Explore
Agency & in-house brand
Brand Strategist
Deciding what a company means before anyone designs anything.
Typical pay
$80k-$150k
How you get in
Marketing, research or creative background plus synthesis skill
Outlook
Steady at senior level; thin at entry
Brand strategists define positioning, audience and messaging that creative work then expresses. It is research and synthesis work, and it is almost never a first job — strategists come from adjacent disciplines with something to synthesize.
A day in the life
- 9:00aReview customer interview transcripts
- 10:30aCompetitive landscape and category analysis
- 12:30pLunch
- 1:30pBuild the positioning framework and messaging hierarchy
- 3:30pWorkshop with the client leadership team
- 5:00pBrief the creative team on what the work has to do
How to get in
Agency account or planning route
Duration
3-6 years
Cost
$40,000-$150,000
Credential
Bachelor's in marketing, communications or a social science
- Start in account management, research or content at an agency
- Learn how creative briefs actually drive work
- Move into strategy or account planning
- Build a portfolio of positioning work with measurable outcomes
Designer or writer into strategy
Duration
2-5 years
Cost
$0
Credential
None — a body of work
- Work as a designer, copywriter or content strategist
- Push upstream into the thinking behind the work
- Take on research and positioning projects
- Creative practitioners who can strategize are unusually valuable
Independent consulting
Duration
5-10 years
Cost
$0-$10,000
Credential
None — case studies
- Build agency or in-house experience across multiple brands
- Develop a repeatable methodology you can sell
- Consult with founders and mid-size companies directly
- Project fees far exceed the equivalent salaried rate
What people love
- · High-leverage work that shapes everything downstream
- · Strong pay at senior levels
- · Remote and consulting-friendly
- · Intellectually varied across industries
What wears people down
- · Rarely an entry-level role
- · Strategy gets overruled by executive preference
- · Hard to prove attribution for your impact
- · First cut when marketing budgets tighten