Brand Strategy: 7 Simple Steps to Successful Brand Building
Branding is the backbone of every business. You can ‘tutup kedai’ if you disagree with us. Now, here’s how to develop a brand strategy!
We cannot stress enough how crucial it is to spend time brainstorming brand strategies for your brand. The ultimate reason is, nobody wants to waste time or miss out on trends that can contribute huge revenue to your business.
But a brand strategy isn’t just slapping together a couple of ideas and a logo alone. You want to outshine others in the industry by being trustworthy, memorable, and likable by your ideal customers. You can have it all while conveying a deeper purpose of your brand and promising customers on making their lives better.
Branding is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.
There is no exact rubric to create a brand strategy template in which you could talk about anything that speaks of your brand. We discovered a stress-free toolkit for you to create a brand strategy as the Big Shots do. So, let’s get started!
- 1: Analyse & Research
- 2: Define your Brand
- 3: Position your Brand
- 4: Brand Story
- 5: Set Vision & Mission
- 6: R&D Innovations
- 7: CEO Statements
#01 Analyse & Research Brand
When it comes to research, the most robust method includes details from multiple reliable sources. But investing time wisely into research methods that develop a more detailed picture of the landscape and reduce the possibilities for bias is the highest priority here. This also means that you will need to approach potentially reliable participants and not any random groups.
You may first start off by figuring out the objective of your research – be it finding who your target audiences are, your competitors, selling point, admired features, services, etc. Later, you will find it easier to construct your questions. There are many ways for you to conduct research such as below.
a. Survey
A survey is still a great source of consumer views on brands and products. You can play with numbers here as this approach uses an obvious quantitative research method. The physical and direct survey has evolved into an online one. Once you have figured out the set of questions you want to ask, you can either conduct the survey in person, by phone call, or online.
Most of the time you are not sure who your targeted audiences are if you are newly starting a business. Hence, the best way for the survey to reach the right group of people is by using online platforms that already have groups of people ready for you. All you have to do is put in your questions and the platform gives you credible results for you to move on with the next steps of your branding creation process.
If you already know your group of participants for your survey, then you could always lay the questions on Google Form or other online survey software and share them around until you get enough responses. Also, it is a bigger plus point if you know the hacks to ask the right questions.
b. Interview
Conducting qualitative research methodology, you must be active and committed throughout the process because it is quite time-consuming and energy-depleting. Nevertheless, it is worth it because you will get a clearer vision of what to look out for and have the access to customize questions according to your category of participants. That being said, you can also choose to have a one-to-one interviewing session or with a focus group.
Asking open-ended questions allows you to gain deeper perceptions, opinions, and emotional responses towards your brand, product, or services, especially when you are rebranding. This way, you can prevent bias as much as possible so you get to know the reality of your business stage.
Believe us when we say this, the first step to doing something is always the most difficult one. Once you are done with the research and analysis, you can sigh as long as you want (sigh of relief, of course!)
#02 Define Brand as Brand Strategy
Before your potential customers and working team know about your brand, you have to first identify what your brand defines to you. This is because a brand can mean differently to different people at different times.
But, the most definitive one is what you tell them first. Now, you may have a sentence to explain what your brand means to you, but, the definition that we are talking about here is more than a sentence. Look out for these questions to define your brand well.
How do you define your brand?
a. Why is your brand here?
b. What value(s) does your brand represent?
c. What culture does your brand practice?
d. How is your brand different from others?
As you construct your brand design and strategy ideas here, you will then clearly understand what your brand represents. From here on, you will move to the next step in creating a brand strategy framework.
#03 Position of Brand as Brand Strategy
Where your brand stands in the market is very important. Brand positioning is the process of positioning your brand in the mind of your customers as a brand awareness marketing strategy.
What is a brand positioning strategy?
Find out all about your brand’s capabilities and the differences it holds from its competitors. Then, study your competitors’ brand position and how they position themselves in the market. Later, compare the uniqueness and you will know where your brand can do better with different types of brand strategy. Also, don’t forget to always test the efficacy of your new strategies.
#04 Brand Story as Brand Strategy
A brand story is all about storytelling. So, you must make it as memorable as possible that every person who comes to know about your story will not forget the emotions that lie behind your brand. A powerful brand story has the ability to build a connection so strong with its audience.
That being said, it is your job to connect those dots by creating a personality to make the story come alive. We are sure you have a great story to tell about your brand but only when the story is vocalized in the right tone and approach will it reach your audience the same way you wish it to. To get here, it is conceptually straightforward.
How do you write a brand story?
a. Problem
b. Solution
c. Success
Keep the content elements of a branding and marketing strategy simple and unpack all the unnecessary parts of the story. Your audiences only want to know what they want to know.
Simplicity is key here though the complex stories of the Harry Potter series are very appealing. That approach is not applicable here, my dear. So, start off with the problem that you wanted to set out to solve and explain the journey of how you solved it, and later get excited about the success you produced. Remember, when you vibe out excitement, your audiences will be excited too.
#05 Vision & Mission of Company & Brand
‘By now, you should know that your brand is a reflection of what you stand for. So you will need to make sure it aligns with the values and purpose of your business perfectly. Work on clear vision and mission statements and they will do you a great favor. In the long run, this strategic brand management prevents you to be drifted away from your values.
a. Vision statement
Here is where you define your long-term aspirations in which explains why you are doing what you are doing and the ultimate good you would like to achieve through your successes. It basically defines where you want your work to lead you in the end.
Example: Walt Disney’s –
“To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information.”
b. Mission statement
Mission, on the other hand, explains the purpose of your work and the effect you aim to have on the world around you. It mentions what you do for others and the approach you choose to follow as you aim to achieve the aspirations you have set. In short, it is your route in which you intend to follow to achieve your vision.
Example: Walt Disney’s –
“Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world.”
#06 R&D Innovations of Company & Brand
We will keep it short and simple for you here. From the entire reach and development for your brand, you will have a clear visual of the way your brand and business stand out from your competitors in the same industry. With the pluses of your rivals, you can innovate traditional and available ideas into newborn ideas that do not exist just yet. Hence, making your brand more valuable and significant to your customers and audiences.
You may pin up the current pluses and minuses of your products and services. Then, analyze how they are not resolving certain problems. Afterward, research on rivals that are able to resolve the issues.
If you happen to find any, make them your inspirations and identify how you can innovate the idea to make it look original and unique. Or, you may come up with a completely new and different idea that speaks of your values.
#07 CEO Statements on Company & Brand as Brand Strategy
“Your CEO is the Key to Successful Brand Strategy”
Best believe that your CEO’s personal brand speaks a lot about how he or she runs a business. It reflects so much about your company’s values and lends credibility to everyone else on the executive team. So, never skip the CEO statements as part of your brand strategy marketing, especially when writing one. A powerful, positive, and impactful statement will contribute to the long-term growth of the brand.
So, bear in mind that you have to make every word count for it boosts the credibility and exposure of your brand.
Pay Close Attention to Details
Every piece of information that you choose to present as an outcome of your brand strategy framework matters. Hence, during this process simply get in the zone so you can produce the best result possible for your brand.
This phase of creating an impeccable brand could be quite challenging as you might need to figure out many things out of in-depth research so you discover what is real in the industry and not mere theory that you read on the Internet.
Research and analysis are surely more than what you see on the Net. On a side note, you might be interested to know about some of our best discovered Content Marketing Tips to Maximise Audience Engagement.
So, if you happen to face difficulty in brand building strategies we assure you that you can rely on our Branding Experts as we have been a Malaysia brand agency for more than a decade now. You will be in great hands. Get the most out of us by clicking the button below, filling out your details, and passing the baton to us. We will contact you the soonest as possible.
