Brands don’t grow themselves.

Which is why we created…

Welcome to

Notch isn’t like other agencies. Because it isn’t one.

Notch isn’t like other agencies. Notch isn’t like other branding shops. Notch isn’t like other management consultants. Notch isn’t a design studio with a strategist. Because Notch isn’t any of those things. Notch is a brand growth consultancy, focused on providing the insight, strategic know-how and experience to map out your path from where your brand is today to where you want it to be.

Since 2014, Notch has been helping clients across a range of B2C, B2B, DTC, and everything in between as they navigate the inevitable transitions of their business. We’ve created brands, reinvented them, fine-tuned them and pushed them into places they wouldn’t have gone otherwise. By embedding ourselves with your teams, we help to create buy in while making sure brand theory can actually become brand action. And, when all is said and done, we won’t be there trying to sell you on a one-size-fits-all campaign or social activation or marketing stunt.

Like we said, Notch isn’t not like other agencies because it isn’t one.

Setting a goal is one thing. Figuring out how you get from A to B is a whole other can of worms.

Brand Growth Exploration

When it comes to understanding brand growth, incomplete data, lack of outside perspective, and discomfort with prickly topics leads to an overly optimistic take on things. At Notch, we start by developing our own perspective. We look at where you are today, where you want to be and where you could get to, and work to determine what really matters. Trends, facts, insights, points of view on what could be. We mash them all together along with the experience and best practices we’ve developed, and craft a perspective on your brand’s growth opportunities – where it’s strong, where it’s weak, how it can help you get to where you’re going and where you should go but didn’t realize.

  • Research and Trends Review

    Volumetric and Segment Analysis

    State of the Brand Report & Workshop

Brand Growth Roadmap

It’s great to have ambition. But without a plan to get there, ambition is just wishful thinking. Notch’s approach to brand growth focuses on building a real roadmap to get you from A to B. We break down the steps you need to take so that what you do in year one doesn’t just make for a good year one, but sets you up for every year to come. We consider the programs and tactics, the partners and tools, and resources and pivots called for to drive real long-term brand growth.

  • Brand Opportunities Vision

    Multiyear Brand Growth Roadmap and Plan

    Metrics and Analytics Planning & Benchmarking

Brand Growth Strategy

With a clear roadmap for growth, Notch refines and recasts your brand strategy, aligning with the drivers of growth and setting your brand apart in a relevant way. Why? Simple: we want to make sure that you’re as easy to buy into as you are to buy. Whether the focus is on a single brand or an entire portfolio, our goal remains the same: to maximize growth.

  • Brand Definition and Strategy

    Brand Portfolio Architecture

    Brand Innovation Tracks

Brand Growth Delivery

With our roadmap and brand strategy in place, we’ll support you and your brand as it comes to life in the world. Brand and creative platform development, annual marketing plans and brand innovation workshops help to ensure that brand thinking becomes action.

  • Workshops

    Training Series

    Leadership Team Advisory

    Ongoing Consulting

OUR MISSION

At Notch, we
grow brands.

Plain and simple.

The Notch Blog

Our Latest Thinking

What’s Your Problem? – What McDonald’s launch of CosMc’s reminds us about the importance of being a problem-solving brand
What’s Your Problem? – What McDonald’s launch of CosMc’s reminds us about the importance of being a problem-solving brand

What can McDonald’s launch of CosMc’s reminds us about the importance of being a problem-solving brand? Quite a lot, actually.

Too much of a good thing – What everyone gets wrong about brand portfolio architecture
Too much of a good thing – What everyone gets wrong about brand portfolio architecture

Contrary to the prevailing thinking put forward by some of my peers in the brand consulting world, the purpose of brand portfolio architecture is not to explain and accommodate all the complexity of a company’s business. It’s to help consumers choose.

A new chapter in the book on consistency
A new chapter in the book on consistency

An article in the New York Times focused on how under the watch of CEO James Daunt, bookstore chain Barnes & Noble is kicking rigid consistency to the curb. Rather than groan about brand rule-breaking, as the author suggests all brand experts should, I’m going to stand up and applaud a little new rule-writing.

Escaping the Rightness Trap
Escaping the Rightness Trap

It’s easy for consultants to become enamored with being right. But, sometimes – most of the time, actually – being right isn’t enough. Turns out, being helpful matters a lot more.