Joanna Seddon and Nik Gharekhan launch brand consultancy Presciant

Joanna Seddon and Nik Gharekhan, two of the world’s leading brand strategy experts, have founded Presciant, a New York-based brand consulting firm.

The former Ogilvy executives bring a combined 60+ years of brand strategy and consulting experience to the firm, which will help clients optimize their brand to drive future revenue, profit, and growth. Presciant will offer data-driven brand strategy recommendations that are more palatable to marketing-wary C-suite executives – directly linking brand building to financial results.

The firm’s consulting offering includes branding in M&A, brand architecture, brand creation, brand valuation, and brand budgets & ROI.

Presciant’s current team is composed of 11 people, but also pulls from a wider network of branding and communications experts in several partner firms, including The Sway Effect and TM20.

“Brands have never been more important as companies pivot their strategies for the new world,” Seddon told publication Campaign US. “We thought it was time to create something which represents the future of marketing.”

Seddon and Gharekhan previously built a brand strategy practice at Ogilvy, with Seddon serving as president of global brand consulting and Gharekhan serving as senior consulting partner. Before that, they co-founded Optimor, Kantar’s brand strategy consultancy. The pair also worked together at FutureBrand, where Seddon was a founding partner and EVP, and Gharekhan was an engagement director.

Seddon started her career at management consultancy The Addison Group, where she worked on engagements related to business growth and customer strategy. She holds undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of Oxford.

Earlier in his career, Gharekhan was a principal consultant at PwC and a senior engineer at IBM. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BS from Columbia University.

“It's really been an age of shifting loyalties and consumers switching to new brands,” Gharekhan said. “We believe that will translate to clients willing to work with new consulting partners.”

The pandemic and its consequent strain on consumer finances and sentiment has led many shoppers to shift their spending to essential products such as groceries and household products. It has also caused many consumers to trade down to less expensive products within categories – including cheaper store and private label brands. Stockouts and lockdown restrictions have further encouraged consumers to try different brands or shop at different retailers.