Envision your brand as a championship team, where every player—from vision to voice—executes with precision, driving towards the goal. A masterful brand strategy is like a winning playbook: it sets clear game plans, builds fan loyalty, elevates the team’s performance, and secures the championship title of market leadership, scoring revenue goals along the way.
What is Brand Strategy?
A brand strategy is an essential part of a successful marketing plan that defines a company’s identity, ensuring it stands out in the market. It encompasses more than just logos and colors, embodying the company’s character, values, and the overall customer experience, positioning the brand distinctively against competitors.
Questions to Consider When Building a Brand Strategy:
#1 Why does our business exist?
#2 What does our business do?
#3 How do we do things, and how do we want to look, feel, and sound?
To create your brand strategy, you will need to determine and develop the following:
Core Values: These are the guiding principles of your brand, reflecting what it stands for and believes in.
Steps to Establishing Company Core Values:
- Brainstorm: Begin by listing all the values that resonate with you or your organization.
- Group Similar Values: Combine values that are related to streamline your list.
- Prioritize: Choose the most critical values that reflect your true essence.
- Define Each Value: Clearly articulate what each value means and how it will be demonstrated.
- Seek Feedback: Share the values with others and gather their input to refine them.
- Draft a Statement: Write a clear and concise statement that encapsulates your core values.
- Finalize: Review and adjust your core values until they accurately represent your beliefs.
- Implement: Integrate your core values into daily practices and decision-making processes such as internal communication, employee onboarding, recognition programs, performance reviews, training programs, and external communication with customers as well as community engagement.
Target Audience: Understanding who your customers are and what they value is crucial for tailoring your brand’s message. Conduct a SWOT analysis – a framework used to evaluate a company’s competitive position and to develop strategic planning.
- S: Strengths – Internal evaluation
- W: Weaknesses – Internal evaluation
- O: Opportunities – External evaluation
- T: Threats – External evaluation
Visual Identity: In the competitive arena of branding, your visual identity is your team’s uniform, the colors and emblems that fans recognize from the stands. It’s essential to draft a skilled designer, much like a top athlete, who can craft a visual playbook that captures the spirit of your brand and rallies the crowd. This creative MVP will design a logo that’s as iconic as a championship ring, select a color scheme that waves like a team flag, and choose typography that scores points for readability and style. With a designer on your side, your brand’s visual identity will not just be seen—it’ll be celebrated in the hall of fame of market recognition.
Marketing Plan: This is a strategy for how you will communicate your brand to your audience through various channels.
Develop the marketing strategy using the marketing mix framework – the 4 Ps of marketing. Envision the marketing mix as the ultimate sports lineup, each element playing a pivotal role in the game of market victory:
- Product: The star player, each product is a champion, a solution that sprints across the field to meet the needs, a dream donned in team colors ready to score in the real-world arena.
- Price: The scoreboard of value and price is the strategic play that balances cost and worth, a dynamic move that signals to fans and sponsors alike, rewarding the creators with every point scored.
- Place: The home turf – this is where products and patrons unite, the stadium where availability meets demand, and supply strategies are executed to perfection.
- Promotion: The roar of the crowd, promotion rallies the fans through every channel, broadcasting the team’s saga, sparking curiosity, and drawing a legion of supporters into the fold.
Together, these elements form a winning strategy, driving the brand towards the championship of its industry.
Brand Positioning: This is how your brand is perceived in the market relative to competitors.
The brand must carve out a niche that is distinct from competitors, inspires consumers, and is authentic to the brand’s essence.
As we cross the finish line of this brand strategy race, we trust our playbook has guided you to victory. Your brand strategy is the championship DNA of your company, the rallying cry that unites your fans, and the distinctive game plan that outmaneuvers the competition. It’s about forging a legacy that resonates with your customers’ aspirations and reflects your team’s spirit, from the logo’s design to the revenue victory parade.
For those ready to draft a top-tier roster in branding, consider teaming up with Baer Performance Marketing. Our seasoned coaches can guide you in crafting a brand that doesn’t just compete, but champions a legendary status. Contact us today!
