Richards Partners

What Richards Partners does

Richards Partners is a brand strategy, design, and storytelling consultancy headquartered at 40 Kitchener Street in Auckland CBD, New Zealand. The firm positions itself as a team of strategists, designers, and storytellers that helps enterprise organizations clarify brand purpose, align leadership around a shared narrative, and translate brand into commercial outcomes, claiming work across 260+ brands, 10 industries, 65 global trademarks, and 17 cultural markets over 35+ years of practice. Core service lines are brand strategy consulting, brand transformation, and design/stories, delivered as project-based engagements and ongoing retainers; named customers include Hitachi, Orca, ROF, RCP, Amaia, Skyzer, ABODO, and Wisewool. The firm complements its consulting with intellectual-property assets such as the book 'Unravelling Ambiguity' by founder Brian Richards, which codifies its methodology, and a content engine spanning an insights blog, email newsletter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. It is privately held and founder-led, with no disclosed external funding, and operates as a direct, sales-led professional services firm with quote-based, bespoke pricing.

Name

Richards Partners

Website

https://richards.partners

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Richards Partners is an Auckland-based brand strategy, design, and storytelling consultancy serving enterprise clients across multiple industries, with founder Brian Richards and a codified 'Unravelling Ambiguity' methodology backing its 35+ year practice.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Brand Strategy Consulting

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Marketing Consulting Services (541613)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Sustainability & Purpose Brand Design (ESG Narrative, Impact Branding) (MPAAAEAL)

Keywords

• Brand strategy consulting
• Brand design services
• Brand positioning
• Corporate storytelling
• Visual identity design

Headquarters

HQ city

Auckland

HQ country

New Zealand

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Brand Strategy Consulting: Professional consulting services delivered through project-based engagements and retainer arrangements. Services include brand strategy development, design consultation, and organizational storytelling frameworks.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Richards Partners is a brand strategy, design, and storytelling consultancy that helps organizations clarify brand purpose, develop positioning, and construct differentiated narratives. Services are delivered through project-based engagements and ongoing retainer arrangements, focused on board-level brand transformation, purpose alignment, and authentic storytelling for enterprise clients.

Product overview

Richards Partners operates as a brand strategy and design consultancy offering professional services centered on brand strategy development, positioning, and narrative construction. The core offering consists of brand strategy consulting engagements, complemented by the publication 'Unravelling Ambiguity,' a book by founder Brian Richards that articulates the firm's philosophy and methodology around brand as a strategic business asset rather than a marketing function.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Unravelling Ambiguity: A book by Brian Richards on brand strategy for the curious, the committed, and the quietly frustrated. It covers brand impact and serves as a resource on brand strategy.

Products and services

• Brand Strategy Consulting Services

Quantifiable outcome

• Average price premiums achieved in categories: 10%
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Interbrand: Global brand consultancy with a heavy emphasis on brand valuation, strategy, and identity. Closely comparable to Richards Partners' enterprise brand transformation work and global trademark execution.
• Siegel+Gale: Brand strategy, design, and simplification consultancy working with global enterprises on positioning and narrative. Directly comparable on methodology-driven brand strategy engagements.
• Lippincott: One of the most established pure-play brand strategy consultancies, advising boards on purpose, positioning, and identity. Directly comparable to Richards Partners on the brand strategy + senior advisory axis.
• Prophet: Brand and growth-focused consultancy combining brand strategy, innovation, and transformation. Comparable on enterprise brand transformation and senior stakeholder alignment.
• MetaDesign: International brand and design consultancy with offices across Europe, Asia, and the US. Comparable on cross-cultural brand strategy delivery and identity systems.
• Wolff Olins: Brand consultancy working with global brands on positioning, identity, and brand experience. Comparable on senior-led brand strategy advisory for enterprise and consumer clients.
• Landor & Fitch: Large global brand consulting and design firm combining strategy with brand expression and experience design. Comparable on cross-disciplinary strategy-to-execution brand engagements.
• FutureBrand: Global brand consultancy under Interpublic Group delivering brand strategy, identity, and experience. Comparable on end-to-end brand strategy engagements for multinational clients.

Emerging players

• Elmwood: Design-led brand consultancy focused on brand strategy and packaging. Comparable on methodology-driven brand strategy but with a narrower design-centric footprint than Richards Partners.

Broad incumbents

• R/GA: Large, network-affiliated digital and brand agency combining brand strategy with technology and product design. Comparable as an enterprise brand strategy competitor but with substantially broader capabilities and headcount.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/richards-partners
• Instagraminstagram.com/richards.partners
• Xx.com/richardsprtnrs

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Richards Partners