Here’s a good example about the power of branding.
Consultants get paid lots of money to dispense advice. Yet unlike doctors or lawyers or accountants — or even a barber — there’s no exam to become a consultant. There’s no licensure or certification; Rosie just declares herself to be a consultant and then starts dispensing advice.
And it works!
Think about how unusual this is. Would you let a surgeon operate on you if he never graduated from medical school? Would you feel comfortable swimming in a pool if you knew the lifeguard wasn’t certified in C.P.R.?
When it comes to consultants, we do just that.
That’s because consultants, perhaps better than anyone else, have mastered the art of branding themselves. They’ve engineered the perception that their slide decks and conference calls can solve your problems — and so you listen.
That kind of implicit trust testifies to the power of branding.
Postscript: To be sure, PR people can obtain an Accreditation in Public Relations. Project managers can get a Project Management Professional degree. And advertisers can claim a Google Ads certification.
But to become a generalized “management consultant” (at a firm such as Booz Allen, Bain, BCG, McKinsey, and Deloitte), there’s no universal criteria.
