Some of Manchester’s big players in the fashion, apparel and branding businesses; from brand owners to University lectures, gathered in the Malmaison Hotel for the MFN Branding seminar with Geek Branding Consultancy.

The evening consisted of a presentation by Geek Branding co-founders Amanda Burrows and Rafael Gilston, which presented a golden opportunity, for smaller retailers in the room, to walk away with big brand consultancy tips usually spared for the likes of Oasis.

Amanda Burrows and Rafael Gilston

But firstly, who are Geek? Company cofounder, Amanda Burrows, confessed that ‘I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do after I left school’. Burrows studied Business at The University of Nottingham after which she moved to London and worked with Debenhams. Eventually she was headhunted by House of Fraser and helped to set up their first own brand, Linier. Under Burrows’ leadership House of Fraser also became Diesel’s and Miss Sixty’s biggest suppliers. Burrows was then headhunted by Mosaic to head up the branding of Whistles, which Amanda says, ‘was best job I ever had’. After the company was bought out Burrows became Managing Director for Shoe Studio and this is where Amanda and Rafael Gilston met, Gilston being a brand consultant hired by Shoe Studio.

Rafael Gilston studied Textile Management at Leeds University and, after graduating, worked for a spinning factory in Bolton. Gilston admits: ‘it was the only thing I didn’t major in, so I had to learn as I went along in the factory which was a huge embarrassment’. Gilston soon moved into Market Research and his career eventually saw him working alongside Mary Portas of TV’s Mary Queen of Shops, working with retail brands which then lead to the setting up of Geek.

After attendees had gotten better acquainted with the Geek cofounders Gilston announced: ‘brand consultancies and managers don’t want to share their secrets with you ... we’re quite happy to do that ... hopefully you’ll come away with some hot tips tonight’, the room was gripped.

The first golden tip divulged was, Geek believe brands should have two things before Geek can help them. The first being: vision and drive to change and adapt, as without these qualities you won’t benefit from branding consultancy. Burrows admitted ‘I hated consultancies when I was at Whistles, I thought I knew everything about my brand’, she now sees that she was ‘blinkered’ in her perspective from within the brand. The second point raised and a point which was met with a few sighs and smirks from event attendees was, the need for a branding budget.

Social Media was a point raised frequently throughout the presentation and in the question and answer segment, Gilston told the audience that brand owners used to tell consumers what their brand stood for, ‘but now’ he went on to say, ‘it seems consumers are telling you ... this is the way branding is going, through things like Twitter and Blogs, consumers are telling you about their experiences’.

All the attendees MFN spoke to enjoyed the evening and found it informative. Jen Scott-Russell of H’Atelier in Manchester’s Northern Quarter said “it was really interesting, told me a lot I didn’t know, made me think about lots of things and I’m glad I came’. Emma of Sauce Lingerie said of Rafael Gilston and Amanda Burrows, “when people really know what they’re talking about it comes across in a simple and understandable way and I think that is the sign of a real professional’.

The next MFN event is an evening with my-wardrobe.com CEO and founder Sarah Curran, tickets and more information is available here. Amanda Burrows attended 'an evening with Sarah Curran' at the LFN event in London and said ‘it was really worth it, she’s really good!’

The next LFN event is a panel discussion with online editors from GQ and VOGUE in London, tickets are only £10 and more information is available here.

Fancy going to these events for free? Simply become a member of the Fashion Network and attend all of our events and networking evening for free. More information here...

Words by Jordan McDowell. Images by Jennifer Urwin.

To read more about the Geek Event, visit Jordan's personal blog - Fashion Rambler.

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