Meet Luiza, the Brand Strategist Who’s All About the People

Marketing and brand strategist Luiza Hakobyan often says, “It’s all about the people.” For Luiza, it’s not a pithy, feel-good marketing cliché. Instead, it’s a fundamental truth that drives her to work hard for her clients and protect the consumers she influences.

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That fundamental truth took shape when she was a marketer in the banking industry. “I hired several marketing agencies; some were well-known firms, but I was never satisfied with their work quality or how I was treated as a client,” said Luiza. So, she partnered with two colleagues to start a full-service marketing agency of their own in Armenia.

“From the beginning, we decided that in everything we do, it’s all about the people,” she said. So her agency focused on nurturing customer relationships and delivering amazing work.

One of her agency’s strengths was helping global brands speak authentically to local audiences. Her agency was so good at connecting brands to people that their client list was filled with big-name brands including Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Marriott International, and non-governmental organizations including UNDP, EBRD, and WWF offices.

Over the next 12 years, Luiza hired more employees, opened a second office in Tbilisi, Georgia, and worked on hundreds of projects globally. When she needed to fill a skills gap on a project, she contracted independent talent through Upwork.

Until then, Luiza saw Upwork as a talent source—then COVID-19 hit.

“Companies were getting used to remote work,” Luiza said. “As a client using Upwork, I was amazed at how the platform enabled us to connect with talent from different parts of the world, so we could work together on a single project purpose. I thought, ‘This is the future and I’d love to be a part of it.’”

So, Luiza decided to become an independent marketing and branding specialist through Upwork. “The transition was smooth. I knew the system and how the platform works as a client, so learning how to use it as a freelancer was easy.”

Welcoming the pressure and releasing the stress

Luiza prefers the predictability and self-discipline of her workdays as an independent professional compared to running a traditional marketing agency. “Agency work is like surfing in the ocean: You never know what kind of wave will hit you, and you also have sharks all around.” Adding to all that was the stress of keeping employees motivated, planning for long-term growth, and running daily operations.

As an independent talent, “everything is more predictable because everything rests on you,” she said. “You know your capabilities. You choose the projects to take on. You plan your workdays and commitments. And you interact directly with clients. I love the pressure of having everything rest on me. And I have the freedom to focus on strategy and go deeper when researching a project.”

Influence with integrity

“I love how marketers influence people’s lives,” Luiza said, “People think they’re making their own decisions but really, marketers influence what shampoo people decide to buy, what they drink, their daily habits, and what they share on social media.”  

The areas of marketing she enjoys most are brand and marketing strategy. “I love taking a holistic approach, starting from identifying market research insights, gathering trend data, conceptualizing ideas, and strategizing on how to implement the ideas.”

When given the opportunity, she does all of that to spread positivity, such as when she was tasked to introduce the new Coca-Cola Mini to the Armenian market. Her team linked the product to “giving gratitude” by thanking a variety of local influencers—from thought leaders to athletes—for their contributions to making their society a better place.

Luiza is especially interested in digital business transformation trends and experiential marketing. “Great brand strategies put a brand experience into a lifestyle. Keeping brands one step ahead so they can catch you anywhere and intermingle with your lifestyle as organically as possible—that’s exciting.”

Helping brands influence people’s lives is exciting, and she manages that privilege responsibly. “One of my principles is to be honest and do no harm. So, I don’t work with tobacco and gambling companies, and companies that pollute the environment.” She also refuses work from companies that aren’t transparent about their processes or research. “I say no to anyone who’s secretive.”

A citizen of the world

Driven by Porter Gale’s quote “Your network is your net worth,” Luiza enjoys expanding her client base, consulting with companies located throughout the world—from the U.S. to Australia. Having such a diverse client base taught her that “at the end of the day, we’re all humans, but culture matters a lot.”

For each international client, Luiza is driven to learn their culture so deeply that she can work smoothly with their team and her work delivers the greatest impact for the company. “It’s fun to adapt my thinking to the nuances of different cultures. The more I do it, the more I want as diverse a client base as possible. I feel like a citizen of the world.”

Bridging communication divides

Luiza understands that not every client is well-versed in marketing. So in alignment with her credo that “it’s all about the people,” she sets client expectations by educating them about how the marketing lifecycle works. “They may be inviting me in for a specific segment of the marketing cycle, but it benefits them to understand how that segment influences the rest of the marketing mechanism. Then they can see why they must commit to their investments so they aren’t spent in vain.”

Although people have become more comfortable with remote work, communication can still be challenging at times. “In-house teams build relationships over time. They’ve gone through the team stages of forming, norming, storming, and performing,” explained Luiza. “But as a consultant, I must skip all of those stages and work with them as if I’ve been there all along.”

One way she facilitates clear communication is by recording client calls. Instead of taking notes, she can focus on what’s being said and observe nonverbal communication cues.

She also developed a briefing document that helps clients structure their project goals and deliverables. She goes through the document with everyone, even companies who haven’t committed to contracting her. “I see the time spent with them as an opportunity cost. The client is usually amazed by the clarity they gain and I get all of the answers I need to fully understand the project scope. Sometimes, I may suggest where they should focus their initial project, what things they should add, and what they can ignore to maximize their budgets and increase the chances of reaching their goals.”

Improving communication extends to understanding how she applies her marketing knowledge to different industries. To that end, she completed courses in Product Marketing Management and is taking online courses in digital and transformative marketing from Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.

Tips for marketing professionals going independent

Luiza earned the Expert-Vetted talent status on Upwork. The badge represents the top 1% of talent on Upwork’s human and AI-powered work marketplace based on their technical abilities and soft skills. Here’s advice she’d give marketing talent before they go independent:

1. Stay committed to your values in how you work and who you work for
2. Build a strong portfolio that shows your versatility
3. Be open to new experiences
4. Set clear expectations of deliverables, project goals, deadlines, and communication cadence before the start of a project
5. Communicate throughout a project—evaluate, monitor, repeat
6. Go big because if you start small, you’ll be perceived that way
7. Brush up on your soft skills
8. Know it’s OK to say no because people respect you more when you have your boundaries
9. Remember you’re the expert, so respectfully give clients guidance

Her dream project

Luiza enjoys working with fast-moving consumer goods and in industries steeped in heritage and craftsmanship like wine.

She also gravitates toward brands that improve the world, such as her client who manufactures lab-grown diamonds. “They’re amazing because the traditional diamond industry is run by a very well-established player that controls most of the rough diamonds in the world. Then my client disrupts the industry by reshaping how luxury jewelry is consumed in a way that’s sustainable. I love that. I love that a lot.”

If she could design her dream project, she’d shape a new brand strategy for a product, from research through launch. “I’d be in charge of assembling the perfect creative team to translate my ideas into a vision and the operators to translate my ideas into stories, and spread those stories around the world.”

Luiza currently helps small to large-sized companies with their marketing and branding strategies. If you’re interested in working with her, visit Luiza’s Upwork profile to learn more and start a conversation.