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Brand Strategy
You've Misunderstood Brand Strategy All This Time. And the 6 Critical Questions You Need Answers To.
Brand strategy isn't a shiny object that's nice to have to impress people. Never was.
If pretty design pops up in your head, let's get this straight and be on the same page. That's not what we mean when we talk about brand strategy.
That's number one misconception for probably decades.
Identity design is a part of it, not brand strategy in its entirety.
To double down on this, none of this represents brand strategy or branding as a whole:
- Not the slogan
- Not the logo
- Not the website
- Not the packaging
- Definitely not that ego-boosting video made to impress the bosses
What Is It exactly?
A brand strategy is essentially a plan, but not just any other plan. It’s crucial for how you will build, manage, and manifest your brand, the "expectation" if you will. (Not following? Check out Defining Brand.)
A brand strategy can be seen as a roadmap that helps you stay focused on your goals and ensures that everyone in your organization is on the same page.
This plan informs almost every important decision and action you take, keeping your business in check and most of the time sparking interesting inspiration.
Most of the time, it's the backbone of all the other strategies you'll need to craft for your business: marketing, sales, PR, CRM, R&D, or even talent acquisition, etc.
What to Expect from a Brand Strategy?
Answers that provide clarity and coherent direction for the company's development.
As discussed, it could be applied to multiple business functions within a company. However, it is probably the only natural occasion for anyone to look at the company so zoomed out that every other part of the company is also taken into consideration.
There are plenty of variations and formats available in the market, but we believe any business will need clear answers to the below.
- What is your category and what do you do?
- Who do you do it for?
- How do you compete against anyone else?
- Why do they need what you do?
- Where do you make the impact?
- When does the impact happen?
Whether it is a local, small up-and-coming business or an established corporation, these are the most relevant and effective questions for companies that want to reimagine the way things are going, look for a gap in the market, then close it by pivoting the company’s direction in a certain way.
What Does a Brand Strategy Include?
What to include is sometimes the strategy itself. That depends on the needs of your business and your customers. Therefore, there's simply no one-size-fits-all approach. It has to be one that gives you excitement about the future development, makes you stand out in a crowd, and helps you feel comfortable in your own skin. But typically, these are the must-have components to keep the wheels spinning:
- Value proposition: This is a concise statement that describes the unique value your business provides to customers. It should be clear, specific, and relevant to the tribe you wish to serve. Sometimes this will be referred to as the “Brand Promise” by many. Often, value proposition is the real essence of a brand, and everything will be built based on it.
- The tribe: A.k.a your target audience and stakeholders. It is the specific group of people that your brand is designed to serve. Understanding their needs, wants, and pain points is critical to creating a brand that resonates with them. Essentially, without them, you won’t have a brand.
- Personality: This might sound a bit strange, but realistically, people won't be attached to a cold, robotic company. A certain level of human touch will create the emotional attachment we need. Most of the time, it has to do with the look & feel, and tone & voice of the brand.
- Positioning statement: This is a concept in a statement format that describes how your brand is different from competitors in the minds of your target audience. It should be concise, memorable, and reflect the most compelling value proposition of the brand. This is usually what we advise clients to go back to and sense check whatever they do, making sure they are on the mark and not shifting gears too much.
- Identity Systems: This is often the one that gets the most attention. It is a set of distinct, ownable elements and principles of your brand. For more sophisticated brands, they will break it down into two parts: visual and verbal systems. Visual identity system is the familiar bit, the logo, color palette, typography, imagery, iconography, texture & materials, and many more. Verbal identity system doesn’t always get equal attention from most brands, but it is just as important. It could be the tagline, campaign slogans, glossary and keywords, headline specimens, or even the entire messaging hierarchy. Both should be applied consistently across all channels for the systems to do their job: making you distinct and identifiable.
“Alright, alright, I get it. But Where Do I Even Start?”
We see this coming. Again, no one-size-fits-all here. This is why it’s always a complex challenge to tackle. Let's establish some common ground to begin with - a brand audit.
Be it a startup or a multinational company, a brand audit should be one of your many important checkpoints in a year, to keep it in check and make sure the company is on the desired course.
Grab your brand steward (brand or marketing team) for a chat. They are in the best position to help you through this. Alternatively, we've prepared a Brand Audit Toolkit for some of our clients. Grab a copy of it here to begin with and gain momentum.
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