Brand strategy is the verbalisation of a brand set out in a long-term plan to achieve the business goals. A brand strategy looks to position the brand and differentiate the brand within your market.
The elements to establish within brand strategy include things like: brand values, tone of voice, perception, target audience, competitors, vision and mission, positioning, purpose and personality.
Brand strategy elements
A brand strategy will include many different elements that together will define the core of the brand. Some of the elements to look at include:
Brand values and anti-values
What are the core values that the brand should represent and what should stand against?
Brand tone of voice
What is the tone of voice of the brand?
Brand perceptions (if rebranding)
How is the current brand perceived?
Target audience/markets
What matters to each audience, what do they care about?
Competitors
What can we learn from looking at competitors strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning?
Vision and mission statements
What is the long-term vision of the brand? What does success look like?
How are you going to achieve this vision? A mission is the basics of the business; what you do, how you do it, whom you do it for, and what the benefits are.
Brand purpose
What is the purpose of the brand, why does it exist, and what impact do you want to have?
Brand personality
What is the personality of the brand, what characteristics should it have?
Brand positioning
Brand positioning is there to differentiate you within your market and is defined as a conceptual place you want to own in the target consumer’s mind. There’s different ways to do this. One approach can be looking at core rational or emotional benefits or differences, a specific target market, a specific category, strengths to leverage or gaps to fill relative to how competitors are positioned.
An effective brand positioning will maximize competitive distinctiveness and customer relevancy, which in turn will maximize the brand value.
How is brand strategy conducted?
When it comes to brand strategy we offer different processes, a more in-depth version and a lighter ‘brand dig’, depending on the company size and position.
Difference between “brand strategy” and a “brand dig”?
A brand strategy is more in-depth and includes a workshop where we facilitate a set of exercises. This can be done face-to-face or remotely via conference calls. The workshop will help guide you to pinpoint unique attributes about your brand. It will help define a brand that best reflects your vision and values, and to determine the appropriate strategy to move forward.
We will analyse the findings and turn these into insights to help us define a brand strategy that is unique to you, so we can design something that is “on brand”.
The brand workshop also gives staff invested interest, engages everyone in the process.
A brand dig consists of a questionnaire and a set of worksheets. This is sent to the client to begin the conversation between our team and the client. The results will be analysed and compiled in a brand dig document that will impact the design concepts.
A brand workshop is generally good for established businesses. A brand dig is generally a good start for start-ups and smaller businesses with limited budgets. But a small business/start-up can also benefit from brand strategy.
Originally published at https://www.kandi.co.za on April 30, 2021.
