THE IMPORTANCE OF A

WELL-CRAFTED BRAND STRATEGY

Imagine speeding down a new multi-lane highway without any signs. You speed past several exits before you have had time to react, not knowing exactly where they go and what they lead to. Eventually you take an exit, only to arrive somewhere you didn’t plan to end up.

Launching a brand, a website or a comprehensive marketing campaign without defining your brand strategy is like driving your car on a highway to an unknown location, or driving your brand down an unclear, undefined information highway. If only you had a map or GPS to guide you to your destination efficiently without any of the guesswork. That’s the importance of a well-crafted Brand Strategy.

WHAT EXACTLY IS A BRAND STRATEGY?

To put it simply, it’s a long term strategic map created for a business, to provide clarity and direction in order to achieve success. It’s also a promise to your customers and a guide for the internal organization and employees. It can be quite detailed for larger companies, covering a broad range of areas that need to be explored and broken down to their simplest form in order to communicate effectively to a variety of audiences. For smaller organizations, it can be scaled down to address their more modest needs, while still proving to be extremely effective. At either scale, they will help guide and leverage potential brand power while providing more clarity and focus.

BUILDING THE BRAND PYRAMID

A well-crafted brand strategy goes deep into the intangibles, “the feelings” associated with the brand, almost as if it were a person. It defines what that relationship means to the customer. The most important insights about the brand are what we use to build a basic Brand Pyramid, from which a Brand Strategy can be fully developed. The elements of the brand pyramid are:

• Brand Vision – why do we exist?
• Brand Traits – what are the adjectives to describe the brand?
• Brand Benefits – what are the key emotional and rational benefits of the brand?
• Brand Values – what are 3 or 4 core values the brand can never give up or live without?
• Brand Personality – what are the human-like qualities of the brand?
• Brand Essence – in a word, how does the brand make me feel?

THE BRAND PYRAMID HELPS DEFINE THE FOLLOWING:

Brand Identity

What visual elements represent or distinguish the brand?

Brand Messaging

What do you say, how do you say it and who do you say it to?

Brand Voice

What is the unique personality and tone of voice that runs through all your communications, both internal and external?

Brand Platform

The Brand Platform comes from the findings and insights that are discovered during the construction of the brand pyramid. It is the ground zero for brand communication; a comprehensive framework that defines the customer experience.

Brand Story

The Brand Story is the emotion-based narrative of how the brand came into being and how your product or service improves the lives of your customer.

Brand Experience

The Brand Experience is how the brand interacts or engages with the consumer.

BRAND STRATEGY POWER

As part of your Brand Strategy journey, you should do a competitive analysis. This helps you see which other companies offer similar products or services in the same market and how you compare or differ. The strategy will help you determine your Brand Positioning – the unique value that your brand presents to its customers. It will also guide you to effective Brand Execution – tangible elements that represent the brand, including visuals, language, music, voice, message, style, colour, font, etc. Your Brand Roll Out is the order and method on how the brand/message is unveiled.

WHY IS A BRAND STRATEGY SO IMPORTANT?

Simple. It represents your promise to your customers… and to yourself. The very first reason branding is important, probably the most important reason, is that it very succinctly makes a promise to your customers. A good brand will always tell customers what they should expect when they buy from you or work with you. It’s what holds you accountable. There are brand strategies that can help both large or small clients, depending on how deep you need to go to get the level of clarity and direction the company/business demands.

A good brand strategy can help in so many ways:

• Communicates Company Proposition – It identifies benefits customers can expect.
• Develops Trust and Loyalty – “People don’t buy products, they buy brands.”
• Distinguishes a Company – It helps forge out clear market positions.
• Boosts Company Value – Strategic planning helps you stand out from the crowd.
• Attracts and Retains Employees – It empowers employees through brand culture.

IN SUMMARY

A brand is not a logo, product, service, website, or a name. Those are the elements that help you to communicate your brand, but knowing what you need to communicate (the intangibles) is the first and most important factor. Your brand is that hard-to-pin-down feeling that separates memorable brands from forgettable brands.

A good brand strategy summarizes all those intangibles into a well-defined internal document (and brand pyramid) to help guide and connect your brand to consumer needs, emotions, and competitive environments.

Think of it as a roadmap to success.

Written by Dean Ponto, Partner and Co-Creative Director – Burnaby, BC