What's a Brand Strategy and Why You Need One
Many quality designers include something called a Brand Strategy in their branding packages. But more often than not, potential clients have no idea what that means and end up asking “what the heck is that, and do I really need it?” It’s such a good question - after all, why would you pay premium prices for something that you have no idea about?
So, I’m here today to talk about the element of an effective strategy, as well as do my best to explain why they are SO important in creating a meaningful brand identity. Before starting this business, I spent 10 years working in the non-profit world. I earned my Masters in Public Administration and learned about allllll things strategic planning. So, to say I have a soft spot for strategy would be an understatement. I am acutely aware of the crucial impact strategy has on achieving goals and implement strategy in almost every aspect of my life and work.
Want to save for a vacation? What’s your strategy?
Want to lose 15lbs? What’s your strategy?
Want to earn 10k a month? What’s your strategy?
Want to attract quality clients? What’s your strategy?
You get the idea.
If you’ve got branding that wasn’t rooted in strategy, there’s a good chance that it’s not sending the messaging you’d hoped it would.
Why You Need a Brand Strategy
Before diving into what a brand strategy is, let’s talk about why it’s so important. To do this, I’m going to share a little story:
I work with this client on a monthly retainer. She’s a business coach and she sells premium high-ticket services. She came to me after working with another designer who created her “brand identity” because she needed someone to be able to rebrand all of her marketing materials with her new branding - think social media graphics, webinar slides, sales pages, etc.
So, she sends me this document which is labeled “brand guide” - but it’s really a single page document with a few color tiles and some cutesy fonts. Cute is definitely the word here. It’s cute. The colors are essentially 4 shades of a single color. When I ask about the background, she tells me that they wanted the colors to match the color of her hair (nope, not kidding), because that’s “sort of our thing”. I then asked about the story behind the fonts and moodboard, and she just said that they told the designer they wanted something that looked good.
So the whole “deeper meaning” behind their new brand identity is the color of this woman’s hair and fonts that looked good. Okay. Here’s where things get tricky. My brief for all of these collateral designs I needed to produce was pretty simple. The words that were repeated over and over again were “premium” and “high-end”. It was very important that all of these designs attracted clients who were willing to invest in quality, and not cheap, services.
Well, that’s great and all, but the problem was: the fonts and colors I was being asked to use did not exactly convey those values. I did the best I could with what I had, but regardless of how I laid something out, or tweaked the size and spacing, etc., it was extremely difficult to send the messages she wanted sent (premium and high-end) with a neon pink palette and low-end handwritten fonts. In fact, those aspects of her brand identity were actually conveying the OPPOSITE message and attracting the wrong people.
I don’t say all of this to bash their brand, or to talk smack about the designer who worked with them to create this identity. My intention isn’t to be a snob - it’s to try to explain what happens when there is no real strategy behind your design choices. And that is: your brand does not convey the messaging you want it to. It won’t attract the right people, and it won’t have the “vibe” that aligns with your true vision.
Mixed messaging just isn’t cool. Not in relationships, expectations, or branding.
So, now that I’ve shared a little about why strategy in branding is so important, let’s talk about what it actually means.
Elements of an Effective Brand Strategy
In order to create something that sends the intended message and speaks to the right audience, you need to know exactly what that message is and who those people are. Sounds like a no-brainer right? That’s the purpose of a brand strategy - it gets to the core of your business and your ideal customer so that you can effectively message to them.
A thorough brand strategy includes the following elements:
Brand Purpose
Brand Vision
Brand Values
Brand Vibes
Brand Aesthetic
Market Analysis
Target Audience Analysis
Brand Purpose
Your brand’s purpose, or mission, is essentially an understanding of what you do and why it matters. It’s the impact you’re trying to make and how you want to make people feel when they interact with your brand. It’s about why you’ve chosen to embark on the journey you have.
When you hear people ask about “your why”, they are referring to your purpose. It can sound a little existential (and it can be) but it can also be very logical.
Think of a corporation or non-profit with a mission statement. These 2-3 sentences usually capture three distinct elements: market, contribution, and distinction. Your brand’s purpose is it’s contribution. Why did you start this business? What is the gap you’re trying to fill with your services or product? What is the impact you’re trying to have?
Brand Vision
Your brand’s vision is the intended result of your impact. It’s about the future and what you want your business to ultimately achieve. What does the world look like once your mission has been fulfilled?
Your vision should be inspiring - to both you and your team, as well as to your audience. It should spark some excitement and drive your purpose/mission forward.
By knowing your vision, you have a clear marker of what to work towards. You’ll always know if you’re on the right track because you can ask yourself whether or not what you’re doing is moving you closer to that ultimate goal or vision.
Brand Values
Your brand values are the concepts and ideas that are important to you - both as a brand and as a business owner. Your values are what you stand for. They represent what behaviors you value over all others. Additionally, they’re meant to highlight the ways in which your business will conduct operations in order to achieve your stated mission and vision.
Values can be super important in connecting with your customers because usually we want to attract an audience with similar values. So getting clear on what’s important to us - and what commonalities we want to have with our target audience is crucial in attracting the right people.
Brand Vibes
The term “vibes” may sound a little “woo-woo” (which, by the way, I’m alllll about), but you don’t have to believe in woo-woo to understand vibes. Think of a vibe as the feelings or messaging you want your brand to convey.
Think about when you interact with another person. A simple interaction will make you feel a certain way. You may not know exactly why you feel the way you do, but something about their vibe or their energy gives you a distinct impression. Were they open and bubbly? Were they stern and stand-offish? The vibes they were giving off offered you insight into their way of being.
Your brand vibes are what make up your brand’s voice and personality. They’re how you will make your audience feel when they interact with you. To start understanding your brand vibes, brainstorm a list of adjectives that you feel capture the mood of your brand.
Brand Aesthetic
Your aesthetic is the visual direction of your branding - its’ the way in which we visually communicate to our audience. These are the elements that when pulled together will help tell the story of your purpose, vision, values and vibes. These are things like colors and typography - and if you’re thinking moodboards, you’re right on track.
Ironically enough, this is one aspect of a brand strategy that almost every designer will include. But if they don’t include the other elements, it’s not going to be effective. In other words, if the aesthetics are meant to tell the story, how are you going to do that if you don’t understand the background, plot and characters? You have to include all the other elements we discussed above in order to curate an aesthetic that does its job.
Market Analysis
A market analysis is about understanding your industry market: what exists, what’s the demand, why do people seek out these services, and what factors influence buying decisions. By understanding these aspects, you can leverage your unique skills and traits to help you stand out from the competition.
Simply put, a market analysis allows you to fill in these blanks:
“People come to me because they need “blank”. They want someone who not only “blank”, but also “blank”.
Obviously, that is a very surface-level explanation, but it highlights why people need the services you offer, what others in your industry offer, and what sets you apart from them.
Target Audience Analysis
Now that you’ve done the work to uncover the roots of your business, you can start to get inside the heads of your audience. The ultimate goal of branding is to speak to the people that will invest in your services or products, so it’s important to really understand who these people are and what motivates them.
I’ve written a whole other blog post on understanding your ideal target audience, which you can read here. So I won’t go too in depth here. But in terms of a brand strategy, you want to be able to answer the following questions about your audience:
Who are they?
What matters to them?
What are they struggling with?
What are they looking for?
What draws them to you specifically?
Wrapping it all together
All of these elements, when amalgamated, lay the groundwork for your brand identity. They serve as a blueprint and will help to ensure that whatever is created as part of your brand identity tells the right story to the right people.
There’s a great quote that goes:
“A vision without a strategy remains an illusion”
- Lee Bolman
You know deep inside what you want your business and its branding to achieve. But without a strategy, it’s just a dream.
If you’d like to discuss working with me on a brand strategy and brand identity, I’d love to chat! Send me a message to get the conversation started :)