
“The solutions we present need to be grounded in the client’s reality, not just nice to look at or pushing change for change’s sake. Even our most interesting ideas have to be practical to succeed,” Black says.
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The rationale is straightforward: global brands operate in complex environments with competing priorities.
A strategy that looks impressive on paper but doesn’t hold up in practice won’t survive long inside the organisation.
By weighing originality against feasibility, Saffron aims to produce work that inspires and endures solutions that teams can adopt, implement, and build on over time.
Focus on Building Partnerships
From the first conversation, Saffron approaches clients as partners rather than vendors.
This mindset is reinforced by the way the firm operates across its London, Madrid, Vienna, and Tokyo offices as one independent team with a global perspective.
“Our clients’ success is our success, and we’re not afraid to say it if we think they’re stuck in their comfort zone. Not only do we have an independent spirit, but we are, in fact, an independent business. This helps create a culture and work that’s globally aware, but locally grounded,” Black explains.
Relationships built on trust and openness outlast any single project.
The “how” shows up in Saffron’s willingness to challenge clients constructively while staying flexible enough to adapt.
Over time, that creates partnerships defined less by transactions and more by shared accountability.
Reframe the Real Problem
Many clients initially believe their brand challenge is cosmetic: a new logo, campaign, or visual refresh. More often, the issue runs deeper.
“Usually, the real challenge has to do with a lack of clarity in the relationships between products, services, audiences, and internal teams… Many brands simply aren’t leveraging brand in the right way to drive growth, engage their people, and tell their story to the world.”
Saffron helps clients uncover the structural issues holding them back by stepping back from surface-level requests.
This reframing shifts the conversation from design execution to business transformation, positioning the brand as a tool for alignment and growth.
Avoid the Common Traps in Brand Engagements
Even seasoned teams can fall into pitfalls when shaping brand strategy. Black highlights two in particular: self-diagnosis and transactional thinking.
“Sometimes teams start to get tunnel vision and focus too much on the deliverables rather than the underlying dynamics at play, or the ‘three Ps’: people, power, and politics. What are we really trying to solve? Who really holds influence? What’s shaping their decisions behind the scenes?”
Successful brand engagements depend on more than outputs.
Without the right people truly invested, even polished deliverables risk becoming a short-lived experiment rather than a lasting shift.
Show How the Collaboration Will Work
When pitching Meta, Saffron chose not to arrive with a finished answer. Instead, they offered a glimpse of how collaboration might unfold.
“One thing we didn’t do was present a firm solution; instead, we shared the start of one. It was enough to show them how we ticked and let them imagine what working together might feel like,” Black recalls.
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The approach underscored that the value wasn’t in a single idea, but in the partnership itself.
Inviting the client into the process from the outset allowed Saffron to demonstrate confidence without presumption: a balance that made them stand out.
Redefine ROI as Long-Term Value
For many CMOs, ROI is tied to immediate performance. But Black stresses that brand strategy delivers on a different timeline.
“Brand building is a marathon, not a sprint… Real ROI emerges over time,” she says.
She suggests looking at three signals of long-term value:
- How many people want to work with you (and keep working with you).
- How well the market remembers you.
- How many are seeking out ways to participate
These metrics shift the focus from short-term conversion to enduring reputation, loyalty, and cultural relevance.
Adapt Without Losing Human Intrigue
The consultancy business is changing as AI and product-led models reshape client needs.
Saffron is experimenting with these tools too, but Black cautions against letting efficiency override emotion.
“AI and product-led growth are challenging us to use new tools in the name of efficiency and data-driven decision-making… But human intrigue and spontaneity will continue to be what make a brand truly memorable.”
The firms that thrive will be those able to integrate new capabilities while preserving the distinctly human qualities that make brands resonate.
Advance the Industry Through Openness
Black argues that for brand strategy to create real impact, leaders must be transparent about what it requires: investment and commitment.
“Changing your logo isn’t going to change your long-term reality. Not every decision needs to be revolutionary, but brand initiatives that move the dial count with both strategy and design. Together, they make magic,” she says.
In volatile conditions, she frames long-term vision not just as a branding exercise, but as a critical business asset.
Look to Unlikely Sources of Inspiration
Asked who inspires her, Black points outside the branding world.
“We often look to thinkers and makers who have backgrounds in anthropology and architecture… When we search for inspiration, we look for people who move us to consider the role of brand in society and how it has the power to influence human culture for generations,” she says.
It’s a reminder that branding isn’t only about selling products. At its best, it can shape the way people engage with culture, community, and even place.
The Takeaway
Saffron’s ability to win the trust of iconic clients doesn’t come from a secret formula.
It comes from a way of working: start with humility, ground creativity in reality, build true partnerships, and focus on long-term value.
For organisations navigating change, the lesson is clear: brand is not just an image to project, but a lens for how you think, act, and build trust over time.
Client Acquisition FAQs
What does it take to win iconic brand clients?
Earning trust often comes down to humility, collaboration, and treating the brand as a long-term business asset rather than just a marketing tool.
Why is humility important in brand strategy?
Humility builds trust with clients who already have in-house expertise. It encourages listening, co-creation, and solutions that feel authentic.
How can creative ideas drive business impact?
Creative work succeeds when it’s grounded in reality - aligned with the client’s goals, context, and ability to implement.
What are common pitfalls in brand strategy projects?
Two frequent mistakes are treating branding as a cosmetic exercise and focusing too narrowly on deliverables rather than deeper organizational challenges.
How should ROI be measured in branding?
ROI in branding should be measured through long-term metrics such as loyalty, retention, pricing power, reduced acquisition costs, and brand recall.
