Brand Strategy

A few decades ago, a marketing guru defined a brand as a symbol, name or term that enabled a consumer to identify the company manufacturing a product or providing a service. Today, this is both correct and incorrect! Brands in today’s evolved market scenario have become so much more. As a company offering a product or a solution, offering an incredible product is just one milestone achieved. The more significant challenge these days is to attract a consumer who is being bombarded by so many attractive options. That is where a brand plays a crucial role. You would want your customer to pick you out of several options and then repeat it over and over.

In order to achieve this daunting task, you often engage a brand strategy agency to help you develop attractive packaging, have a crisp and memorable tagline, and give the customer an experience to remember – basically bond with them through your product or service. It should be clear by now that a business would survive and thrive better in today's marketplace if it can brand itself successfully. Since your brand will reflect your purpose and connect with your customers consistently, there has to be a complete strategy defining various aspects, including but not limited to –

The Key Demographics – age, gender, location, etc

  • The mode(s) of Spreading Awareness about your Brand – social media and other forms of marketing, brand endorsement opportunities and product packaging are amongst a few other modes.
  • The Time – when and how many times do you need your brand to appear before the consumer in a given format.
While there are a lot of other aspects, consider the following easy steps to create your brand strategy.
  • Build your Foundation – Understanding the nature of the brand and your value proposition to the customers is key to developing a brand strategy. Your brand can help in identifying a product/service/business/person. Your narrative and pretty much your entire strategy will depend on what you are branding. The value proposition or your USP is what sets you apart. The product or service you offer to the consumer will either solve a problem or cater to a need. While there may be several others doing the same, your branding activity will help the consumer identify the unique value that your product or service will provide to them.
  • Setup your Core Pillars – It is imperative to establish the features and benefits offered by your product or service that sets you apart from your competitors. Businesses thrive and perish depending on the features and benefits it offers to their consumers. In fact, a clear definition of the features and benefits can even help you attract your consumers, even if you are charging a premium. Your branding strategy has to help you set up these core features and benefits and enable your consumers to choose you instead of your competitor every single time!
  • Create your Brand Persona – Your branding strategy has to help you create a persona. When executed correctly, a consumer would connect with your business, product or service as if they were a person. When they do that, they would be able to distinctly recall a feature or benefit as if they were an attribute of a person.
  • Weave a Story – A story helps the consumer to connect with a brand with an emotional aspect. When the consumer treats your brand as a person, the story helps create a narrative that can help you display the features, benefits, and distinct attributes. This connection is what helps consumers establish a stronger relationship with the brand.
  • A lot is in the Name – You cannot emphasize enough how important a good name is. Here are a few examples for you to understand what a name can do for a brand. When you get on the internet to find information, you ___ (Google) it. When you want a physical copy of a document, you__(Xerox) it. Whether you were filling those blanks while reading or you do them now, you will be using brand names, and these brand names are imprinted in your memory to the extent that you would never consider using ‘search engine’ or ‘photocopy machine’.
  • Create your Brand's Identity – A successful branding strategy depends on how much you can engage the mental faculties of the consumer. The goal is to make them instantly think of your brand when they see particular visual and audio cues. A colour combination, a logo, a font style, a caller tune – the list can go on and on. These tools can help you create an identity that will be relatable to your consumers.
It may be overwhelming for many people or companies, and that's where a brand strategy agency can help you realize a perfect strategy. Today's marketplace comes with a whole lot of competition and hurdles. A good leader like Michael Grayum would help any organization survive the situation and even grow to a stage where consumers will consider offering a premium to your brand. In their eyes, your brand value, features and benefits are higher than your competitors.

Summing Up

Here’s hoping you enjoyed this read and learned the main steps of creating your brand strategy. Remember to define your goals, features, benefits and persona before you undertake a branding strategy development. Understanding the demographics, timelines, and resources will help you formulate the perfect strategy! Godspeed.