Think North Consulting: Building India's most admirable brands

Think North Consulting works as marketing strategists and brand consultants to some of the most admirable, impact-driven companies and organizations. Today, Think North Consulting has been named ‘India’s Most Admirable Brand 2021’ themselves.

Since its inception in 2019, Think North Consulting has largely attracted and aligned itself to brands that create the biggest impact — both in India and globally. They work to craft a brand identity for these organizations, establish their digital presence and spread awareness about how they are making a socio-economic difference. Today, Think North Consulting’s portfolio of clients include some of the biggest names in the impact space — be it organizations that further the cause of women leadership, brands that develop clean technology to deliver safe water, companies that promote sustainable practices or firms that leverage AI innovations to create quality housing solutions for all.

‘Upwards, onwards, inwards’

This ethos describes Think North Consulting’s brand journey perfectly. The firm’s founder Anuradha Agarwal set up the firm back in 2019, at a time when she was navigating certain upheavals in her life. Her journey of introspection and self-reflection prompted her to lean in to her strengths. Her strategic planning capabilities and acute media intelligence had already led to Anuradha being recognised as one of the country’s Top 3 marketers under 30, being a Young Lions Finalist in 2018 and 2019, as well as a Young Spikes Finalist in 2018. Having completed an advanced program in AI-Powered Marketing from IIM-Calcutta, she had also developed extensive know-how in marketing technology.

Now, she combined these strengths at Think North Consulting — a digital consulting, marketing communications and marketing technology firm, which takes its name, its values and its very mission from this idea of charting out a course that goes upwards, onwards and inwards.

In its early days, Think North Consulting functioned with a skeleton crew of trusted team members and a handful of clients who offered their unwavering support. Just like any young firm, their nascent days were a whirlwind of activity — pitching for clients, delivering work, and handling the logistical aspects of a new business. But through it all, Anuradha and her team always maintained a strong focus on constantly educating themselves, updating their skills and developing their industry knowledge. All that effort started paying off, and by the beginning of 2020, Think North had carved out a space for itself as a brand consulting firm that goes the extra mile to drive results.

And then the pandemic hit. Almost overnight, retainers were slashed and marketing budgets were pared down. Anuradha now had a new priority — that of keeping her team’s morale up and enabling them to find their own leadership capabilities within themselves. Unsurprisingly, this phase is when Think North Consulting’s introspective, empathetic and human-centric approach really had a chance to shine.

The team leveraged every bit of their cumulative expertise to think on their feet and carry out marketing improvisations, even as the crisis unfolded to reveal new complexities every day. Together, they worked to guide their clients and partners through these unprecedented times. For some clients, this meant transitioning to a futuristic, digital-first model for the very first time. For others in the essential services space, this meant navigating the crisis with a reimagined brand strategy that would enable them to continue their operations as seamlessly as possible. These efforts were met with success in terms of tangible results for clients. Even in this tumultuous year, Think North was awarded the ‘Communications Leader of the Year (2020)’ and Anuradha made it to Business Mint’s list of ‘30 under 30 in Marketing and Advertising (2021)’.

But perhaps more importantly, their success also came in the form of truly lasting relationships.

Forging win-win relationships

Indeed, relationships are at the core of Think North Consulting’s success, be it with clients, partners or members of their internal team. These relationships transcend just the ordinary corporate give-and-take, with the team being genuinely invested in their clients’ journey. They pick up the clients’ passion, develop in-depth knowledge about the business vertical — and then add a unique marketing spin to the brand, sometimes foreseeing an effective strategy before the client even realizes its need. This personal touch perhaps, is one of the reasons why Think North Consulting has attracted so many clients from within the impact space — finding consultants who go above and beyond contracts and SOWs to drive results is something unique indeed.

This dedication in turn, has earned Think North Consulting valuable loyalty from clients and partners, most of whom have offered unflagging support through the years. The internal team too, is made up of a very close-knit group of people who have become family more than colleagues over the years.

Thinking North

Using their expertise to contribute towards a better world have grown to become Think North Consulting’s own goals as well. They are always excited by the opportunity to enable impact-driven brands, women entrepreneurs and innovative young startups to amplify their voice and intensify their influence. They strive to do this by constantly learning and evolving to offer the best marketing and branding know-how to these clients and partners. Currently, for instance, the Think North team is establishing themselves in the Marketing Technology (MarTech) space, in order to be able to craft even more efficient strategies for clients.

Anuradha herself is involved with an organization that develops technological innovations designed to give all communities equal access to essential resources. She has played a role in training young minds through speaker sessions at Jindal Business School, various Young Accelerator Programs. She has also been part of prestigious sessions with the industry experts and world leaders at Horasis India and Asia Meeting (2020) and Horasis Extraordinary Meeting (2021). Enabling equal opportunities for women in corporate and entrepreneurial spaces is another cause that is close to her heart. She is a part of several female mentorship programmes through which she guides and advises young girls with ambitious dreams.

Power and kindness is what we at Think North Consulting stand for, and this also helps us thrive everyday!

Anuradha Agarwal, Founder, Think North Consulting