What is a branding strategy?

Do we need it?

Where does it start?

A branding strategy (a.k.a. brand development strategy) is the long-term plan to achieve a series of long-term goals that ultimately result in the identification and preference of your brand by consumers. A successful branding strategy encompasses the brand’s mission, its promises to its customers, and how these are communicated.

Without a strong and effective branding strategy we cannot connect with our tribe on an emotional level and differentiate ourselves, our brand, from our competitor’s ‘brand’.

This all seems pretty straight forward, right?

Developing brand strategy is simple… but it’s not easy.

Let’s start with clearing up the misconception about brand… first of all… brand is not a logo, it’s not the colour palette, and it’s not a website.

These are the creative elements and the results of successful branding strategy. A branding strategy is the plan that drives your brand to brand awareness, brand preference, and brand loyalty.

Brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It’s a gut feeling because at the end we make all of our decisions based on feelings despite our best efforts to be rational.

So, if we accept that our decisions are made on the right side of the brain… the emotional side…. We have the main building block when we are developing brand strategy. We must connect what our product or service means to our clients, how it makes them feel. In other words… the main goal when developing branding strategy is to create such a strong feeling that we create a tribe who will follow no matter what. 

WORKING FROM THE INSIDE OUT

In order for this to be successful, you must work from the inside out…. Ask the right questions in the right order…. And that brings us back to the business strategy. That is really where it all starts.

Instead of looking at WHAT we do… HOW we do it… and only then ask ourselves WHY we do it, we need to start with the WHY.

WHY….leads to Vision

HOW…leads to Core Values

WHAT… leads to Mission

Why do we get up every morning and do what we do… and no it can’t be financial gain… that is the result of our WHY.

How does our product or service affect an individual’s life, their families, communities, the world?  

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