Developing sensory brands into successful businesses
About
THE FRANKLY SPEAKING is an independent agency that turns sensory brands into successful businesses. We work across three areas:
STRATEGIC BRAND DEVELOPMENT
– Sharpening positioning and building brands, collections and collaborations from concept to launch-ready
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & SALES REPRESENTATION
– Opening markets, building distribution and driving commercial growth
BRAND EDUCATION CONSULTING
– Creating training programmes that teach sales teams how to tell the brand story and sell according to the local market and culture
Beyond these three pillars, we bring supporting capabilities, like market research, communications strategy, and project management, to execute wherever a brand needs us.
Founded to redefine the discourse around perfumery, we work closely with visionary founders and brands inspired by contemporary culture, sharpening positioning, opening the right doors and building sustainable commercial growth.
“We believe in honest and authentic messaging and a strategic approach that involves sharp analysis, planning, strategy creation, flawless execution, feedback and unconventional problem-solving.”
Services
All our projects are handled on a case-by-case basis. We work in two ways: focused one-off engagements that solve a specific challenge, and long-term partnerships where we drive commercial strategy and execution alongside the brand. To accommodate our clients' preferred working methods, we provide forward-thinking individual solutions by partnering with other experts or subcontracting additional service providers.
- BRAND DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCT CONSULTANCY+
- STRATEGY & MARKET INTELLIGENCE+
- COMMUNICATION STRATEGY & COPYWRITING+
- BRAND EDUCATION+
- COMMERCIAL STRATEGY & EXECUTION+
- SALES REPRESENTATION & MARKET OPENINGS+
- BRAND, PROJECT & PARTNERSHIP MANAGEMENT+
The Founder
JULIA AHTIJAINEN
As a strategic brand consultant and business developer, I help founders build, position and sell perfume brands. With extensive experience in communications, brand management and commercial partnerships, I create bespoke strategies that drive real growth — and I stay involved through execution, from distribution strategy to the sales conversation itself.
I believe every brand begins with its owner: their mindset, motivations and governing patterns shape every decision the brand will make. My background in semiotics, culture studies and the psychogenetics of human behaviour lets me work at that level — offering unconventional insight into communication, behaviour and decision-making that most agencies never touch.
Clients benefit from an interdisciplinary, culture-sensitive approach, tailored to their specific goals — whether that’s developing a new project or collection, opening a new market, or designing the educational programmes that equip teams to represent the brand every day.
The Founder
