According to Forbes, your brand has seven seconds to make a first impression. That’s why it is so important to develop a brand strategy. A brand strategy differentiates a company through a unique brand identity. It builds a compelling brand image that resonates with customers, fostering trust and loyalty to drive brand recognition. This guide covers essential components, the development process, and real-world examples to help you create a winning brand strategy.
What is a Brand Strategy?
Branding strategy is a crucial element of a marketing plan that includes creating a unique identity for your company. It helps build trust, loyalty, and recognition by communicating a consistent message across all platforms.
A brand strategy comprises various elements such as storytelling, voice, brand identity, values, and overall design. It serves as a playbook for founders, teams, and anyone involved in business operations. In addition, it answers questions about how a brand behaves in a particular situation. Overall, it defines what a brand is (and what it’s not).
Without effective strategies, brands can become weak and forgettable. A strong brand is crucial for any business to cultivate long-term customer relationships and establish lasting market recognition. Below are the benefits of a successful brand strategy:
- Attracts target customers
- Improves brand loyalty
- Builds brand recognition
- Inspires word-of-mouth marketing
- Promotes brand consistency
- Provides hiring and training guidelines
- Can scale with your business
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Key Elements of a Brand Strategy
A well-crafted strategy defines a brand’s unique position in the market while building a meaningful connection with the target audience. The foundation of a strong brand depends on the following key elements:
1. Brand purpose
“Why does my brand exist?” is a critical question you should answer when crafting your brand positioning roadmap. Think about the various aspects of your brand, who you cater to, and what pain points your brand aims to solve. Your brand purpose will become apparent by defining your customer and mission statement.
2. Brand story
In crafting your brand story, you should consider how customers perceive your brand. Connect with customers through storytelling to establish a meaningful relationship and separate your brand from competitors. This narrative is a powerful tool that can capture your audience’s attention and make your brand memorable.
3. Design and visual identity
A consistent design helps you craft a visual identity that resonates with your target audience. Utilize brand colors, typography, and graphics that convey your purpose and values. Similarly, ensure your brand name is credible and recognizable.
4. Brand values
This includes considering what’s important to them and how those things affect your brand’s behavior. Your value proposition and brand positioning statements serve as guiding principles, reminding you and your customers of your core brand values.
6. Voice and tone
Voice refers to your brand’s overall personality, style, and character. These characteristics should remain consistent. The brand tone reflects the subtle nuances and variations in your messaging, adapting to different contexts. For example, your tone might be serious in an informative blog post but playful on social media. Regularly update brand voice and tone information in your branding guidelines to keep your content on brand across all channels.
How to Develop a Brand Strategy
Now that you’ve learned the essential components, let’s move on to the step-by-step process of developing a winning brand strategy.
1. Write a compelling brand story
The first step is to prepare a compelling narrative about your business’s origin, core values, and purpose. Brand stories initiate positive relationships between your business and your customers. By sharing your purpose, you create an open environment where people can relate to your business on a deeper level.
2. Find your brand voice.
The brand voice often plays the most prominent role in establishing connections with a customer base by integrating brand personality with its core values. It also sets the tone for the relationship a customer will build with a brand over time. Creating an internal style guide is a surefire way of ensuring a consistent brand voice.
3. Design your brand identity
How your brand looks on products, your website, and social media is the easiest way for a potential customer to understand what you’re all about. Some customers might love your brand because of your attractive packaging design, while others might be intrigued by the colorful templates you send out with an email newsletter.
On the contrary, a lack of design can leave your brand without a visual identity. That’s why it is essential to create a strong visual identity that improves customer experience and differentiates you from your competitors. The elements of a brand identity are often organized in a well-defined brand style guide.
4. Be consistent with your brand values
Brand values are often codified via brand guidelines, which can be used along with a style guide. In addition to visual and verbal guidelines, brand guidelines may include the brand’s mission statement, core values, and best practices for social media and other content marketing channels.
5. Define your brand vibe
A brand’s vibe is its overall mood on the website, social media channels, product packaging, and more. The vibe can vary from serious to playful and funny and is a combination of a brand’s personality, values, and aesthetic.
Examples of Successful Brand Strategies
Here are two examples of prominent, influential brands and their positioning to illustrate what we mean.
Tesla
While many consumers consider Tesla an automaker, the brand continuously positions itself as a leading clean energy company with a futuristic outlook. This strategy is manifested in premium quality products they offer with corresponding premium pricing models.
Tesla’s mission is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy,” emphasizing environmental benefit, safety, and satisfaction. The company also aims to make every vehicle as enjoyable as possible, with features such as gaming systems and Easter eggs.
How to Build a Brand Like Tesla:
To emulate Tesla, your brand must position itself as a forward-thinking leader in your industry. Your mission should resonate with current societal values and be reflected in every brand interaction.
Nike
Nike started its product line with a focus on performance and innovation. It invented the waffle shoe and built its brand by targeting professional athletes. The Nike product line has expanded, offering athletic attire and equipment with enhanced performance.
Nike’s branding focuses on empowerment, hence their tagline “Just Do It.” When you look at their models and athletes, they are not smiling and happy. They’re just doing physical activities with games faces on.
The company embodies the concept of innovation that helps consumers perform at their best always. This strategy promotes athletic excellence and empowerments and inspires consumers to push harder. Overall, the emotional resonance helps create brand loyalty.
How to Build a Brand Like Nike:
If you want to succeed like Nike, incorporate a motivational aspect into your brand strategy. This will inspire your customers and create a deep emotional bond with your brand.
The Power of Graphic Design in Branding
You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that graphic design is pivotal in creating a brand strategy. Graphic design is the medium that expresses and communicates brand identity. It defines the entire customer experience. No aspect of your brand is unconnected to graphic design. It all starts with a logo. Beyond that, graphic design is evident in websites and apps, marketing and advertising, and packaging.
All these graphic design requirements for your brand are accessible through an unlimited graphic design service like Penji. All you need is one subscription to make everything possible. Penji offers three simple pricing options, starting at $499 per month. Watch a demo video now to learn more!
