Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, a powerful branding strategy goes a long way.
In today’s world, more consumers demand authenticity, so businesses need to define their brand accordingly. Although building a brand takes time and effort, it’s doable and is rewarding if done correctly.
We’ll kick this guide off by going over some things that people commonly search for regarding the term “branding strategy”.
- What a brand is
- What a brand strategy is
- Costs of branding
- Why a brand strategy matters
- How to a develop a brand strategy
What is a Brand?
Often the term ‘brand’ is interchanged with ‘business’. But they’re not the same. To demonstrate this, I’ll use an analogy.
In movies, there are actors. These actors represent a character, and each character is unique. Although we don’t know the actors personally, we have connections with the characters. We feel a certain way about them. Perhaps they did something heroic in a scene, and we aspire to be like them. Similarly, a business represents the actor, and the brand represents the character.
A brand is how you’re perceived and represents an image that your business presents. It’s what your business stands for. A business on the other hand is a company that sells goods or services for profit.
What is a Brand Strategy?
A brand strategy refers to a long-term plan that is used to develop a successful brand.
As success is subjective, a brand strategy will differ across organisations. However, they will generally include the same elements in their strategies.
These elements revolve around setting SMART goals, evaluating market gaps, and building an identity. A brand strategy is what will guide you effectively through the brand development process.
How much should I spend on Branding?
How much you invest into a branding strategy will vary. However, if you’re a small business, you’re likely on a tight budget and can’t spend much initially. For these cases, most experts recommend you spend within 5-15% of your budget on branding.
Why does a Brand Strategy Matter?
A brand strategy helps you build a strong brand. It defines who you are as a business, and what you stand for. With a brand strategy, your customers know there is more to your business than making money.
An effective brand strategy allows our business to build traction and stand out in a highly competitive market. As it revolves around setting goals, you’re able to measure how your business is progressing. Most importantly, a branding strategy allows you to make strategic decisions about your business. These decisions include what marketing efforts to consider, and how to go about them.
Strategic branding also helps build customer loyalty and form authentic connections with your customers.
How to Develop a Branding Strategy?
A branding strategy ties in with every aspect of your business. Consumer demands, competitive environments and connections are all things that need to be considered when developing the strategy.
Often, people think that a branding strategy is all about the logo and slogan. Whilst these are some elements of branding, it’s imperative to see the bigger picture.
An instantly recognisable brand has a logo and slogan but also has character. We call this the psychology of branding. This includes everything your brand inherits, from purpose to design and all elements in between. Contrastingly, brands that focus solely on the logo are easy to forget.
To stray away from being forgettable, you’ll first need to understand how to brand effectively. In this guide, we’ve broken down ten essential steps to take to build a successful brand strategy.
- Build Your Foundation
- Define Your Audience
- Research Your Competition
- Identify Your Brands’ Position
- Cultivate A Unique Personality
- Craft Your Brand Story
- Develop An Identity
- Define Your Brand Awareness Strategy
- Launch Your Brand
- Measure, Analyse & Optimise
1) Build Your Foundation
First, you want to define the key elements of your brand. So, ask yourself the following questions:
- What is your brand’s purpose?
- What is your brand’s vision?
- What is your brand’s mission?
- What are your brand’s values?
These elements represent the core of your brand and build the foundation for a successful branding strategy. It gives your business a reason to do what you’re doing, whilst being transparent about it. When defining your brand, aim to brainstorm as much as you can. As ideas, large or small can shape your brand’s persona.
2) Define Your Audience
Next, you should define your target audience. Assess what you’re providing, and who would be most interested in it.
For example, let’s say I’m a business that sells fairy floss. Ideally, my target audience would be young people. I know this because candy is something youngsters consume more significantly compared to any other age demographic.
I also know fairy floss is a colourful and fun treat. So, my brand will focus on a theme of fun and enjoyment. To find the right audience, I’ll have to determine which demographic is likely to represent those themes. Young people are likely to enjoy and participate in entertainment, so there I have my target audience.
Initially, your audience may be broad, but it is all part of the process. As you invest more time into branding, you will be able to dive deeper into the behaviours of your audience and who specifically you should be targeting.
3) Research Your Competition
To have a competitive advantage in the market, you must stand out from your competitors. Research the competition and see who else is playing on the field. See what they’re doing, how they’re doing it and aim to do it differently.
If there is no competition regarding the product or service your business aims to sell, you may be in for a rough start. Whilst low competition may seem favourable, the reality is that it isn’t. Here’s why:
- You don’t have a product or service that people want
- You’re ahead of the market
- You’re being too specific
At the same time, high competition isn’t easy to work with either. Therefore, it’s crucial to research your business niche and find one that is a sweet spot in terms of competition.
4) Identify Your Brands’ Position
You know your audience and their demands, your competitors and what they offer – now it’s time to piece it all together. You may find that your puzzle has some missing pieces, but don’t worry. They represent the gaps and opportunities your brand can take advantage of.
- What are some things your audience wants that are currently not being met in the market?
- Can you save them money?
- How can you do things better?
By answering these questions, you’ll be able to position your brand on a higher pedestal than your competitors. It will allow your audience to pick your brand over theirs, which ultimately allows you to own the spotlight.
5) Cultivate A Unique Personality
Each person has a personality. This is what allows us to communicate with each other. Similarly, a brand must have a personality to attract customers and connect with the audience. But what brand personality should I use?
This all depends on your audience. You should Identify the characteristics that your audience is most attracted to and build the brand personality according to that.
Remember, your audience shapes your brand – if they feel a particular way about something, they likely have a reason to. Use it as an opportunity to catch onto their feelings and let them feel the connection. Let them know you understand and genuinely care. They will thank you for it.
6) Craft Your Brand Story
Stories are hard to ignore, especially ones that pack emotion and awe. To be as transparent as you can, begin with some context and a rundown of your brand.
Wrap your brand’s message up in a story or a series of stories. Make sure your story includes:
- Why your brand is valuable
- Why customers should care
- Your motivation for starting your business
- Any problems you aim to solve
- Where your brand is heading
Your brand story is your opportunity to shine. Don’t bore your audience with simple statistics; be inspirational and present your story creatively. Your aim should be to form a meaningful connection with your customers.
7) Develop An Identity
Here comes the most enjoyable step of building a brand strategy, which is bringing your brand to life.
Begin by coming up with a brand name, and a slogan to go with it. Your brand name should be succinct, memorable, and unique. The same applies to your slogan; keep It short and sweet. It’s important to brainstorm these ideas with your business partner and your team.
Afterwards, you should design your brand. This is ultimately what captures your audience and leaves the lasting impression you’re after. Your brand identity should include:
- Logo
- Colour
- Graphics
- Typography
- Iconography
These elements should be unique, and representative of your business. That means using the appropriate visuals, and language for your company and being upfront about your brand’s identity. This will prevent confusion amongst the audience, and help distinguish who you’re business is meant for.
Be consistent in your values, ideas and messages. Ensure you use the same styles, fonts, design and elements in places where your presence is known, i.e. website, etc.
8) Define Your Brand Awareness Strategy
At this point, your brand is set but you don’t know where to find your audience. With more than 50% of global social media usage as of 2022, social media is the perfect tool for reaching a potential audience.
Here are some ways to do so:
- Fill out your profiles
- Cross-promote posts
- Engage with your followers (live streams, Q&A, etc.)
However, it’s crucial to look beyond the scope of social media and promote through other brand collateral venues such as:
- Websites
- Flyers
- Brochures
- Posters
- Shopfronts
By considering these options above, you’ll be able to get the word out about your business and build awareness. Over time, your marketing efforts will become more effective, and you will need to do less to promote your brand. This is because you have already established these venues on the side.
9) Launch Your Brand
Now, you’re ready to launch your brand. This is where your business’s budget plays an important role in determining your marketing capabilities.
If you’re tight on a budget (typically small businesses) you may need to refer to guerrilla tactics. These tactics can take time and hard work. But in the end, it is just as effective as other marketing methods.
On the flip side, if you don’t have much of a budget at all – you’re free to market how you like. Just make sure your marketing efforts are worth what you invest.
10) Measure, Analyse & Optimise
Your branding strategy changes over time and naturally evolves. To keep track of these changes, it’s important you consistently measure how your brand is performing. What is working and what isn’t? How is your brand growing?
In this digital age, countless tools offer analytics. They’re available to everyone and all you need is the right knowledge to implement them. Briefly, we’ll discuss the most common analytical tool used.
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are a set of indicators that measure performance over time for a specific objective. These indicators help measure your business goals, targets, and outcomes. As well as your brand’s engagement, reputation, and awareness.
Here are some valuable KPIs to measure your brand with:
- Sales, Profit & Revenue
- Conversions & Acquisitions
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Using these KPIs will offer an insight into data about your brand. The results interpreted from the data can then be used to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement.
Ultimately, analysing the data is not enough. You must ensure you do something about it. If your brands lack awareness, optimise your brand personality. If your brand lacks reputation, optimise your story.
A successful brand strategy requires ongoing maintenance. Don’t put it aside.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve made it this far, we applaud you. You’ve dedicated some time aside to learn about the ins and out of developing an effective brand strategy and even when the extra mile to bookmark this article (we hope).
Although we can’t guarantee that your branding strategy will bring success overnight, we can ensure you that by investing some time and effort into it, you’ll get the results you’re after.
And If you’re looking to build your brand at an affordable price, we can help.
