How to Create an Awesome Brand Strategy

A comprehensive brand strategy needs to go further than some simple bullet points and a logo. It must encompass the reasons for making certain decisions, the impact they’ll have and provide an outline of each step and how they’ll flow into each other. Without this detail, you’ll find the outcome isn’t in line with the goals you set out to achieve.

Why brands fail

One of the easiest traps marketers fall into when creating a brand strategy is pandering to what they think customers want. This prevents real innovation, as companies simply produce marketing campaigns that mirror those of their competitors. To bring something truly interesting to the table they must take chances and break away from the crowd, setting the standard for tomorrow and not simply getting lost amongst the predictability of what customers expect.

Despite this need to be innovative, brands must also be consistent to ensure their marketing materials are instantly recognizable. While Coca-Cola’s branding is usually strong, it took a misstep in 1985 when it launched New Coke and discontinued its classic formula. The backlash to the loss of traditional Coke saw it reintroduced within three months and New Coke was discontinued in 2002. Such sweeping changes can spell disaster for a brand.

Taglines, such as Coca-Cola’s ‘Enjoy Coke’, are important parts of a brand strategy and they differ from slogans, which tend to be associated with individual campaigns. A tagline should be short, snappy and a permanent reminder of your brand’s values and everything your company represents. Companies that try to be too broad with their taglines or tap into cliches will find they’re easily forgotten and therefore don’t perform their desired function.

Defining your brand and objectives

You need to have a clear idea of what your brand is all about and what it’s trying to achieve, otherwise you’ll never be able to communicate this to your customers. In order to define your brand, it’s worth asking these questions:

• What problem is the brand designed to solve?
• What does an ideal customer look like?
• Who is in direct competition?
• How does the brand make customers feel?
• Why should customers trust this brand?
• What is the brand’s story?
• What is the brand’s personality?

Once you have the answers, you’ll find you have a more well-rounded picture of your brand, which will influence all of your marketing activities and your brand strategy going forward.

Listen to the episode via your preferred pocast platform:

• Spotify
• Audible
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Amazon Music

What your brand stands for can be as important or even more so than the product, as was the case with ridesharing company Lyft. It spent a lot of resources promoting its social responsibility credentials in the wake of accusations its practices put workers and customers in danger.

Lyft now boasts an inclusive, environmentally aware and socially responsible internal business culture that works to build communities. This is then communicated through all of its dealings both with its staff and the public. In a bid to underline its social responsibility, Lyft donated $1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union when President Trump enforced a travel ban to curb immigration in 2017. In comparison, its competitor Uber refused to take part in an associated strike, demonstrating which side it was coming down on.

Target market research

Doing the research to make sure you know your target market inside and out will put you in a good position to create an awesome brand strategy. There are a number of areas where you need to collect data in order to build up a complete picture of your ideal customer. These include income, as pitching your product at the right price point will affect its success or failure, and level of personalization.

Once you know your target audience, make sure you’re  demonstrating how your brand is relevant to your customers at every step of the way. Also, keep underlining what it offers that your competitors don’t and show why your brand should be trusted above others. Among the brands that do this well are the supermarket chains Aldi and Lidl, as their marketing constantly demonstrates how the customer can pay less in their stores than at more-established rivals.

Harness the power of storytelling

Compelling stories are much more engaging than a company talking endlessly about itself. Moving people through solid storytelling can actually have the effect of building a strong brand and a loyal customer base in a more sustainable fashion. That means you should put it at the heart of your brand strategy, so it can tap into the fundamental human need for stories.

What storytelling does is make big ideas more accessible to everyone; it demonstrates your value, and what you can do for customers in a way they can relate to and without coming across as overly salesy. A story-based approach to marketing results in more meaningful content, which has inherent value for both the business and its audience.

Assets tapping into storytelling methods must have two key features. The first is having intrigue to get people interested; the second is creating enough depth to maintain customers’ attention over an extended period. All of the elements of your asset, whether they’re text, images, videos, animations or graphics, must build an emotional connection with your audience. This will mean it lasts longer in your customers’ memory and promotes a bond with your company.

Why invest in creative brand guidelines?

Equipped with invaluable information about your brand’s voice and personality, it’s then up to you to communicate this successfully to your audience. This isn’t a one-off task, but an ongoing process that must be kept up throughout all of your marketing efforts. Having clear creative brand guidelines to stick to has a number of benefits, including a greater understanding of best practice by the whole team and improved communication. This, in turn, should lead to more efficient campaigns.