External vendors can be a game-changer—or brand killer. In this episode of The Brand ON! Show, Brandon Coleman Jr exposes the potential negative impact external marketing vendors can have on your brand. From sales-driven agendas to short-term thinking, outside vendors often serve their own bottom line first, leaving your brand misaligned and off-track. Brandon breaks down how to keep vendors in check, align incentives, and protect your brand from becoming just another case study in what not to do. Tune in and take control before your brand pays the price.
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Transcript (with chapter marks)
00:01:05 Introduction to Pothole #2
Brandon Coleman Jr: External marketing vendors can absolutely crater your brand alignment, just as badly as your internal teams and sometimes worse.
00:01:47 Importance of External Marketers
Brandon Coleman Jr: Please tell us, working with external marketers, how do we do it… I saw this firsthand on a recent rebranding project I did for a $20 million company. It was a beast of a project, new name, new look, new TV, radio campaign, new social strategy, new website, revamped internal process… All launched in just four months. The brand snapped into alignment, and the results were electric.
00:03:16 Vendors Will Sell You The Moon
Brandon Coleman Jr: Vendors will absolutely sell you the moon, but most have zero skin in your brand’s game. More than anything, external marketing vendors want to sell you something, and your brand pays the price, if you’re not careful.
00:05:41 Missing The Bigger Picture
Brandon Coleman Jr: [External Marketers], they don’t live your brand day to day. They didn’t sweat the rebrand like my team did for that $20 million client, agonizing over every pixel, every word, to nail down the alignment. Without that ownership, they’re less invested in your big picture.
00:06:41 Out of Focus
Brandon Coleman Jr: Number three is short-term focus, chasing quick wins. Vendors love a fast hit, something they can point to and say, we did that, a media buy that spikes impressions, a social blitz that trends for a day, a website tweak that boosts clicks, a Facebook post that encourages likes these wins look good on their pitch deck, but they often clash with your true long-term brand alignment.
00:08:19 No Silver Bullets
Brandon Coleman Jr: Number four is pride in the playbook, this one size fits all trap. Vendors often come with a signature move, their proven formula. Everybody in the insurance industry is running an ad in this episode or on this current production of the magazine. Everyone’s in there. You mean, you’re not gonna be in it. They’re itching to stamp your brand on it, and that is so irrelevant for you.
00:09:50 Aligning Priorities
Brandon Coleman Jr: Number five are misaligned incentives. You know, everybody else’s win isn’t yours, vendors’ incentives rarely match your brand’s goals. You want loyalty, equity, and legacy. They want renewals, up sales, and testimonials. A design firm might churn out a gorgeous logo that wins them awards. Believe your audience… More revenue and more clout, don’t mean your brand’s alive or thriving.