In today’s world, a strong and well-defined brand strategy connects you with your target audience and help you stand out from the competition. 

To bring your brand under the spotlight, you must focus on your brand strategy. A visitor browses your website, read reviews, make a purchase, and connect with you on social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Each interaction shapes their brand experience. 

Remember: BRAND is the idea or promise made to the users to distinguish the products or services from their competition. Your brand strategy is your company’s personality.

How to Develop a Brand Strategy

Your brand strategy defines what makes you stand out, the problem you resolve, positioning in the market, types of messaging and the personality you convey to your target audience. In other words, it’s a game plan for entering and conquering your targeted niche. 

However, brand strategy is mainly composed of 3 elements:

#1 Brand Positioning

#2 Brand Personality

#3 Brand Execution

Let’s dig down in detail. 

I. Brand Positioning 

Brand positioning is the identification or promotion of the most crucial and unique perk that the product or service pictures in the mind of the audience.  The three main aspects positioning identifies of your brand:

01. What Problem Does Your Brand Solve?

You’re in great trouble if your brand doesn’t solve any problem. Problem-solving should be the key focus of your brand strategy. 

It’s easy to sell a solution to problems. Even though the problem you are selling is not that huge, still it will help you position your brand.  For example, Uber - everyone is familiar with this application. They book your taxi rides across cities around the globe. 

What they actually help you reach your destination on time. Without a hustle. 

Imagine sitting in the back of uber’s car for 20-30 minutes across Canada, they are giving you time back. Now you don’t have to wait for signal proof train stuff with passengers and poor internet connection. 

Book your ride at your doorstep, sit comfortably, crack out your laptop and take calls on your phone. 

Uber is not just in the business of taxi rides but also in the business of time. 

Think - how do you do it now? 

02. Who Are Your Brand’s Competitors?

Competitors do exist.  Welcome them don’t hate them. 

You have to keep a close eye on your competitors - what type of ads do they run, their content marketing strategy, marketing creative, gaps they are leaving behind. Now you must try hard to fill all those gaps and provide your audience with the best solution. 

To find all the gaps all you need to look at their social channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. and find out what they are doing. Make a list, underline the pain points, think about what else can help them solve their problems more effectively (this could be in terms of time, user-friendliness, etc. ). 

For Instant, if you look at KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King - all three are famous for Burgers But their branding, taste and offers makes them stand out. 

Tip:Knowing your competitors helps you grow your business.  Competitors form an integral component of any brand strategy. Identify who they are, and utilize them to your advantage.

03. Who Are Your Brand’s Target Customers?

This is one of the most important questions you must answer while developing a brand strategy.  After all, your business can’t be everything to everyone. 

It’s vital to know who exactly you are trying to reach. The key is to be specific. Inspect the detailed behavior and lifestyle of your audience. 

One thing you must do is understand the buyer persona.  Here is a list of things you must document when describing your ideal customer: 

• Age 
• Gender
• Location 
• Income 

Identifying the target audience for your products or services is an activity that will affect and benefit all sectors of your brand building process, especially in marketing efforts. You want the right person consuming your content, opting for your email list, click on your ad sets, etc.

As a result, determining the ideal audience for your business will support your overall developing brand strategies. 

However, a positioning statement concisely explains the most compelling benefits of the brand to the targeted audience.

Frankly speaking, positioning involves recognizing the brand level, explaining the point of differentiation from the competition and writing the positioning statement.

Positioning is important as it helps your brand be recognized in a positive light by the audience.

II. Brand Personality 

It’s the description of the brand, expressed in three to four adjectives, such as friendly, creative, bold and smart.  

Personality helps you shape the tone and voice of your brand. It includes advertisements, packaging and the brand name. Additionally, it helps to guide decisions about design elements, such as colors and images.   

In other words, you can say brand personality is something to which customers can relate. It is also one of the most important promotion tools that have a tendency to attract the target audience’s attention. 

However, a brand does not have to only look for perspectives in terms of their ages, if audiences of a brand are young. This brand can target all the people from10 to 60 years or more who are full of energy. Furthermore, if your brand image is generous and kind, it can follow all the audiences who want to look the same. 

This is the point where you need to define your brand’s Mission and Vision statement. Create a list of your core business strengths. Why was the business started? What was the mission?  What’s the vision? 

You have to craft a clear expression of what your company is most passionate about. 

Your MISSION VISION statements. 

Without them, you are getting nowhere. Every brand needs a purpose, a mission, and a vision. 

What is Mission Statement? 

Your brand mission statement is a formal summary of the values of your business. In other words, it’s the DOING piece, which describes your act as a servant leader - that proclaims what, how and who you serve. 

Note: Mission statements cover the WHO, WHAT & HOW. 

However, depending on the organizational structure, the mission statement of a company can be broken down into its different segments. Generally, the goal is to help you stay focused on the activities of today that further your dreams of tomorrow.

As Peter Drucker states: “The mission statement has to express the contribution the enterprise plans to make to society, to the economy, to the customer.” Furthermore, “Mission statements that express the purpose of the enterprise in financial terms fail inevitably to create the cohesion, the dedication, the vision of the people who have to do the work so as to realize the enterprise’s goal.”

For example - if you look at the Honest Tea mission statement that clearly defines values, benefits, and quality all at once.

What Is A Vision Statement?

A vision statement is the proclamation of an organization’s overall goals or objectives. It is referred to as a DREAMING piece - the way your organization will change the world. 

Note: Vision statement should be big, exciting, and compelling. 

A good vision statement will help set the right direction for your business. For example, Amazons’ vision has clearly envisioned its future and they are proving it right. 

III. Brand Execution 

Brand Execution is the material component of any brand strategy, includes logos, colors, fonts, and the look – that distinguishes a brand in the mind of the audience. Execution is a plan to take the product or service and design a desired image and perception around it. The executable elements should complement the brand positioning and personality. Developing the executable elements is the last step in developing a brand strategy.

Without brand execution, the audience would not be aware of the brand, remember it or be able to relate to it.

Brand’s Executional Elements 

There is a list of elements out there, with the combination of 3 - 4 elements you can create the brand execution for the targeted audience. There is no rocket science but, just the art of choosing elements that will make your brand look unique. Here is a list of elements you can play with: 

1. Patterns
2. Logo
3. Language
4. Taste
5. Color
6. Font
7. Shape
8. Symbol

These elements should complement your brand positioning, personality, and other strategic decisions that you have made so far. 

For more details, read - Building Your Brands Digital Presence

Here is a brand execution roadmap that you can follow. It will help you plan things accordingly. 

Wrapping Up:

Building a strong brand needs a strong strategy that will lead you towards real success. 

It will tell you what is your company’s position in the industry relative to your competitors, and what makes it stand out from the rest. 

With the right personality, and execution (color, logo, voice, etc.) you can make it more appealing for your target audience. 

So, do you have a brand strategy in place? How do you show customers what your business is all about? Share your plans and experience with us in the comment section below.