More businesses are hiring creative consultants and fractional marketing directors to bolster internal teams and help define — or rediscover — the voice of their brand. At the same time, an expanding ecosystem of independent consultants and small agencies is reshaping how branding, design, and marketing strategy are developed and delivered.
Those themes framed a recent roundtable discussion on creative brand work, marketing, and promotion hosted in June by Bolt Marketing. The panel brought together three industry experts: Molly Green, founder of Onefold Creative; Brad Flowers, partner at Bullhorn Creative; and Austin Dunbar, principal at Durham Brand & Co. The panel was moderated by Bolt Marketing CEO and Founder Chase Fairchild.
Local marketing and branding experts Brad Flowers, Molly Green, and Austin Dunbar spoke on a June panel hosted by Bolt Marketing CEO and founder Chase Fairchild, far right.
Topics ranged from brand naming strategy and pricing models to authenticity, client management, and the role of AI in creative work. Here are some collected takeaways from the conversation.
Mine what’s real.
Even among branding experts, defining branding itself proved difficult to distill into a single framework.
For Dunbar, it comes down to “finding where aspiration meets application.” Green described it as a Venn diagram, where a company’s raison d’être intersects with the human experience. Flowers offered another perspective, saying “it’s primarily the culture they’re selling,” or rather the intersection of how people identify their own experience through your brand.
Overall, they agreed branding is rooted in the human experience. “Mine what’s real,” Dunbar said. “Because there’s so much fake out there.”
He emphasized authenticity as a critical differentiator, particularly as artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in creative workflows. Over time, he suggested, brands may swing back toward more human-centric expression as part of a cultural shift away from AI-driven output.
Green stressed that while visuals are important, they can’t carry all of the emotional weight. “It’s how the brand makes you feel,” she said. Flowers added that visuals outside a brand’s established logos and artwork can help bring a human component — particularly photos, videos, and language that helps customers identify with the brand in a meaningful way.
Without that emotional connection, panelists agreed, brand messaging is diminished.
Don’t overthink the name.
Flowers, who authored The Naming Book, has a hot take on developing company names: “It doesn’t matter,” he said.
He pointed to successful companies with so-called “bad names” — citing Microsoft as an example — as evidence that execution outweighs nomenclature.
Still, he identified two common pitfalls: overly generic names and treating naming like a test with a single correct answer.
“The name should be a foundational piece of intellectual property,” he said. Without that, the rest of the brand system is weakened.
Set expectations early.
Across the panel, misaligned expectations emerged as one of the most common sources of project failure.
Green emphasized the importance of establishing clear expectations early, ideally in the first meeting(s), so that scope and outcomes are aligned from the outset.
Dunbar encouraged creatives to establish trust by clearly defining roles. Clients, he noted, engage consultants precisely because they bring outside expertise.
Flowers also agreed and urged listeners not to die on a creative hill.
“We’re consultants — we’re not artists — and the job of a consultant is to give your best advice, and when they ignore your best advice, it is to tell them what the likely consequences of their choices are,” he said.
Price for value, not time.
Pricing strategy was another focal point, and the panelists were united in advising creatives to avoid hourly billing whenever possible. “It’s like renting you,” Dunbar said.
Instead, the panel advocated for project-based pricing and early budget discussions. If the client says they don’t have a budget in mind, press a little deeper, Dunbar said. Someone in the organization has that spending range in mind.
Green and Flowers both emphasized the concept of value-based pricing, or the idea that “we make a little so the client can make a lot.” Fees, they argued, should reflect the value created, not just time invested.
And don’t be afraid to shoot for the fences to get what you’re worth, Green said. Over time, through trial and error, you'll find the pricing sweet spot that aligns with your market and expertise.
One word of warning from Flowers, though: “The biggest trap we fall into is treating ourselves like a commodity,” he said, explaining that undercutting your own value “creates a race to the bottom.”
The solution, he said, is differentiation and excellence in execution — build services and creative output that cannot easily be reduced to price comparisons.
Value authenticity over automation.
The discussion closed with a shared emphasis on authenticity, experimentation, and confidence in creative value.
Panelists encouraged creatives to stay grounded in human experience, seek inspiration from outside their immediate field, and work for clients who understand your value. Above all, they said, don’t use AI as a creative crutch in lieu of original thinking and ideas.
Finally, if there is one thing you can do this week to improve your business, Dunbar offered this advice:
“Launch it — it won’t be perfect, but the market will tell you if it works.”