Best for: Large enterprises and multinationals tackling complex brand challenges — M&As, spinoffs, post-merger rebrands, category repositioning, and enterprise-scale brand transformations. Lippincott is built for clients who need management consulting rigor and creative design in the same room.
Lippincott carries one of the most credible pedigrees in the industry — 80 years of shaping Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Delta, and now Korean Air — and the Oliver Wyman integration gives them a strategic depth most design-led agencies can't match. The honest caveat is that this is enterprise territory: the model, the pricing, and the engagements are calibrated for large organizations with complex briefs, not mid-market companies looking for a fast identity.
Reviewed by Chelsea Greene
The Full Read
Lippincott was founded in New York in 1943 — which makes it one of the oldest brand consultancies in the world and the firm that effectively invented the concept of corporate identity as a practice. J. Gordon Lippincott and Walter Margulies codified the idea that a company's visual and verbal presentation was a strategic asset, not just a decorative one. Eighty years later, that framing is the baseline assumption of the entire industry. The Campbell's soup can redesign, iterations of the Coca-Cola logo, the Delta and Starbucks identities — these are in the portfolio. In 2003, the firm joined the Oliver Wyman Group, making it the brand and design arm of one of the world's leading management consultancies within Marsh McLennan. That structure shapes everything about how Lippincott operates today.
What the Oliver Wyman relationship adds is depth that pure creative studios can't offer: industry expertise across financial services, healthcare, industrials, automotive, energy, and retail, combined with the analytical rigor of a top-tier consulting firm. Lippincott calls their approach "rigorous creativity" — strategists and designers working together rather than sequentially, with quantitative research and competitive analysis feeding directly into creative decisions. It's a meaningful distinction when the brief involves a billion-dollar M&A rebrand or a post-merger identity that needs to function across 50 countries. The Korean Air rebrand in 2025 — the airline's first in 40 years, managing heritage while repositioning for premium global competition after its merger with Asiana — is a recent example of the complexity Lippincott is built to handle.
Their solutions framework is broad: brand building and revitalization, growth strategy, experience design, marketing strategy, customer engagement, and employee engagement. In recent years they've also built out their brand measurement capability, Brand Aperture, a proprietary suite of tools for tracking brand performance quantitatively. The addition of software engineers to the team reflects the direction — this is not an agency that hands off a brand book and walks away.
The tradeoff is clearly scale. Lippincott's Clutch profile is unclaimed and carries no published client reviews. Pricing is not disclosed anywhere publicly. The client list signals the engagement level: Nokia, DuPont, Danaher, Bombardier, Korean Air. These are Fortune 500 companies with multiyear brand programs. Emerging companies, mid-market brands, or clients with narrow, time-boxed briefs will find the model mismatched to their needs.
What Lippincott Does
Build and Revitalize Brands
Brand strategy, identity design, naming, positioning, and brand architecture. Covers launches, mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, and full repositioning programs.
Brand Strategy · Visual Identity · Brand Architecture · Naming · Brand Positioning
Unlock Growth Opportunities
Audience expansion, new product and market development, purpose-rooted innovation, and portfolio strategy.
Growth Strategy · Innovation Consulting · Portfolio Strategy · Audience Segmentation
Reimagine Experiences
Customer experience design, digital experience strategy, and technology-enabled experience systems.
Customer Experience · Digital Experience · Experience Strategy · Service Design
Drive Marketing Strategies
Brand measurement, brand valuation, loyalty strategy, demand generation, and sales enablement. Includes the proprietary Brand Aperture measurement platform.
Brand Measurement · Brand Valuation · Loyalty Strategy · Demand Generation
Create Customer Engagement
Holistic brand experience systems for customer interaction across physical and digital channels.
Customer Engagement · Brand Experience Systems · Omnichannel Design
Inspire and Empower Employees
Internal brand engagement, culture alignment, and employer brand.
Internal Brand · Employee Engagement · Culture Strategy
Selected Work
A snapshot of recent named projects. Full case studies on the agency's site.
Korean Air
Brand Identity · Brand Strategy
First rebrand in 40 years — a full visual identity overhaul repositioning the airline as a premium global carrier following its merger with Asiana, built around a reimagined Taeguk symbol.
Nokia
Brand Identity · Brand
StrategyHelped Nokia re-establish its identity as a technology leadership brand for the era of network infrastructure and connected industries.
DuPont
Brand Identity
Brand refresh for the materials science giant following a major corporate transformation and spinoff cycle.
Danaher
Brand Strategy · Brand Identity
Portfolio brand strategy and identity work for the science and technology conglomerate.
DigiKey
Brand Identity · Brand
ExperienceBrand evolution for one of the world's largest electronic component distributors, sharpening its position in the B2B electronics market.
Oportun
Brand Strategy · Brand
IdentityRepositioning and identity work for the fintech lender serving underbanked communities in the US.
NYC Pride
Brand Identity
Pro bono identity redesign for NYC Pride, expanding the organization's visual language beyond the annual march to reflect its year-round advocacy work.
Hire Lippincott If You Need…
- A post-merger or post-spinoff brand strategy that has to function across global markets, multiple business units, and complex stakeholder environments.
- Brand strategy work that needs to be backed by management consulting-level industry analysis — particularly in financial services, industrials, healthcare, or aviation.
- A proprietary brand measurement framework alongside the creative work, rather than having to source tracking separately.
- An agency with genuine aviation, energy, or enterprise technology branding depth — sectors where category knowledge shapes creative decisions.
- A long-term brand transformation partner, not a project-by-project vendor.
Skip Lippincott If…
- You're a mid-market or emerging brand. The model is calibrated for enterprise-scale complexity and pricing reflects that.
- Your brief is design-led rather than strategy-led. While Lippincott's design output is strong, clients who want a creative-first engagement may find the consulting structure constraining.
- You need a short turnaround or a contained scope. Multi-disciplinary engagements at this level take time.
- You want a verified client review record before committing. Lippincott has no published Clutch or DesignRush reviews, so independent client validation requires working through press and referrals.
Independent Verification
If Lippincott Isn't the Right Fit
Prophet
A global brand and growth strategy consultancy with a strong research and insights practice and enterprise client depth across the US, Europe, and Asia.
Wolff Olins
Known for ambitious, culturally charged brand repositioning; a strong alternative when the brief calls for more creative edge alongside strategic foundations.
Interbrand
One of the oldest global brand consultancies with particular strength in brand valuation, corporate identity, and long-cycle enterprise brand programs.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Lippincott has been part of the Oliver Wyman Group — a business unit of Marsh McLennan — since 2003. That structure is a defining feature of how they operate: strategy and consulting resources from Oliver Wyman are integrated directly into client engagements alongside Lippincott's brand and design teams.
Historically, Lippincott pioneered the concept of corporate identity, with landmark work on brands including Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Delta, Campbell's, and Samsung. Today the firm is particularly recognized for post-M&A and spinoff branding, aviation and industrial sector expertise, and enterprise-scale brand measurement.
Their portfolio spans healthcare, financial services, technology, aviation, industrials, energy, retail, and nonprofit. They are especially credible in sectors where brand strategy intersects with regulatory complexity and long-term stakeholder management — financial services and aviation being the clearest examples.
The firm states they work with companies "from start-ups to start-overs," and they have done pro bono work for nonprofits and cultural institutions. In practice, their portfolio and model skew heavily toward established enterprises. Startups would need to weigh whether the scale and cost structure align with their stage.
Lippincott's European hub is London, which serves clients across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East. The Korean Air rebrand was managed primarily out of Hong Kong with involvement from the Seoul and London offices, reflecting the global team structure.
No. Rates and minimum project sizes are not disclosed publicly. Given the enterprise client profile, prospective clients should expect consulting-tier pricing and engage directly for scoping.
Ready to see if Lippincott fits your project?
Visit the agency's site to view their full portfolio, or compare them against the rest of our top picks.