NEARLY THREE DECADES of knowing what to do next.
Brand strategy, positioning, digital presence — for companies that have the people to do the work and need someone to tell them what the work is. Whether the strategy is working, isn't, or doesn't exist yet. I advise. Your team executes.
The method.
Every engagement starts the same way: I look at the situation from every angle. The customer's, the team's, the founder's, the board's, the press's. Then I tell you what's actually going on, without the version that's easier to hear, and what I'd do about it. I sugar coat nothing and hold your hand anyway. Clients have called it first-principles problem solving. I call it the job.
Where it comes from…
Nearly three decades of brand work across fashion, retail, and tech.
I'm Aliza Licht, a brand strategy consultant and senior advisor to companies and their leadership teams, based in New York. I've been doing this since 1998: seventeen years running communications at Donna Karan, where I created DKNY PR GIRL — the reveal alone generated 230 million media impressions — then marketing and communications at Alice + Olivia. Five years at Warby Parker, where I built and led the social team, and I'm now a senior advisor on strategic initiatives. Forbes named me one of its 19 Top Global Personal Branding Experts — I bring that to your founder's visibility and your leadership team's positioning, not just the brand's.
Along the way: a listing day at the NYSE, a few hundred red carpets, Fashion GPS, tech start-ups, and a handful of weeks I won't name when everything went sideways and someone had to decide what to do next.
What that produces is a specific skill. I see the thing in the room that nobody has said yet, and I'll say it. And I can usually tell you how it ends before you've decided how it starts.
Where I’m useful.
A launch that has to land. Product, brand, book, listing. The plan exists; you want someone who has seen fifty of them to tell you where it breaks.
A team that has drifted. Social, marketing, or comms is busy and not moving anything. I’ll tell you what to stop, what to start, and who should own it.
A brand that needs a decision. Relaunch, reposition, rename, partner. The kind of choice a room can debate for six months. I’ll help you make it in six weeks.
A founder who has to become a public voice. What to say, where, how often, and what never to say at all.
A moment you have to get right. The partnership, the cultural tie-in, the announcement. The thing that will be screenshotted either way.
How it works.
Senior advisor. A standing role — embedded a few hours a week, in for a day a month, whatever cadence the team needs. I sit with leadership, I direct the teams, I'm on call when the plan meets reality.
We agree on what done looks like and I stay until it is.
Or office hours. A single call, 15 to 60 minutes, when you need an answer and not an engagement. Book a call: https://intro.co/AlizaLicht
Questions people ask.
What does a brand strategy consultant actually do? Tells you what your brand is, who it’s for, what it should say, and what to stop doing. Then makes sure the team executing it knows the difference. I don’t run the accounts. I decide what the accounts are for.
Is this a fractional CMO? Close. I’ll weigh in on everything a CMO would: positioning, visual identity, copy, campaigns, the team. The difference is I advise the people who run it, including the CMO, rather than running the department myself. If you need someone to run it, I’ll tell you, and I’ll help you hire them, or I’ll pitch in myself in a fractional capacity.
Who is this for? Founders, CEOs, and marketing leaders at consumer-facing companies, fashion and retail especially, who have a team and want senior judgment on top of it. Also the company that’s about to do something public: a launch, a listing, a relaunch, a partnership.
What do you not do? Execute. I don’t write the posts or build the deck. I’ll tell you whether you need an agency, and I’ll run the agency if you do.
How do companies work with you? Three ways: a standing senior-advisor role, a defined engagement around one situation, or a single call. Most start with the call.
The judgment, with my name on it.
I don’t run your accounts or write your posts. I’ll tell you whether you need an agency, and if you do, I’ll manage it. What I bring is the judgment, and I’ll put my name on it.