MEAMARKETS / October 2017 19 , BrandMint are a Beirut based branding boutique, possessing a teamof 12 designers, specialized in brand building from conception to execution. Clients range fromF&B to banking, fintech, retail, entertainment, medical, education and cultural. Raya Nawbar gives us a breakdown of the firm’s services, as she is being featured in 2017 Leading Chief Executive Officer Awards &Most Trusted Chief Executive Officer for Providing Outstanding Business Services in Lebanon. Minty Fresh Designers BrandMint’s true love remains in the F&B sector. The team loves everything about the sector, the naming, food tasting, menu engineering, table ware selection, environmental branding, experience design and of course all the usual branding and communication tools. Raya notes why the company enjoys working in the sector so much, as well as describing how it feels seeing its brand come to life, observing people engaging with its brands. Describing the firm’s philosophy behind client service, Raya notes how the team maintains the high standards they set themselves across the company. Building relationships and earning trust are all essential strategies to maintaining a successful company. “Here at BrandMint, we focus on building a trusting relationship with our clients. The way we see it, brand building is most successful when it is a partnership with our clients, an ongoing journey that starts the moment we meet the client for a brief, but definitely does not end when the brand is launched. “Seeing people react and interact with the brand is all part of the brand growth, and we make it a point to play the role of the consultant, constantly looking for the best interest of the brand, identifying potential opportunities and tweaking any possible weaknesses.” Raya tells us what makes BrandMint unique, distinguishing themselves from its competitors, and present themselves as the best option for clients. These are all important attributes for the company to have, particularly when working in an industry that is constantly changing, describing what measures the firm must take to ensure that it is at the forefront of any emerging developments and trends. “The digital revolution has changed the communication landscape. It created a power shift, allowing for more competitiveness and giving todays customer a voice to talk back to brands, making them more demanding and less loyal. “Basically, we wanted to challenge the traditional branding model, making it more customer centric. Our years of experience in branding has allowed us to develop our very own brand building framework. This framework is based on our belief that brands are just like people, they have a job to do, a personality, a style and most of all brands have dreams. Using this framework, the team delivers strategic agile brand roadmaps instead of the traditional restricting brand guidelines.” Following on from discussing what makes BrandMint successful and unique, Raya tells us about the culture within the company, and the things they do to maintain and develop the company. She explains what she looks for when attracting new staff, and how these traits help the new employee integrate themselves into the company. Crucially, we see ourselves as the guardians. Beyond being brand guardians, we are guardians for each other as well. We believe in a flat hierarchy, where we are all responsible for each other’s growth and have developed a culture of knowledge sharing. It is everybody’s responsibility to look for the next workshop to attend, the next article to be shared or the latest trend to watch out for. Also, we are always searching for talent with diverse backgrounds that can add to the richness of the team dynamics. Overall, there are exciting times ahead for BrandMint and Raya, 1710ME09 as she explains that 2017 has been a year of transformation, and now it is time to build on the solid foundations that have been laid at BrandMint. “Essentially, 2017 has been the year of transformation for BrandMint. In our quest to challenge the traditional branding model, we ended up redesigning our own services, internal structure and operations, accompanied by an intensive upscaling program for the team and are now in the process of developing all the necessary communication tools to launch BrandMint 2.0 by early 2018.” Contact: Raya Nawbar Contact Email:
[email protected] Address: Kantari, May Ziadeh St, Antwork Bldg, Beirut, Lebanon Phone: 00961 1748 204 Website: www.brandmint.com