Early September, the vacations are behind us again. Have you enjoyed the Spanish sun, visited beautiful nature reserves or had a breath of fresh air on the beach? You are probably ready for the start of a new season. But is your company? Do you have a clear idea of how your brand strategy can help you position your company in the right way? You're all set for a fresh start, now your brand is. Without a unified brand strategy and a matching brand identity, everything from your website content, to your company culture, to your product or service can suffer. And to prevent you from taking another vacation before your brand strategy stands, we're lending you a hand with this comprehensive blog post.

There is a major reason that establishing a clear brand strategy is problematic for many companies. It takes a lot of time, effort and requires a lot of commitment. And that's exactly where most companies fall short. And that's a shame, because a solid brand strategy has nothing but benefits. Your brand values will come across much better.

First, it is good to put your energy into the following four areas of focus:

1. Understand who you really are as a brand and use your own beliefs and core values to make decisions in a way that is better for your people, your business and the future.
2. Communicate your brand consistently and effectively through every piece of content you create.
3. Attract the right customers to build a strong and lasting brand.
4. Position your brand in a way that helps you compete with others now and tomorrow.

The heart of your brand

The definition of a brand

There are hundreds of definitions of a "brand." When people talk about a "brand," they very often refer to the physical mark or logo printed on something. That is indeed a great way to identify a company. But a brand is much more than just that. More specifically, a brand is primarily an emotional experience, enhanced or diminished by each interaction with the company.

We like to define a brand as what people think, feel and say about your company. So this differs from marketing. Marketing is what you say about your company.

What is a brand strategy?

As American branding guru Marty Neumeier says in his book The Brand Gap, a brand strategy is "A plan for the systematic development of the brand in line with the business strategy. So a brand strategy helps you understand who you are and acts as a blueprint for communicating the brand.

Marty Neumeier is an American author and speaker who writes about brands, design, innovation and creativity. He is Director/ CEO Branding of Liquid Agency, a branding agency in San Jose, Calif.

Why do you need a brand strategy?

If you don't know who you are, or why you exist as a brand, what you believe in or what you are trying to achieve, your business is going to suffer in the long run. From communication problems with your customers to employee retention. Missing a clear brand strategy causes problems at every level of an organization.

Because without a brand strategy ...

• Make business decisions that don't reflect the heart of your brand.
• Does your team work fragmented by regular confusion and all sorts of ambiguities in your brand strategy and image.
• Don't have a cohesive tone of voice, so the content is inconsistent at best and contradictory at worst. Then it is also difficult to attract or engage people who share the same values or who recognize themselves in your tone.

In short, without a brand strategy, you lose.

What kind of team do you need to build your brand strategy?

You can't really build a brand strategy well on your own. In any case, you need a team to tinker, improve, reflect and for bringing your brand to life at every level within your company. Without a dedicated team, all the work you do is likely to get sidetracked very quickly.

Fortunately, you don't need to hire a lot of people to set up a good branding team. You can even have a team of two, as long as both people are able to properly guard their own roles.

Important questions before you begin your brand strategy

If you're going to set up a brand strategy from scratch, whether you want to do things the "right" way this time, there are two important questions you'll want answers to ahead of time.

Question 1) - Who is your target audience?
Who are you trying to sell a product or service to? What needs does your target audience have? How are their needs not being met right now?

Land Rover's new Defender that has been on the market since 2019 joins the global SUV trend. This rugged body is fully aimed at the target group of the young and affluent pleasure-seeker.

If you do not know who your product or service is intended for, it is advisable to use a Persona.

Question 2) - Who is your competition?
Who are you sharing the stage with? With whom will you compete for attention? How will you outshine the competition? In short, what is your competition? Do some research on it and describe the competition. This can be done, for example, through a competition matrix.

A competitive matrix shows the competitive playing field in which you operate and how your company compares to the competition. Since you determine how the matrix is constructed, you can choose a position in the matrix that is most applicable to your business.

We already wrote about this in this blog on brand identity.

The Heart of Your Brand

Every brand consists of a strong foundation of beliefs that influence everything the brand does. We call these beliefs "The Heart of Your Brand."

When the heart of your brand and your business are aligned, you can successfully bring the right people together, start cultivating a community and work toward a future you want to create for yourself.

The heart of your brand may be as engraved in a stone.

The heart of your brand consists of four elements that help you communicate who you are, what you do and why what you do matters.

• Purpose: Why does your company exist?
• Mission: what do you stand for? A mission is timeless.
• Vision: What future do you want to create? What are you going for?
• Core Values: Your company's core values

What is your purpose?

A company's purpose is its own moral foundation and guides all decisions, investments, products, services and even daily actions. The purpose gives your brand the right to exist.

Mission

In your mission statement, also known as a mission statement, you describe what you want to convey to the outside world as a company. Your mission statement describes what you stand for as a brand. A mission statement should guarantee what you have done in the past and what you will do in the future. You don't change a mission very often. But you can of course adjust your mission if current events demand it.

Mission - IKEA: "To create a better everyday life for the many people."

At Swedish energy supplier Vattenfall, the mission does not stay inside the doors at all. They communicate the mission statement "Towards a fossil-free life within one generation" everywhere. They do this mainly because this is also immediately the vision of the future and because Vattenfall would like customers to feel that they can participate in this common mission.

Vision

A mission is that which you do and a vision is that which you would like to achieve. A vision is visionary and ambitious. Your vision describes how you look at the world, what your place is as a company in society, not to mention your long-term goals. In other words, a vision is forward-looking.

Vision - Alzheimer's Association: "A world without Alzheimer's disease."

The headquarters of the Triodos bank is located on Landgoed De Reehorst and optimally integrated into its surroundings. The entire estate was developed from the vision that nature, culture and economy should be in balance. So even the new headquarters is perfectly in line with the mission and vision of the Triodos Bank.

Core values

Core values are a very important part of your company culture. Your core values are reflected in all behaviors and culture of your company. Core values should be unwavering and also help you determine if you are on the right track. Thus, they provide direction and are your ethical compass. Also, core values are the norms and values that are very important to you as a person and as a business owner. They are part of your company's DNA. They should be lived and reflect the heart of your brand from the inside out.

Give your brand a voice

Brand essence and brand message come together

Once you have captured the heart of your brand, you know who you are. Next, you need to start combining the Brand Essence and the Brand Message with each other. When you effectively research and document these key elements, you can ensure that your brand communicates authentically but, most importantly, consistently.

Define your brand essence

Your brand essence consists of:

• Your brand personality
• Your Tone of Voice
• Your tone

Your brand personality

Your personality is basically a combination of the human characteristics and traits of your brand. Are you businesslike or mostly personal? Playful or do you prefer to be more serious? Solid or dynamic?

Some brands literally partner with a brand personality. For example, George Clooney represents Nespresso's stylish, somewhat expensive but at the same time accessible appearance.

Find your Tone of Voice

This is the way your brand sounds and speaks. Remember that every brand voice is unique. A yogurt brand doesn't speak like a car brand, and one car brand sounds different from another. Your personality already influences your brand voice; you just need to articulate it so you can communicate consistently in your content.

Choose your own tone

The tone of your brand is basically your overall attitude. For example, your brand voice can be authoritative, but the tone is always respectful, for example. Think of your brand's voice as in how you talk, and your tone as how you talk in different contexts. You always use the same voice, but you can shift your tone depending on who you are talking to.

Value proposition, tagline and brand message

There are many ways to talk about who you are, what you do and why people should choose your brand over your competition's. We always start with the most basic parts of your tone of voice: your value proposition, tagline and the pillars of your brand message.

Describe your value proposition

Your value proposition is an ultra concise explanation of the functional and/or emotional benefits of your product or service. It is what you promise to your customer. And describes not only who you are and what you do differently (your positioning); it is also the promise of how you solve their problem and why they should choose you over the competition.

Bunq, Bank of the Free, uses a powerful value proposition: "We are here to break with the past, and create a bank made for you. So that you get the freedom to live the way you want."

Define your tagline

Your tagline is a phrase or sometimes even a word used to summarize your market position. Coming up with a good tagline is not as easy as claimed in some TV series. Most companies don't have a Don Draper in-house to give you the perfect tagline. It is often a tagline that has been painstakingly created after a lot of brainstorming and also quite a few iterations.

Don't confuse a tagline with a slogan. A tagline provides more clarity about your brand's products or activities, while a slogan is often part of a campaign.

Just do it is a tagline indicating what Nike stands for and You Can't Stop Us is the tagline of Nike's mega popular commercial that touched the hearts of millions during the 2020 corona crisis.

Define the pillars of your brand message

These pillars are the carriers of the key stories you want to tell about your brand - what makes you unique and different. Every piece of content you create should be able to reinforce your brand across all marketing channels from these pillars.

Work on your visual identity

Now that the heart of your brand and messaging are clear, it's time to visualize your brand with a foundation.

First and foremost, a strong visual identity is meant to be purposeful. You're not just designing for today. You're also designing for the future of your brand. In the end, you summarize all the elements in a brand manual. This is the visual foundation of your brand that every employee should know and every vendor can work with.

The purpose of a brand manual is to ensure that the look and feel of your brand is consistent at every level. From the logo, website, social media posts and email newsletters, to physical products like a business card and packaging. Every experience a customer has with your brand should be consistent and true to your brand values. In other words, a recognizable brand.

So is a good visual identity:

• Flexible: Brand identity should be able to grow with your brand, whether it's new products or new services.
• Comprehensive: The visual identity should be able to provide designers and media agencies with all the tools they need to do their jobs well.
• Intuitive: The visual identity should be intuitively designed and well-constructed so that each element complements the other.

Start building your brand identity

With this information, you can start working on your brand strategy yourself! By grounding your visual identity and giving your brand a voice with the heart of your brand, you can be sure that you will last a long time with your brand.

If you don't have the resources, patience or energy to take on brand strategy yourself, we'd love to talk about how we can help you dig deeper, discover your most interesting stories and turn them into a smart brand strategy that works.

Want to know more or get help setting up your consistent brand strategy? Then contact us.

Were you inspired by this article? Make work of your brand strategy.