It Encompasses All Aspects of a Brand

Brand strategy takes place before any creative work begins and encompasses all aspects of a brand's communications, from packaging and promotional materials to social posts and articles.

Includes Non-tangibles

Even non-tangibles, such as a brand's character, values, and emotions are considered during brand strategy.

Research Plays a Key Role

Research plays a large role, too. With particular attention given to the needs, demands and emotions of customers, the market, its trends and the competitive environment.

Communicate Your Brand's Message

Brand strategy enables you to more effectively communicate with your target market by using a visual and verbal language they understand. This allows customers to recall more easily who you are and what you do, which builds trust and credibility when consistently repeated over time.

Shape Your Brand's Image

It also lets you more effectively shape your brand image. Or put differently, brand strategy enables you to define your brand in a way that your audience's definition of it aligns with your definition of it.

Codify Mission, Vision, Value Statements

It can also help ground highly laudable missions, vision, value statements in the day-to-day of what your brand/organization/company stands for, making it more accessible to your target market.

Leverage Core Beliefs

Some brands even take those core beliefs that normally live inside internal documents—often never to be seen again—and bring them to the foreground, turning their beliefs into the basis of their brand’s entire communications strategies.

For Products

If you sell products, brand strategy will clearly define what makes your product different—physical and emotionally—from competitors and give you clear insight into how to communicate both visually and verbally to your target market in a way they value.

For Services

The same is true for marketing services. When competing in a market where one service is difficult to distinguish from another, brand strategy looks for gaps in that market in which a distinction can be made—often done through positioning—allowing the service to be marketed as the only option available.

Start by Asking Questions

Ask simple questions. They should be short and to the point. The more complicated, the more likely they are to guide you off course.

By asking simple questions you'll be able to create a stronger, less convoluted, messaging and positioning statement that your audience is more likely to connect with.

The questions outlined above are a good place to start.

Pick Your Positioning

Positioning is what allows your brand to stand out, telling your audience what your brand stands for—the why you're here.

Your positioning is the space you'll occupy in the market once you've answered your why. Done right, and your why will have you occupying the gap in the market your audience was looking for.

Create a Compelling Message

No matter how great a brand looks, if its message isn't compelling, no one will stick around to figure out what makes it unique.

To create a compelling message, you need to know who your audience is. If someone from your audience were to come up and talk to you, what would you tell them? What would compel them to listen?

Do Your Research

By knowing what your audience and competition are doing, you’ll be able to position your brand more effectively.

Look for openings in the market that position you away from the competition and closer to your audience.