We were lucky to catch up with Stephen Alfred recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stephen , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

The idea of Brandstrum came about after years of watching and listening to business owners struggle to effectively brand and market themselves. It seemed every conversation I had continually exposed an inability to properly distinguish the difference between branding and marketing. They’d never properly postured their brands for success, many times putting all of their eggs in the same basket and banking on tangibles, and not the intangibles. They were relying on this approach to resonate to an audience they’d never even targeted, and hoping things like their logo, business cards, brochures, and other tangible pieces told the story that would sell and grow them.

My personal conviction was that there had to be more. I’m a personable guy-I thrive in relationships, and so I felt horrible for these individuals who actually had something great to offer the world, but it just wasn’t getting out there in the way that maximized their success. I set out to solve that problem and chose to believe what my business partner tells me most days- “What they have to offer the world is a good thing!” Some stories just need help being told, and your brand does that very thing. It makes a promise to a targeted audience, aligned with certain values that they will have a certain experience every time they see you or hear from you. You market these things across various marketing parallels and platforms, evaluating, monitoring, and pivoting because I like to say “brands never sleep-they are either working for you, or against you.” We help position brands for maximum success, and send them out with everything they need to be successful. We are unique in that we don’t bail on relationships. We realize we all need each other and that brands will always be evolving, ongoing strategies will be needed, and the story will continue to be told-let us help tell yours.

Stephen , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I actually had the idea to start my own venture before ever really jumping into the industry. I remember talking to my brother-in-law and him strongly supporting me starting my own company, but gave me some strong wisdom telling me, “you should go work in the industry and figure this out, get familiar with it and see how you feel.” This was by far the best advice I could take and so I did that very thing and started out as a graphic designer, mainly dealing with the tangibles (signs, graphics, apparel, offset printing, etc.). This actually allowed me realize not only my passions for branding, but my passion to empower people with my gifts as I continued to work in the industry. I learned to listen, watch, solve, lead a team, test my limits, and really dial in the identity Brandstrum would take on.

Brandstrum is a relational brand positioning and marketing agency devoted to enhancing brand impact and expanding brand reach for any company or organization we have the privilege to partner with. We are simply personable in a digital space, and we believe in empowering business owners, and receiving the great things they have to teach us as well. We believe in culture, stories, team, strategy and handshakes. We’re blessed to be in a space we can all use our gifts and talents, challenge each other, steward relationships, and watch success happen for everyone we come into contact with. While we have a track record of seeing amazing growth with companies and organizations we work with, it’s the people that matter-we do brand life together :)

How’d you meet your business partner?

My business partner and I first met in 1998 on a football field in our home town. He had transferred in from out of town, and we wound up playing linebacker together our junior year. We are both super competitive, so I think it was a great time to really test each other to see what we were made of, watch each other lead, come through in clutch situations, and just have fun.

Since then, we’ve been blessed to see our friendship grow into a true brotherhood, and we take things on together. Since graduating high school he and I have each lived in several different places and not necessarily in the closest proximity to each other, but we’ve always worked on our friendship and made it a priority to be there for each other. He grew in his own life and business ventures as did I, all while growing our families. In 2017, we sat at Jeremy’s house just catching up and while having a cold beer, I informed him I thought it was time to start Brandstrum. In true Jeremy fashion (he’s a serial entrepreneur, haha!), he quickly asked, “Do you want a partner?” I was quick to say yes, and the rest has been history. While it is a blessing to do business together, we make sure and keep our families and our brotherhood first and the rest takes care of itself. It’s a true honor and we make sure to have a great time.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

You know, as the owner of a brand and marketing agency you would expect me to provide you with some amazing strategic insight on how to grow your business and get more leads. I’m not going to do that. We’ve found that the secret sauce is less about the work we do and much more about the people we do the work with and for. So, it’s a combination of things, really, but here’s a short list that we use regularly to reach what we would call “our people” which is just a Brandstrum way of saying our preferred client base:

1. Honor the people, first.
2. Serve their needs by putting in the work, doing the best job possible.
3. Respect the brand: partner in challenging and stewarding it.
4. Always think NEXT for our clients because brands evolve and pivoting is inevitable.
5. Tell their brand story and market it in the most engaging way possible.
6. Celebrate the brand, because branding and marketing is FUN!
7. Repeat Steps 1-6…. and you won’t lack in clients :)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brandstrum.com
• Instagram: @brandstrum
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandstrumcreative
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brandstrum
• Other: https://marketingmadesimple.com/Jeremy-Box

Image Credits
Credit Images to Brandstrum