The Importance of a Brand Strategy
While people represent the reality of what is, brands represent the cultivation of what could be.
Purchasing is an emotional decision and as such, brands need to appeal to customers in a way that provides peace of mind through a positive experience that enriches their lives. However, in today’s competitive landscape, doing so is far easier said than done. Enter brand strategy.
An effective brand strategy helps you to be more recognizable by distinguishing you from your competitors. In turn, this enables you to communicate more clearly with your customers, lessening the noise through increased consistency. Not only does a bulletproof brand strategy provide consistency for your customers, but a clear brand vision provides focus for your employees.
Now that we know how important a brand strategy is, let’s take a look at how to build one to give your brand long-term success.
5 Steps to Build a Successful Brand Strategy
Your strategy is an art form, and like most things in life, the more time you put into it, the more refined it will become. Follow this formula to start increasing your reputation and visibility.
Step 1: Define Your Target Audience
Your first step is vividly defining the group of people who value what your brand offers.
Take some time to dig deeper into who your target audience are, what makes them tick and what challenges they have. Remember: you want to be the solution to a problem they have, so invest time into this step to get it right.
Step 2: Understand the Customer Journey
The next thing you need to gain clarity on is where they are in the customer journey and how they are interacting with your brand.
The goal is to come up with a roadmap to understand what is happening at each interaction and where you need to spend more time to better your chances of turning that customer into a loyal brand advocate.
Step 3: Develop Your Internal Brand
Now that you have your finger on the pulse of who you’re targeting and how they interact with your brand, you need to spend some time building a solid foundation for successful brand development.
Start with your ‘why’ and define your brand’s purpose, vision, mission and values. Once you’ve done this, rinse and repeat until you’ve refined your brand to a set of core values that stands for ‘who’ you are.
Step 4: Understand the Landscape
There will be other brands competing for the same audience, offering similar products and services to you.
To differentiate yourself from these competitors, you need to stand apart from them as the brand of choice. To be successful in doing so, you must understand your competitors.
Step 5: Craft Your Brand Story
Storytelling has been around as long as the human language. They form the basis for how we think about the world and our primary source of knowledge transformation.
With the instinct of being fascinated by stories, you need to wrap your brand messaging up in a story that will help your audience to understand your brand’s value and biological makeup.
At the end of the day, branding is all about focusing your vision on an experience. Building a solid brand strategy will be one of the most significant things you can do for your brand.
