Branding Strategy
By: Alton Dennison
Tags: Design, Branding, Brand Strategy

A well-defined brand strategy that can be executed across the board is necessary for every business. It keeps businesses competitive and allows them to connect on a deeper level with the needs and emotions of their consumers.

Firstly, it’s important to be aware of what a brand strategy actually is. When people think about brand strategy they immediately think about the product, logo, how the website looks, and so forth, but this is the wrong place to start.

What your brand strategy really is, is much more intangible and to do with emotions and the connection that people feel when they associate your business or product to feelings. In order to forge a long-lasting brand strategy, you will need to define your purpose, the personality of your brand and remain consistent with that messaging. As many of us will already know, some of the most persuasive messaging simply relies on repetition and eliciting a Pavlovian-esque response between the physical and the psychological.

A stumbling block for many brands is that they assume that their customers are always going to be rational. The world’s best brands effectively communicate their message and forge a deep psychological connection with their customers. It’s the reason why a brand like Apple has a dedicated, almost cult-like following or why people will spend over and above for a product with a brand attached to it, even if it is the same quality of a less well-known brand.

Why is this?

Well, there’s a sense of belonging and joining an exclusive club with other people who are loyal to the same brand. It’s about connecting with humans and living an aspirational life born out of our materialistic society.

Not to mention, belongingness — the need for love, affection, and being part of groups — falls directly in the middle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

What we’re explaining here is that your brand strategy goes well beyond the realm of the physical product you’re selling because any person can get anything from anywhere.

You need to develop a brand society with a clear intention and goal that makes you stand out uniquely, head and shoulders above the noise.

Why do you need a brand strategy?

Developing a strong brand strategy is basically building the foundations of your business so you have a specific vision and direction to move in. If your brand strategy is strong, it means that even through hard times your business will still be focused and know where it’s going and what it is meant to be achieving.

An effective brand strategy also includes a strong marketing plan and consistent messaging that will gain you loyal subscribers. If you don’t know what you’re doing and are all over the place, your customers and potential customers will be put off. You’ll also lack direction and not really know where you fit in or what space you want to compete in. Having a clearly defined set of goals helps you eliminate these potential pitfalls.

Define your mission statement and purpose

Branding often is one of the major aspects of a business that not a lot of time and effort is put into because there aren’t any immediate financial rewards from it.

However, without knowing what your mission and purpose are, you are set up for failure when people actually want to know what it is you do and why you’re doing it. It’s those unique characteristics and selling propositions that often make or break a company who has just entered into the market.

It’s important to be self-reflexive and always question yourself about what you want this brand strategy to do for your company and how you want people to tell others about your company.

This is the beginning of conveying an image of the company to the world. Are you a fun and light-hearted brand that makes jokes and is edgy, or are you smart and intelligent and serious in your method? Both are just as effective, all you need to do is establish those rules beforehand.

Articulating this all in your strategy helps your employees and your customers understand that this is the type of brand they should expect to encounter, and it makes it easier for everyone because there aren’t any surprises then. It would be quite jarring if a brand like Gucci started trying to break into the extreme sports market.

When you don’t have a brand strategy

In short, your brand strategy is your business’s personality, it’s core, the reason why people interact and engage with you and stay loyal. Without it you don’t understand your purpose, mission, vision or values, which causes you to make marketing decisions that don’t reflect them.

Every decision you make means going in blind and hoping whatever you do will work, without a clear and concise plan and it affects your team because they’re taking shots in the dark and aren’t engaged in your overall goals because there is a lack of vision.

Therefore, your content is largely inconsistent and doesn’t follow a recognisable pattern, which in turn causes you to not stand out and your brand is poorly articulated and you’ll have difficulty attracting loyal customers who want to know what to expect from you.

Define your brand story and personality

Think of your brand as a human being who you have created. Everyone has a story and to make your brand more personal and in touch with its consumers, it should be as human and relatable as possible, aimed at eliciting emotional responses.

The best brands don’t only sell products but they also sell feelings, whether those are happy or aspirational or exciting or classy, the feeling people get when they open up their new MacBook or try on a new pair of Adidas sneakers go well beyond wearing a product; it’s a lifestyle.

Every brand has a story and you’ll notice that the biggest companies are always constantly evolving to suit the times, and every so often they’ll call back to their humble beginnings and some people will even remember those fondly. Why? Because we’ve been with the brand all of our lives and get nostalgic over a can of Coca-Cola, which shouldn’t make sense but it does because of how effectively the brand has communicated with its audience over the years.

Defining your brand goes beyond the physical and into the psychological and emotional realm of the humans connected with the brand. A strong branding strategy can elevate your product beyond other competitors simply due to how effectively it speaks to the wants and desires of people. It is hard to explain why exactly people become emotionally connected to brands but that isn’t important, all that’s important is that you’re there connected to them and not being lost in among all the noise.