Brand strategy

Brand strategy – [re]cept for success

A brand strategy outlines the brand’s philosophy – how it functions, communicates, builds lasting relationships and the direction to follow. Having a brand strategy leads to building audience trust – the brand becomes “wanted,” functioning as an entity rather than a collection of offers and inconsistent information. The subjectivity of a brand sets it apart, makes it unique, memorable and recognizable. In the end, brand strategy is a plan and specific guidelines, developed through precise research and analysis, and long-term actio

Brand strategy – as they see you, so they … buy you

As humans, we are all emotional beings, and whether we like it or not, not only do we have feelings, but we are also – more or less consciously – guided by them in our choices and actions. This applies to us, to you, but also to your audience – how they perceive you reflects directly on sales. The recipient you convince – will become your customer. And this is more or less what developing a brand strategy is all about.

Building an identity – brand strategy

Brand strategy is the basic reference of all marketing (and other) activities of a company. Building a strategy implies analyzing many aspects of the company’s functioning and the contexts of this functioning (such as competitive analysis). In general, any brand strategy should include a diagnosis of the situation (collection and synthesis of information about the company, market research and analysis of the competition, etc.), the main recommendations (that is, responding to the diagnosed problems and setting a direction to follow, creating a brand brief and visual identity), and designing and planning coherent activities.

What does a brand strategy deliver?

Without a doubt, the investment in brand strategy always pays off. A comprehensive action plan, including, among other things:

• content marketing
• linkbuilding
• copywriting 
• facebook ads
• google ads 
• sales strategy

Promotes the company and its products/services, informs audiences/customers, increases brand awareness and recognition, shapes the image and builds a strong position in the market, and contributes to audience trust and customer loyalty.

Brand strategy and its archetype – who are you, what/who are you and how do you express it?

The basic questions that initially need to be asked are about the brand’s architecture, its history, its mission, the values it professes and represents, its core. Next, it is necessary to look at what the brand is – what its characteristics are and what sets it apart from the competition. Only later is the way the brand expresses itself, the form and tone of communication, the conduct, but also the visual identity, slogans and symbols, as well as the content made available, analyzed.

One of the elementary stages of developing a brand strategy is defining its archetype. We do this extremely carefully – the clarification of the archetype (or archetypes – there can be more than just one) sets the course of action, especially in terms of communication.

Target group vs. communication

An essential element in developing a brand strategy is identifying, researching and analyzing the target audience. Knowing to whom we are directing messages is crucial. Once we know the needs, expectations, behavioral, demographic and psychographic conditions, we can refine the language of communication, concretize the ways and channels of communication to reach the recipient as precisely as possible. First, however, we need to answer some seemingly simple questions:

• who are we addressing?
• what and how will we do to reach a specific group of people?
• which communication channels are appropriate?
• what kind of relationship with the recipient are we aiming for?
• what do we want the action plan, its implementation and monitoring of its effectiveness to look like?

Determining the audience determines the communication with them. Messages will be built differently to teenagers, differently to millenials, and still differently to mothers or elderly people, in addition to those who are grandparents and grandmothers. Communication channels will also be different – while an active Facebook profile is already a must for everyone (learn more about Facebook marketing for local businesses), if you want to reach young people – Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok will also be necessary. For older people, non-virtual space, messages in local newspapers, or on buses may be more effective. Of course, demographic factors serve here as the simplest possible example – the question of audience diversity and characteristics goes much further and is a complex issue.

Message – it’s not just words

Of great importance, not only from the perspective of building brand awareness or maintaining its position in the market, is the content – that is, what we say, the clou of our message. Valuable content builds a company’s credibility, enhances its position, strengthens its authority and builds trust with its audience. This is what effective copywriting is.

Speaking of communication, you can’t miss a very important point: a message is everything you direct (more or less intentionally) to the recipient – your behavior, your wordiness, the way you self-present yourself (and not just the presentation itself), your image and your entire visual identity, your attention to detail, and so on.

Brand strategy – maybe it’s its charm, maybe it’s… visual identification

What many entrepreneurs may find hard to swallow, visual identity should not be based primarily on personal preferences and tastes. For us, working on the visual representation of the brand is not an indifferent factor, but we know that what really matters is achieving the business goal. Therefore, we create for each brand a consistent visual system that will distinguish it from the competition, while meeting the preferences of the target group.

[re]asuming

Brand strategy is the creative concept of the brand’s existence in the minds of the audience. It is the development of a coherent system for the operation of a company based on its character, history, values, appearance, modes of communication, tools and channels of communication. Brand strategy is a plan and its long-term implementation.

Building a brand image is a long and arduous process, requiring a very broad perspective on the phenomenon of a brand – what it is, what it presents itself as and what it would like to be perceived as. In addition, developing a brand strategy requires knowledge of many disciplines, determination and patience. But it is a game worth the candle – an investment that always pays off – just like a seo or ux audit.

Re Bena Gesta interactive agency has its own reliable way of constructing brand strategy. Through creative solutions, we offer you high value perception of your brand. Do you want to learn more? Make the right decision – contact us.