Have you ever wondered how a creative beginning shapes a major B2B brand-building mindset?
We are excited to share the full transcript and video of our insightful conversation with Mansi Rastogi, the Founding Partner at 9 Point Design [00:00:33, 02:00:240]. With over 15 years of experience, Mansi has helped build over 400 brands, including major names like AIA, Mahindra Finance, McDonald’s, and Cadbury.
In this episode, Mansi details her inspiring journey from her creative roots and freelance design career to becoming a leading Brand Strategist focused on the often-overlooked B2B space [00:01:16, 02:00:240]. She shares invaluable advice on what truly defines a brand, why many brands fail, the crucial difference between B2B and B2C strategies, and how freelancers and business owners can confidently scale their pricing and services.
Host: Have you ever wondered how a creative start shapes a big B2B brand-building mindset? While freelancing, I went to one client. I was pitching my design service, and the client said, “Do you want to be the head of my department?” But I didn’t have educational experience in design. I said, I want to learn design. I realized I didn’t want to learn with a purely Indian institute. Design without content is zero.
Our guest today is Mansi Rastogi, Founding Partner at 9 Point Design. Since 2008, she’s built 400+ brands, having worked with AIA, Mahindra Finance, McDonald’s, Cadbury, and more. What was the most challenging project you handled in your career? Today, we will learn about B2B brand building from Mansi. Some brands in the world are very successful, and some fail. According to you, what is the major reason brands fail? So, what is the psychology of a luxury brand? As a brand strategist, is an MBA necessary? People consider what they see to be branding. Actually, branding is… At what point did you feel you are not a designer; you are a Brand Strategist? This episode will give you everything necessary for B2B brand building. Have you seen any worst rebranding? Do you think they made the biggest mistake? Many young creators who start building brands quickly give up on branding , even on the business itself. Branding is like running a marathon ; marketing is like running 100-meter sprints. If you could give advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Welcome, Mansi.
Mansi: Thank you.
Host: So, you work for B2B brands for brand building, right?
Mansi: Yes.
The Creative Roots and Early Career
Mansi: For that, I have to go back a little bit, all the way up to my childhood. I’ve been surrounded by my mom, my aunt, and my grandmother, who have been very creative throughout my childhood. My mom is an artist, and she would sit and do arts and crafts with me. So arts, painting, and craft were literally in my blood.
I started doing design on the first few computers, starting when I was in my 10th standard. In college, I did my BA in Economics but was more interested in design, so I joined a course to learn software like CorelDraw and Photoshop. My teacher eventually asked me to teach, and that was my first job, where I earned ₹3,000 a month. I learned things deeply, like what effect pixel colors would have when using blending modes in Photoshop.
After teaching, I wanted to learn, so I worked at a web design company and a print company. I even worked as an intern in a video editing production unit. While freelancing, a client offered me the role of Head of the Media Department at their software company.
I realized I had practical experience but lacked educational experience in design. I wanted international exposure but didn’t have the money to go outside India. I found a Singapore-based design school in Bandra, which had teachers from Canada, Spain, and other countries. The fee was ₹8 lakhs for two years. My grandmother gave me the first ₹1 lakh to start. I quit my job, went back to school, and started to freelance simultaneously. I was the oldest in my class at 26 or 27 years old, while the others were much younger.
Transition to Strategy and Core Learnings
I got a chance to learn with foreign mentors. My French Canadian professor taught us not to criticize still-life paintings but to see them with the eye of the observer. He praised a lot more and asked us to observe how the other person was observing. My biggest learning was that they are very open-minded. They appreciated it if we disagreed, and there was no “professor vs. student” tussle. They gave us options like adults. I use the same approach with my team today.
I switched to Brand Strategy because I realized design without content is zero. I learned that the decision-making power rests with the MD or CEO, not the designer. I realized I should be adding value at the strategy stage, not just design or content. I initially worked with a brand strategist who eventually told me I could do the same.
The most challenging situations weren’t projects but challenging clients. A project is challenging when you don’t have experience. One of my biggest early projects in 2012 required a lot of legwork and research, as there was no one to guide us.
Defining a Brand and Cause of Failure
The word “branding” was, and still is, very confused. People don’t understand it because it’s intangible. They confuse the logo, messaging, or product with the brand. The brand is the company’s full personality, vision, mission, and how it treats its vendors, clients, and employees.
Most brands that have failed lacked long-term vision in their leadership or failed to evolve with the times, like Kodak or BlackBerry.
Luxury Brands and Psychology
Luxury brands like Rolex are interesting because their value is mostly “made out of air”. Their strategy is built over many years (50 to 100 years of investment). The way Rolex became a luxury brand was by associating its innovative waterproof watch with a key athlete, gaining immediate clout. They also limit their production to create scarcity and desire.
Regarding an MBA, if you want to get a job, it’s necessary for progress. But if you want to own an agency or a brand, no one has ever asked me if I have an MBA; they only ask to see my work and results.
Branding is like running a marathon. It’s the stable base. Marketing is like running sprints. Branding requires a long-term vision and continuous review, like a yearly review, as the brand, just like people, evolves.
The Role of a Brand Strategist
I stopped being a designer when I had to explain and train my team on how to do their jobs. The Brand Strategist part came in when clients presented a superficial problem, but I saw the depth. For example, a client complaining their LinkedIn marketing is not working has a deeper problem: a weak brand foundation and messaging. My role is to get them clear on their base levels—who they are and what they stand for—which then clears up their messaging and marketing.
B2B vs. B2C Strategy
B2B clients are a little different from B2C. Their main problem is that they don’t understand the need for branding. They only come to us when they notice:
- Competition is going ahead.
- They are going global, and their brand looks inferior.
- They are getting lower prices or have to negotiate more.
The moment you are haggling on price, your brand is not working for you. If sales are happening, it means your sales team is strong, but the brand’s job is to give them ammunition and make the sale easier.
In B2C, you target one consumer, and data is easy to get. B2B requires approvals from multiple levels—purchase managers, influencers, etc.—because purchases are large and decision-driven, not personal. I chose B2B because they are the underdog and needed help; agencies often overlooked them for the sexier B2C work.
B2B founders are usually reserved and risk-averse. When a client with a recent logo insisted it wasn’t visible, I planted the thought to just improve it (refresh) instead of demanding a full change. That helped them increase visibility, and now they are open to further changes.
Building Brand Confidence and Culture
The people who come to us recognize there is a problem, but they don’t always know it’s a brand problem. They might say, “LinkedIn isn’t working” or “The website needs changing”. The lightbulb moment happens when they realize they aren’t getting a foot in the door because they don’t look like a premium brand.
A Confident Brand comes from self-worth. It’s about how you treat your employees and vendors. Your vendors, investors, and employees should be interested in investing inside the brand because they know the company’s value, processes, and expertise.
The brand only enhances who you are as a company; it does not change you. Confidence is knowing your capabilities; it’s the difference between confidence and arrogance.
Most B2B founders who have been in business for 5-10 years have clarity on their vision but are not able to articulate it. When a brand experiences exponential growth (e.g., from 50 to 300 employees) , the best approach is constant communication with your employees, starting from the onboarding process, to reinforce the vision and values.
Mistakes, Storytelling, and Platforms
The biggest mistake small businesses make is that they don’t think branding is important. They fail to realize that the behavior of their sales person becomes part of the brand.
Small businesses should focus on documenting and sharing their stories (storytelling) from the beginning, as Tata does. For example, documenting when employees were proactive to help put out a fire at a neighboring factory is a story that showcases your values (proactiveness, community care) to new employees.
Online branding is essential, and you have no other choice. LinkedIn is a very good platform for B2B, and the leadership should also be building their personal brands there. YouTube is another platform B2B brands should use more for evergreen content.
If sales are strong but marketing is weak, there will be a lot of stress and tension to get the prices you want. Marketing gives you the push where sales cannot go. Caterpillar is a great case study; the B2B mining machine company became successful by helping the workers (their biggest brand ambassadors) by starting with high-quality Cat Boots and protective gear.
Unconventional Marketing and Rebranding Examples
Two unconventional marketing campaigns stand out:
- Hans Brinker Hostel in Amsterdam, known as the worst hostel in the world, decided to own it. Their campaign was humor-based, with ads like “Rooms that actually have a door,” turning the hotel into an attraction.
- Liquid Death, a sparkling water brand, used a negative, scary tonality and imagery related to heavy metal music, making it look unique and brilliant.
Brands should rebrand when the current brand is no longer working for them, or if they need to refresh and reposition themselves for an international market. A pivot is changing the product or service, like McDonald’s changing its menu for India.
Worst rebrands happen when companies don’t consider the consumer or their legacy: Tropicana changed its packaging so much that consumers couldn’t identify it. Gap also failed by not looking at their legacy. Bira lost market share after changing its name (to B91) and packaging, making it unrecognizable to the customer.
A successful rebrand was Aditya Birla Capital, which united 13 different scattered businesses under one consistent umbrella. They also did excellent marketing (“Bleed Red”) after the rebrand.
Rebranding is not necessary every single time. It’s only important if the end result you are looking for requires it, such as expansion into new spaces.
The best marketing campaign, in my opinion, was Campbell’s Soup’s user-generated content YouTube ads, which used early AI to match ads to the user’s online search history. The Ronaldo’s girlfriend billboard campaign was also brilliant because the billboard was just one piece; the viral nature of the campaign was driven by its reuse across TV and user-generated material, reaching a much wider audience.
Psychology and Business
Consumer psychology (and psychology in general) is fundamental to branding. You must understand the psychology of the five key audiences (consumer, vendor, employee, media, investor).
An investor is looking for benefits, like money, the future of the business, and the impact on society. A consumer is looking for, “What benefit am I going to get?”.
Regarding the Jaguar rebrand, I personally did not like it, as the logo looks very similar to another bathroom fittings brand, and I feel it lost the iconic symbol of the jaguar.
A brand owner using their own product shows confidence. Not only should you use your own, but you should also use others’ products to improve your own. Retail businesses use mystery shoppers to experience their own brand.
Final Advice and Key Takeaways
The biggest influences in my life were my grandmother and my mom. My grandmother’s attitude was always, “If I don’t know, let’s learn”. My mom was a self-taught artist who would go wild with creativity and never back down in life.
- Partnership/Family Business: It depends on the maturity of the people involved. Having a clear understanding and being able to compartmentalize personal and business relationships is crucial.
- Pricing: It’s about a mindset change for the service provider, not just what the client can afford. You must transition from charging low to a higher price gradually, continually upgrading your skill and confidence, even if it means practicing in front of a mirror.
- Advice for Younger Self: I would give financial advice. I wish I had learned how to manage money and finances better, as it was my weakest part.
- Brand Myth to Dispel: The biggest one is that B2B doesn’t need branding. The second is that your brand is just your logo.
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Top 3 Tips for a Startup Founder:
- Document and share your stories (as they are starting with zero).
- Get your hands dirty—get down to the customer level and continuously improve based on feedback.
- Consistency—keep sharing content about product improvements, processes, and people.
