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As someone who has spent a decent chunk of my life travelling and living away from home, I have a huge appreciation and feel a lot of gratitude toward different cultures, and ways of seeing the world, in business and in life. 

I grew up and studied in South Africa, spent one glorious working-holiday year sailing across the Atlantic ocean, and living in Florida, USA and finally settled in Australia where I spent just over a decade building my career in strategic brand building at two strategic agencies, one of them being Tiny Hunter.

And for the past two years I have had the great privilege of calling Kuopio, Finland home, a country covered in 188,000 lakes and the cleanest air in the world. Kuopio is the 8th largest city in Finland with a population of 120,000 people, coming from Sydney which is home to 6 million people, it certainly felt worlds apart.

And yet, surprisingly to me, which was in all honesty quite unexpected, when it came to work, I immediately felt comfortable and confident in my role as a Brand Strategist at Ahooy Creative. I mean besides the fact that I was thrown into the communication industry which primarily communicated in Finnish, not the easiest language to learn I might add. But there I was, immersed in a new culture, surrounded by 30 or so new work colleagues in a new city with a different language talking about one of my favourite subjects, branding.

What surprised me the most was how closely their brand building process matched my own. And it validated something very powerful for me. In the increasingly pragmatic world of business, there is a growing demand to build better brands, globally. And no, branding is not just a new name for advertising. And it is much bigger than just selling more or presenting the latest products. It’s about inspiring simplicity, solving complex problems, finding clarity, strengthening culture, and most of all increasing perceived value across the business.

And for agencies around the world, understanding the value of strategic brand building is a secret super power. What I mean by that, is that agencies have always been known for creativity, for waving some sort of magic fairy dust and delivering clever, wonderfully executed ideas. And the really good creative agencies (like Tiny Hunter) are a magnet for creative souls, who love to plan, think, dream, write, illustrate, design, photograph, film and build work they feel proud of.

If you put this kind of talent to work with a focus on the core principles of brand building, what you get is so much more meaningful than a fleeting campaign lost over time. But it doesn’t happen overnight, it happens when talented people focus on understanding each other, building connections that allow them to celebrate success and endure failure together because action, resilience and learning wields the best results over time. It’s what the business author, Jim Collins coined with his flywheel concept when analyzing what makes good companies truly great. “No matter how dramatic the end result, good-to-great transformations never happen in one fell swoop. In building a great company or social sector enterprise, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.”. 

The effects of brand development on any business regardless of where they are situated in the world are a culmination of four key areas: the strength and certainty of the core business, the ability to generate profits, the formation and ability to capitalise on growth potential, and of course increasing perceived value. 

Effective brand building impacts every single aspect of the business, not just the marketing team, and when brands operate from a place of authenticity and understanding, building momentum around the parts of their business that need the most support, that flywheel momentum starts to take effect.

Ultimately though, a brand is only as good as the people that stand behind it so the single most important decision to make is who you choose to work with and no matter where I have lived in the world, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some pretty incredible humans along the way.

Written by: Megan Järvinen
Published: July 21, 2021