A brand strategy is a long-term plan that defines how you communicate your brand’s identity, values, and personality to your target audience. It guides every aspect of your branding, from your logo and website to your social media and marketing campaigns. A brand strategy helps you stand out from the competition, build trust and loyalty with your customers, and achieve your business goals.
But how do you create a brand strategy that works for your business? What are the different types of branding strategies you can choose from? And what are the essential elements of a successful brand strategy? In this blog post, we will answer these questions and more. Let’s get started!
Brand Strategy Template
4 Types of Branding Strategies
Before you create your brand strategy, you need to decide what type of branding strategy you want to follow. There are four main types of branding strategies, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Here are the four types of branding strategies:
Product branding: This is when you focus on creating a strong brand identity for each of your products or services. Think of Apple, Nike, or Coca-Cola. Each of their products has a distinct name, logo, design, and personality that appeals to a specific segment of the market. Product branding allows you to differentiate your products from others and create loyal customers who love your brand.
Corporate branding: This is when you focus on creating a strong brand identity for your entire company or organization. Think of Google, Amazon, or Starbucks. Their brand name is synonymous with their company name, and they use it across all their products and services. Corporate branding allows you to create a consistent and unified image for your business and leverage your reputation and credibility across different markets.
Personal branding: This is when you focus on creating a strong brand identity for yourself as an individual or a professional. Think of Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk, or Gary Vaynerchuk. They have built their personal brands around their expertise, values, and personality, and they use them to promote their businesses, causes, or careers. Personal branding allows you to establish yourself as an authority and influencer in your field and attract more opportunities and followers.
Employer branding: This is when you focus on creating a strong brand identity for your employees and potential employees. Think of Netflix, Zappos, or Shopify. They have built their employer brands around their culture, values, and benefits, and they use them to attract and retain the best talent in the industry. Employer branding allows you to improve your employee engagement, productivity, and retention, as well as your customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Essentials for a Winning Brand Strategy
Now that you know the different types of branding strategies, you need to know what are the essential elements of a winning brand strategy. A brand strategy is not just about having a catchy name or a cool logo. It’s about creating a clear and compelling story that connects with your audience on an emotional level. Here are the essential elements of a winning brand strategy:
Purpose
This is the reason why your brand exists beyond making money. It’s the core value that drives everything you do and the impact you want to make in the world. Your brand purpose should answer the question: Why does your brand matter?
Vision
This is the long-term goal that you want to achieve with your brand. It’s the ultimate destination that guides your direction and decisions. Your brand vision should answer the question: Where do you want your brand to be in the future?
Mission
This is the specific action that you take to fulfill your brand purpose and vision. It’s the concrete objective that defines what you do and how you do it. Your brand mission should answer the question: How do you deliver value to your customers?
Values
These are the principles that shape your brand culture and behavior. They are the beliefs that guide how you interact with your customers, employees, partners, and stakeholders. Your brand values should answer the question: What do you stand for?
Positioning
This is how you differentiate your brand from your competitors in the market. It’s the unique value proposition that makes your brand appealing and relevant to your target audience. Your brand positioning should answer the question: What makes your brand different and better than others?
Personality
This is the human-like traits that characterize your brand voice and tone. It’s the way you express yourself through words, images, colors, fonts, sounds, etc. Your brand personality should answer the question: How do you want people to feel about your brand?
Identity
This is the visual representation of your brand personality. It’s the logo, name, slogan, design, style, etc., that make your brand recognizable and memorable. Your brand identity should answer the question: How do you want people to see your brand?
How to Create a Brand Strategy in 8 Steps
Step 01 - Define the Brand Vision and Mission
Articulate the core essence of your brand and the impact you want to make in the world. Think about your brand’s origin story, values, beliefs, and goals. Your brand vision is your long-term aspiration and your brand mission is your short-term action plan to achieve it.
Step 02 - Conduct a Brand Audit and Research Your Target Market
Evaluate the current state of your brand and identify the gaps and opportunities for improvement. You also need to understand your target audience’s demographics, psychographics, behaviors, and pain points. You can use tools such as SWOT analysis, competitor analysis, customer surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc. to gather relevant data and insights.
Step 03 - Identify a Your Unique Value Proposition
Define what makes your brand stand out from the crowd and how you want to position yourself in the minds of your customers. You should highlight the benefits and solutions that your brand offers and how they are different from or better than your competitors. You should also craft a clear and compelling positioning statement that summarizes your brand essence, target market, and competitive advantage.
Step 04 - Develop the Brand Identity and Voice
Create the visual and verbal elements that represent your brand personality and values. You should choose a name, logo, slogan, color palette, typography, imagery, etc. that reflect your brand identity and resonate with your target audience. You should also establish a consistent tone of voice that matches your brand identity and conveys your brand message effectively.
Step 05 - Create a Brand Story and Messaging Framework
Tell a captivating story that connects with your audience on an emotional level and inspires them to take action. You should use storytelling techniques such as setting, characters, conflict, resolution, etc. to craft a narrative that showcases your brand’s purpose, values, and journey. You should also develop a messaging framework that outlines your key messages, supporting points, and call-to-action for different audiences and scenarios.
Step 06 - Establish Brand Guidelines and Standards
Document the rules and best practices for using your brand elements and maintaining your brand consistency and quality. You should create a brand style guide that specifies how to apply your brand identity and voice across different media and channels. You should also create a quality assurance checklist that ensures that your brand meets the expectations and standards of your customers and stakeholders.
Step 07 - Implement the Brand Strategy and Launch Your Brand
Execute your brand plan and introduce your brand to your audience. You should align your internal team and external partners on your brand strategy and goals. You should also create a launch plan that details the timeline, budget, resources, activities, channels, etc. for launching your brand. You should also prepare a launch campaign that generates awareness, interest, desire, and action for your brand among your target market.
Step 08 - Monitor, Measure, and Refine the Brand Strategy
Track the brand performance and feedback and make adjustments to improve your brand over time. You should define the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that reflect your brand objectives and outcomes. You should also collect and analyze the data and feedback from various sources such as analytics tools, customer reviews, social media mentions, etc. You should also conduct regular reviews and audits to evaluate your brand results and identify areas for improvement.
Benefits of Having a Good Brand Strategy
Having a good brand strategy can bring many benefits to your business, such as:
- Increased awareness: A good brand strategy can help you create a strong and consistent image for your business that attracts attention and recognition from potential customers.
- Enhanced loyalty: It can help you build trust and emotional connection with your customers that fosters retention and advocacy.
- Improved profitability: Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, which leads to more referrals, repeat purchases, and revenue.
- Reduced costs: Optimize your marketing efforts and resources by focusing on the most effective channels and messages for your target audience.
- Greater impact: Align your business goals with your social and environmental responsibilities by creating a positive difference in the world.
How to Build Your Brand Strategy with Creately
With Creately, you can create a workspace which serves as a Wiki for your brand strategy.
- Use the brand strategy template to iron out the process of creating your brand.
- Add notes, links and attachments to each section of the brand strategy to add additional information.
- Use colour themes and visual elements to develop the brand personality and establish guidelines for the brand.
- Share your brand strategy workspace with relevant teams to get instant feedback with comments and assign specific tasks when developing the brand strategy with @mentions.
- Export your brand strategy in PNG, JPEG, PDF and SVG formats for presentation purposes.
Wrapping Up
A brand strategy is a long-term plan that defines how you communicate your brand’s identity, values, and personality to your target audience. It guides every aspect of your branding, from your logo and website to your social media and marketing campaigns.
To create a winning brand strategy for your business, you need to define the following elements:
- Purpose: Why does your brand matter?
- Vision: Where do you want your brand to be in the future?
- Mission: How do you deliver value to your customers?
- Values: What do you stand for?
- Positioning: What makes your brand different and better than others?
- Personality: How do you want people to feel about your brand?
- Identity: How do you want people to see your brand?
