The brandis everything.
We're brandr — a brand consultancy and research house in Reykjavík. We've spent nineteen years believing one thing: the brand is the most powerful strategic tool a leader has.
19+
years operating
200+
Brands measured
47+
Active case studies
6+
People in the studio
What we believe
A brand is the gap between what a company says about itself and what its customers actually experience. Our job is to close that gap, with strategy, with measurement, and with honesty.
Why we're called brandr
A word that traveled a long way home.
The English words brand and branding trace back to the Old Norse brandr. The word crossed the Atlantic, took on commercial meaning in American English, and grew into the discipline marketers know today.
brandr Index
A: Icelandic marketers have spent decades looking for the right native word: vörumerki, auðkenning, mörkun. The translations sound stiff. None carries the same charge as "brand" and "branding."
Original
So we kept the original. Ancient in Icelandic, current in every marketing meeting, it is the rare word that needs no translation and no explanation.
Old Norse · c. 800
brandr
American English · 1800s
brand
Marketing discipline · today
branding
Reykjavík · 2006
brandr
What we do
We help brands connect with people.
Brandr talks about emotions. We examine and strengthen the feelings people associate with brands, and we help companies use their resources better by making marketing, strategy, and people decisions more evidence-based.
01
Brand emotion.
We measure what people actually feel about a brand, the associations behind choice, loyalty, and recommendation.
02
Brand strategy.
We turn measurement into a position leadership can defend and repeat. Strategy is what happens between the data and the decision.
01
Brand efficiency.
We take the guesswork out, so marketing, strategy, and people decisions get faster and cost less, with the right information reaching the right people.
Team
The people who do the actual work.
CEO
Founder
.webp)
Head of R&D
.webp)
CMO
Creative Director
.webp)
Consultant
brandr Index
Stop guessing.
Start knowing.
Over 200 companies across Iceland and Northern Europe already use it to steer brand strategy.
Brandr Index scores your brand across four dimensions and 30 factors that move buying decisions, from customer loyalty to competitive position.
Because a brand that's only lived on the outside doesn't last.
Your employees are your strongest brand advocates. Brandr Employer Index measures how well your internal brand matches the promise you make externally.
.webp)
Employer Index
Does your team believe in your brand?
The team
What strong brands are built on.
We focus on three things: strategy, identity, and research, and do them to a standard usually reserved for far bigger budgets.
01
Vörumerkjarýni
Vörumerkjarýni is Brandr's strategic foundation service. A research-led process that turns analysis into a brand position your team can build on for years.
VA
XA
XA
How it works
Research, positioning, and the VAXA framework. The foundation everything else stands on.
It starts with evidence. We review what you already know, add fresh qualitative and quantitative research, and run it through the VAXA framework to find your brand's core and its X-factor. What you get is a data-driven positioning strategy and a platform your team can build on for years.
02
Vitund
Vitund measures your brand from the inside. A workshop that turns employees' beliefs into something leadership can act on.
How it works
A card game that shows leadership whether the team is pulling in the same direction.
Led by Brandr consultants, Vitund turns a workshop into a game. Groups of four to six choose cards to describe the brand as it is now, then as they want it to become. Everyone gets an equal say, and the gaps between them are the point. Brandr reports back with guiding principles for leadership. A digital version of the exercise runs for larger teams.
03
Identity
The naming, marks, type, color, voice, and applications that turn a strategic position into something people can see, hear, and feel.
.webp)
.webp)
How it works
The design system that turns strategy into
a recognizable brand.
a recognizable brand.
Identity is where strategy becomes something people can see. We design the marks, type, color, voice, and applications, and the system that keeps them coherent across every touch point. Nothing is decorative; each element earns its place from the position underneath.
.webp)
Best Icelandic Brands
Iceland's benchmark for brand excellence.
Brandr created and runs Best Icelandic Brands, the award for Iceland's best-managed brands. An independent expert jury, brand data, and public research decide the winners each year.
6yr
Running since 2020
110+
Experts on the jury
3
International markets
Let's talk
Your brand is worth a 30-minute conversation.
Whether you want to measure where your brand stands, build a stronger strategy, or see how you compare to the competition, it starts with a conversation. No pitch. Just an honest look at your situation and where we might help.
.webp)
.svg){kind=logo}