Do You Need a Brand Strategy?
Here’s Why you Need a Brand Strategy
Have you ever discovered a company on social media or through word of mouth only to find that their website feels like it was built in 2002? Not exactly the kind of experience that makes you want to hand over your email address and credit card details.
To build a successful brand you need more than just an outstanding product or service. You need a brand that people can get behind.
But how do you actually build a successful brand? It starts with strategy.
Most often when I ask people about branding, visual elements are the first to spring to mind. Your logo, fonts and colour palette... maybe your photography, tagline or styling aesthetic. These are valuable pieces of the branding puzzle, but they’re not the whole puzzle.
Whether you realize it or not, your brand is defined by every touchpoint between your business and the world. It’s the story you tell through your interactions with your audience, whether that’s online, in person or through your physical product and its packaging.
YOUR BRAND IS DEFINED BY SO MUCH MORE THAN YOUR VISUAL DESIGNS
Think about all of the different ways your business might connect with your audience–beyond the obvious platforms like your website or social media posts. Here are a few examples:
The tone of a customer support call or email
The way you respond to questions or comments on social media
The shipping box your product arrives in
How your employees look, act, and speak when working with customers
The voice you use across your marketing channels
The type of photography you share
The people you showcase in your marketing
If you haven’t given much thought to this before, at best you’re missing an opportunity to build a memorable, recognizable brand. At worst: embarrassment, lost sales, self-sabotage… dun dun duuun!
WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN BUILDING YOUR BRAND STRATEGY
So what exactly goes into a brand strategy?
First and foremost: your purpose. Why did you start your business in the first place, and what impact do you want to have in the world? Mission and vision statements can be useful tools for defining your purpose and linking your goals with the bigger picture. But at the very least, know your purpose; your reason for being.
From a practical point of view, your purpose should be clearly defined in a short statement that’s unique to you. This is your north star, and an absolute must for every company. After all, if you don’t know what you want to achieve, what’s the point in doing anything at all?
Here are a few more things your strategy should take into account.
Your customers: who is your target audience, what problems do they need to solve, what do they care about and how are they motivated?
Your industry: how are you different from competitors, what is your competitive advantage, what are your weaknesses, what do you want to change in your industry?
Your offer: what do you sell, what makes your product or service unique, what are the benefits, what problems do you solve?
Your values: what do you stand for as a company, what defines your personality, what are your top priorities, what sets you apart from others?
If you can answer these questions, you should have a solid foundation for your brand strategy. From here, you can go out and start building your brand!
MESSAGING MATTERS. DON’T LEAVE YOUR STORY TO CHANCE
We know that for better or worse, your brand encompasses every touchpoint you have with your customers. The question is, what story are you telling?
Storytelling is a powerful tool that helps people discover what you do and understand why it matters. At its best, storytelling can make a memorable, emotional connection that makes people say wow, I love this company!
Messaging strategy is the part of branding I love most because it has the power to shape people’s perceptions in ways that set you apart from your competitors. I like to break brand storytelling down into pillars. When you know what message pillars you want to share with the world, you can intentionally weave them into your communications. Sometimes this can be subtle, like the topics you talk about on social media, and sometimes it can be completely explicit.
Here’s a great example from Victoria-based cosmetics brand Elate.
Elate shares their brand values right on their home page because this is what sets the company apart from the thousands of other cosmetics brands out there.
We also see this playing out on social media. While the majority of Elate’s social media posts focus on the benefits of their products for customers, the company makes a point of educating their audience on topics that align with the brand values that they promise to uphold.
If you’re intentional about the messages you share in your marketing, over time, you might notice your audience talking about your brand in the exact way you planned… this is how you know it’s working!
Here’s a great of example of how this has played out for Elate:
BRAND CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY TO BUILDING A MEMORABLE BRAND
What makes a brand recognizable in a sea of competition? Consistency.
If you’re just starting out and you have a company of just one or two people, branding might feel like an intuitive exercise. You just know what feels right because your company is a reflection of who you are. You can try things out, see what works and what doesn’t, and adjust your course as you go. In some cases, this works out incredibly well, but things tend to get more difficult as you begin to grow and scale your business.
When you bring on new hires or outsource to specialists, you can’t just rely on intuition–unless, of course, you want to be the bottleneck behind every little decision, which I know you don’t! This is where it pays to document your brand strategy instead of working off the cuff.
The other perk of a strategy? It makes decision-making easy. Should you partner with a certain brand for a giveaway? Compare your brand values with theirs and your decision becomes clearer. Is it worth switching to recycled or compostable packaging? Consider what you know about your customers and what matters most to them.
Your brand strategy can serve as a guide to help you focus on the things that support your goals while steering clear of anything that doesn’t.
