5 Great Tips for Building Your Brand Strategy

There are successful brands and there are less successful brands, but what is it that separates the two? Sure, you may have an amazing product or service, but it’s going to remain grounded until you implement a brand strategy.

A brand strategy allows you to plan how you will approach the market and meet its needs, so it’s one of the most crucial development stages for your business. To help you maximize the impact of your brand we’re going to take a quick look at how you can build your brand strategy.

1. Define Your Message

Every brand should have a clear message. Look at Nike, their motto is “Just Do It” and this succinctly encapsulates everything that their brand is about e.g. succeeding, taking risks and striving forwards.

The best way to start defining your message is by carrying out some good old fashioned brainstorming. Here you’ll be looking to analyze the feel of your brand, its aspirations and who your customers are.

Once you’ve established this information you can begin to form a strong mental image of what your business is about and who your customers are.

2. Understand What Makes You Different

Your brand needs to inform consumers that it offers something a little different to your competitors. By highlighting this difference you’re convincing consumers that they should spend their hard earned money with you, so it’s crucial you demonstrate this difference.

Evaluating your brand and its promises should help to provide a picture of what these attributes are. It may be, for example, that you provide fantastic customer support, so this needs to be clearly communicated in all your marketing literature. Once you can define the improvements you can make to peoples’ lives you’ll find it a whole lot easier to win their business.

brand strategy

3. Brand Consistency

One of the key requirements for a successful brand strategy is consistency and this is an area where many brands fall short.

What you need to remember is that everything to do with your brand needs to fit in with the brand ethos. If we take a look at Nike, again, their niche is clearly in the sports sector. Accordingly, it wouldn’t be so much of a surprise to see a funny sports video posted on their social media accounts. However, what if they put up a funny cat video? It wouldn’t fit in with their sports orientated products, would it?

That’s why you have to ensure that your brand’s message is cohesive across your marketing platforms. Otherwise, potential customers will feel disconnected and be unable to clarify what it is that your brand offers.

4. Be Willing to Change

No market or demographic ever remains the same, in fact they appear to be constantly fluctuating with all the trends of the day. If your brand is not willing to adapt to these changes then its growth is going to stagnate very quickly.

Customer research, therefore, is essential for understanding how people are feeling and what they’re looking for in particular niches. Regular analysis of this data may provide you with fresh insights into what your brand can offer and where its energies are being wasted.

5. Competitor Recognition

Every brand has competitors, but rather than assuming your brand is superior in all areas you should take the opportunity to assess their brand strategies. They’re targeting the same customers as you, so it makes sense to keep an eye on their tactics.

By evaluating competitors’ brand strategies you’re able to see what worked and what didn’t work for your potential customers. Naturally, your brand should be unique, but by doing a little homework on your competitors you should find some room to naturally enhance your brand.