For entrepreneurs and big businesses alike, navigating the Wild West of first appearances on social media in this fast-paced digital age is an overwhelming task.
Enter The Branding Edit, a boutique visual storytelling studio that looks to turn the idea of unfeeling consulting work on its head.
It’s a sort of Avengers-esque team of three Providence-based women: “Technician” Brittanny Taylor, photographer and social media wizard; “Tactician” Patsy Culp, branding and event strategist, and “Transformer” Olivia Rodrigues, confidence coach and stylist. Together, they work to enhance their client’s brand, may it be building it from the ground up, restructuring it, or pointing it in a slightly new direction.
The trio, who met through local group the Lady Project, do that through two different packages they offer.
There’s their Brand Enhancement route, which is a bit more soup-to-nuts. With this package, “we sit down and get really clear what [the client’s] core value is, the message they’re trying to share, who the core audience is, [and] creating a name, persona, lifestyle of that person,” Taylor said. “Once we’re all clear and on the same page with all that, we get to the visuals to best tell that story and the best platforms to tell that story. We craft a mood board, shot list, and put together a time to have a photoshoot.”
That’s where Rodrigues comes in. Style and comfort in front of a camera are important for genuine, interesting photographs that, in turn, broadcast a nonverbal message about the company or person they present. “Everything is cohesive,” she said. “The time with the clients is not just about the clothes, but making sure they feel good about themselves,” she continued.
Their work doesn’t focus on visuals exclusively. There’s the Content Kit package, which the BE team uses to builds out copy that their client can post to show off what they do.
The ideas behind these offerings were born from the unique start-up environment that each BE woman found themselves a part of. “What we noticed … was this need where individual business owners have so much going on within their businesses, [they’d only been able to] build their brand to a certain level,” Culp said. Social media and visual strategy — which “is king these days” — was falling by the wayside, to some companies’ detriment. “We have the ingredients to support this people in this position,” Culp added.
They do. Brittanny has been a fashion and lifestyle photographer in New England and New York City for most of her professional life; Patsy runs an events company called “And Celebrate,” and Olivia is a full-time stylist; their experience working on projects together inspired The Branding Edit in the first place. It’s this friendship (and a group text that “won’t quit,” Taylor quipped) that they say is an integral ingredient to their business model, and what sets them apart.
“We are building a relationship here,” Taylor said. “We become friends with our clients. We really want to make sure we’re compatible [with clients] by texting or talking on the phone; we’re going back and forth. We treat our clients like our friends.” And, Rodrigues added, the trio knows what it’s like to run their own businesses and how difficult it can be to wear many hats well.
This attitude has helped foster the BE’s (self-funded) strong start in its first month. Already, they’re reaching everyone from “solopreneurs” to businesses of all sizes — in part, thanks to the sense of community spirit that pervades Rhode Island. “The three of us are known for our work,” Taylor said. “Coming together means something. It makes an actual real business out of it."
