By definition, brand strategy is a long-term plan for the development of a successful brand in order to achieve specific goals. A well-defined and executed brand strategy affects all aspects of a business and is directly connected to consumer needs, emotions, and competitive environments. But what does that really mean? That’s exactly what you’ll learn in Part 1 of my new Introduction to Brand Strategy series.

Goal Definition

As you develop a brand strategy, it helps to start at the beginning. In other words, begin by setting your business goals. Why are you creating a new brand? What do you hope to achieve by launching the new brand? Use those long-term objectives as a basis for all of your strategic branding efforts.

For example, are you trying to reach a new audience? Your brand strategy for achieving that goal is likely to be quite different from a business that wants to steal market share from a category leader, and that’s why goal definition is a fundamental starting point for any brand strategy. The first question you have to answer is, “Why?”

Avoid the Short-Term Trap

It’s easy to get caught up in the short-term activities and tactics that drive business today, but when it comes to building a brand, that’s a big mistake. Brands aren’t built overnight, so your brand strategy shouldn’t be focused on short-term tactics but rather on long-term goals and sustainable growth.

Admittedly, it’s hard to stay strategic when executives are weighed down by data and demand measurable growth and positive ROI right now. The best brand leaders, however, fight against short-term focus, because they know being short-sighted is a brand killer.

Thomson Dawson, Managing Partner of PULL Brand Innovation described this problem well in an article written for Branding Strategy Insider earlier this year. He wrote:

“Brand managers and agency account planners are tactics driven. That’s because 80% of the daily processes within marketing departments and ad agencies are based in project management. Creative Briefs tend to be control documents, rather than a forum for gathering inspirational ideas. Brand managers and their communication partners focus on the best way to manage process and the tight budgets they have been allocated. They usually aren’t thinking long-term when at the crossroads of strategic and creative decision-making. They’re focused on getting a job done (on-time and on-budget).  Add the changing priorities of executive management into the mix, and it’s easy to see how messy creative briefs become.”

Instead of focusing on short-term tactics, Dawson urges people to become brand architects which enables teams to design a lasting structure “to bridge brand strategy and brand messaging.” He’s absolutely right. Without a strong brand foundation built on a well-defined strategy, brands have little chance for success. However, it’s hard to stick with that strategy rather than be tempted by the allure of short-term focus.

Staying Flexible

Of course, the best brands stick with their strategies, but those strategies leave room for flexibility as the market, consumers, and competitors change. Think of it this way:

  1. Just as your goals in life might change over time, so might your brand goals.
  2. Similarly, just as you might modify your plan to achieve your goals in life, so too might your brand marketing plan change.
  3. Finally, just as you seize opportunities to move closer to your goals as they arise throughout your life, you’ll also seize short-term opportunities to grow your brand and move closer to achieving your long-term brand goals as those opportunities are presented to you.

A specific, achievable brand strategy is an essential component of any business, because it affects every area of your business. Stay tuned to the AYTM blog for Part 2 of the Introduction to Brand Strategy series where you’ll learn about identifying stakeholders and developing your brand strategy.

A brand strategy affects far more people than the marketing department. It touches all aspects of your business both internally and externally. Therefore, it’s essential that you take time early in the brand strategy development process to identify all the stakeholders and ensure each is addressed within the brand strategy.

Your brand is far-reaching, and that means there are many stakeholders to consider in your strategy development process. Some of the most common stakeholders are described below:

1. Employees

Your employees are your most important brand advocates. If they don’t believe your brand promise, and if they’re not on board with driving your brand forward, you’re in big trouble.

2. Competitors

Your brand must be positioned against your competitors and add value to the market where it will be sold. Therefore, you need to understand what your competitors are doing at all times, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how you can attack them or defend your brand against them in a proactive manner.

3. Startups

The marketplace where you do business today and your current competitors won’t necessarily be the same tomorrow. Markets and competitors evolve and change. A tiny startup might launch a product or service in the near future that could turn your market upside-down. Your brand strategy needs to be developed to prepare for these types of changes.

4. Consumers

You need to understand both existing and prospective consumers that your brand could appeal to. Research and understand their emotions and feelings. Create surveys with questions that ask them to describe their feelings about brands like yours and explain what they want that brands aren’t delivering. Create a brand strategy that meets and exceeds these expectations.

5. Investors

Your brand strategy needs to be solid and detailed enough that investors believe in it. What do investors want from brands and businesses in your market? Your strategy must address those needs.

6. Vendors and Business Partners

Your brand strategy affects vendors and business partners, too. From how vendors work with your business and think about your brand to the types of business partners that your brand attracts, your brand strategy must take these stakeholders into account.

7. Community

Social responsibility is hot these days, which means you need to define how your brand will be received by the communities where you do business. For many brands, adding a cause-related element (for example, supporting the green movement) is a core component of their strategies.

8. Media

How will the media respond to your brand? Keep in mind, the media today includes not just newspapers, magazines, and television news organizations. It also includes millions of online publishers and even more voices in growing online conversations on blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and so on. You need to identify how you’ll monitor and manage your brand reputation across a wide variety of traditional and new media outlets.

Once you’ve identified your brand stakeholders, the next step is to use the goals you established for your brand as well as your detailed analysis and understanding of your stakeholders to develop your brand strategy.

Your brand strategy must include some core components which define the strategy and set the stage for how the business will reach its long-term goals for the brand. In addition to providing a written definition and road map for your brand, the brand strategy must explain how the brand will come to life.

First, let’s focus on the core components that should be addressed in a brand strategy document.

1. Vision

The American Marketing Association defines vision as “A guiding theme that articulates the nature of the business and its intentions for the future.” Your brand vision should be rooted in your overall business vision, but it should specifically address what your brand promises.

2. Position

It’s essential to do your competitive research and analysis and identify how your brand will be positioned in the marketplace. That position must be well-defined in your brand strategy document.

3. Unique Value Proposition

What does your brand bring to the table that consumers either cannot get from other brands or cannot get as well from other brands? What is the unique selling point for your brand? Define it very specifically in your brand strategy document.

4. Values

Define brand values beyond the unique value proposition. In other words, it should bring more value to the market than that single unique selling point. Describe them in detail within your strategy.

5. Personality

What is your brand personality? Every brand has a unique personality. Is your brand the life of the party or a wallflower? That personality should be well defined before you try to implement any part of your brand marketing plan.

6. Promise

There is no more important part of branding than identifying and living your brand promise. It should be the cornerstone not just of your brand strategy but of your entire business, too.

7. Emotion

The strongest brands are built on brand emotion developed by consumers as they experience the brand. You can cultivate those emotions through your marketing, but first, you need to identify the emotions your brand should evoke.

8. Stakeholders

In Part 2 of the Introduction to Brand Strategy series, you learned about identifying brand stakeholders. That information should be included in your brand strategy document so everyone who works with your brand understands the far-reaching effect their work has on the brand’s success.

9. Consumer Audience Segments

In addition to identifying stakeholders, your brand strategy should breakdown the specific target consumer audience segments that your brand appeals to and will be marketed to. The marketing plan and tactics you create to support the brand strategy will be very dependent on these audience segments.

10. Messaging and Voice

How will you communicate to consumers? You need to identify the style and voice that your messaging will use to best connect with consumers, and that voice must be consistent with your brand promise. In other words, the voice needs to evoke emotions, create perceptions, and meet expectations. That voice also needs to be used to create powerful messaging that drives results. While specific messages will vary based on the audience and marketing initiative, a strategic plan for what the overall voice and core message are should be included in the brand strategy document.