How to Develop a Brand Strategy – The Full Guide

A brand strategy is an engine behind any excelling business. The process of how to develop a brand strategy can be quite time-consuming and exhausting. The merits of executing a good brand plan are countless. To start that journey off, this guide focuses on everything a business owner needs to develop an exciting brand plan that best resonates with their goals.

Brand strategies are quite flexible. They can be easily adjusted to fit one’s type of product, service, or even concept. Rising companies often make mistakes by working on their brand strategy too early, without prior market research or a solid foundation of their strong points. Let’s find out how to develop a brand strategy in the following lines.

Getting Started

While beginning, the long haul to a well-established brand name is always tempting. Starting too early or without proper paperwork can lead to hideous results. Before business owners and young entrepreneurs take steps to develop a brand strategy, they must understand the basis of any business formation.

The criteria for evaluating brand strength and the characteristics each functional company should acquire create a good brand name. Moreover, a typical brand strategy highlights the business, communications, content, and audience’s needs. In addition, effective brand strategies must elaborate and include detailed research on everything the company will stumble across in its early phases.

Brand Definition

Brands, by definition, are products, services, or concepts that distinguish between different businesses. A brand is a company’s identity, which the public can easily understand and communicate with. It determines everything down to the product or the service’s name.

Branding as a process is the creation of the name and the identity which will define the product, service, or concept as well as its marketing. A brand is typically expressed in the form of logos. However, the entire process of this asset is more complex than that.

For instance, the company or brand should be secured by a trademark issued by a legitimate agency. To establish a trademark or a service mark, the company has to ensure that no one else has an identical name. This is a much-needed step that most companies seek the help of a law firm to do.

Moreover, the creation of brands should always be carefully prepared and researched. Not only because it represents the visual elements of a company but also the founding base of the company’s status in the market. According to the Economist, “Brands are many companies’ most valuable assets. But no one agrees on how much they are worth or why.”

Characteristics of a Good Brand

So, how do business owners decide whether their brands are on the right track? The characteristics of a successful brand are almost identical regardless of the type of service or product of that brand. Sometimes, the market itself doesn’t make a big difference either. The following points constitute a manager’s and owners’ checklist for achieving a great brand reputation.

1. Knowing the Target Audience

Understanding the targeted segments is a crucial element of being successful. Good research on the audience’s needs and priorities allows brands to speak to them better and reflect on their needs and wants.

2. Showing a Clear Promise

Nothing is worse than confusion. So, how can brands gain the audience’s trust? By being frank, that’s how. Showing a clear message or promise at all times facilitates the brand-customer relationship big time. It enables businesses to set their foot in the market easily since it’s not fighting for trust.

3. Having a Unique Proposition

Adding on the clear promise point, every brand must strive to set itself apart from similar products or services in the market. Finding a special proposition or a niche and stressing about it is key to standing out among the crowd.

4. Being Consistent

No matter what a business does. If it’s being consistent, then it’s not winning. Brands, especially those aiming for greatness, realise the importance of maintaining a good pace of work.

5. Using Storytelling

Customers do not want to hear rigid marketing slogans or watch lame product advertisements. Storytelling has long been used as a humorous way to introduce brands and market a product or a service. It’s a popular method in ads because it familiarises the customer with the brand in an informal way.

6. Increasing Engagement Tools

Responsiveness is very efficient when figuring out how to develop a great brand strategy. It is a good indicator of a company’s activeness with the audience; it boosts the company’s image and reflects its strength and openness to complaints and suggestions.

Moreover, responsiveness allows people to trust and perceive the brand as fun and interactive. Many brands have directed their digital marketing efforts to create goofy and light marketing campaigns to enhance their engagement rates on social media.

7. Maintaining Authenticity

Staying true and standing on a solid base of ethics and regulations is probably the strongest element a brand can have because it establishes the ground for a great reputation.

What Determines Brand Equity

Brand equity is influenced by various factors that collectively contribute to the perceived value and overall impact a brand has on its audience. Let’s first define what brand equity is.

Brand Equity Definition

Brand equity refers to the intangible value and strength that a brand adds to a product or service. It represents consumers’ positive perceptions, attitudes, and associations towards a brand, influencing their purchasing decisions and loyalty.

In essence, brand equity reflects a brand’s impact on consumer behaviour and the overall value it brings to a business. Here are several viewpoints on selecting brand equity.

1. Consumer Perception: The financial perspective prioritises the value of the branded product versus the prices put in front of consumers.
2. Negative or Positive Effects: The next perspective is much lighter, as it’s concerned with the impact the brand leaves on the audience and whether it can pave the way for an extension of other products or not.
3. Resulting Value: A more customer-oriented perspective embraces their impressions, thoughts, needs, and how they perceive and respond to the brand.

Brand Equity Research

Brand equity research aims to assess the value and strength of a brand in the eyes of consumers and its impact on business performance. Its goals may vary depending on the specific objectives of the organisation. When brands conduct equity research analysis, they usually target one or several of the following topics: tracking, monitoring changes, and increasing brand power.

Each type of research has its own methodology. For instance, companies must pay attention to how the competitors are doing when targeting brand tracking. On the other hand, the other two types need extensive mapping and assessment measures.

Minding Customer Attitude

A great way to measure brand equity is by focusing on the consumer experience. In other words, professionalism can tell a lot about the strength of a brand from the customer’s attitudes toward it.

The Components at Hand

This point differs between brand types and strategies. However, the measurement requirements are fixed. Brands should utilise the impact of their traditional and digital advertising campaigns to determine the correct brand equity value. So, it’s advised to pay extra attention to the customer’s brand awareness, the online and offline reach, and the level of interaction with the public.

Brand Loyalty

Customers are prone to love and appreciate a certain product after trying it. However, this is not a solid rule. Advertising can play an integral part in conversions. All in all, product differentiation is a highly respected asset that brands seek. It’s one of the most vital measures for determining brand equity.

Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches Equally Matter

In qualitative and quantitative work, one doesn’t go without the other. Conducting surveys, running focus groups, or taking testimonials will always help determine brand equity. These methods of data collection not only allow brands to produce proper analyses but also facilitate any consumer-related decision-making process. They can potentially revolutionise brand strategies.

Brand Strength

Another proven way to measure brand equity is brand strength, which refers to a brand’s overall robustness, influence, and vitality within its market or industry. It reflects the brand’s ability to attract and retain customers, withstand competitive pressures, and consistently deliver on its promises.

Brand Strength Examples

There are various successful examples of strong brands in the market today. These companies have managed to build a foundation for themselves in the market and in the hearts of consumers correctly. Here are their measuring criteria:

• The German market research company, GfK, states in its “Brand Assessment Model” that they measure quality, brand awareness, points of uniqueness, sympathy, and trust. They calculate their economic success with the “share of the market” and the “share of the soul” (i.e., the brand attractiveness from a consumer’s point of view).
• The international advertising company, BBDO, exclaims in its “Brand Equity Evaluator” the significance of measuring awareness levels, distribution numbers, quality, brand personality, uniqueness, and trust.
• The New York-based information and measurement company, Nielsen, measures its brand attractiveness, distribution, consumer acceptance degree, and level of awareness to get the most accurate estimation of brand strength.
• BrandTrust, a marketing consultant based in Chicago, likes to separate the dimensions of awareness and attractiveness and then evaluate and work to improve them. It poses a valid point because awareness never actually translates into attractiveness.

What is a Brand Strategy?

According to HubSpot, a brand strategy is a plan that includes particular, long-term goals to be achieved hand in hand with the evolution of a brand. As stated by HubSpot, seven crucial elements help in how to develop a brand strategy:

1. Brand Purpose

What does this business aim to do? What is its brand positioning? Brands with clear purpose work better towards achieving a successful brand strategy that sets you apart. There are two kinds of purposes that brands target.

1. Function: This method focuses heavily on immediate and commercial reasons. In other words, it means how to make more money more quickly.
2. Intention: Contrary to the functional purpose, the intentional one ensures monetary and social success by making a big difference in the world.

2. Consistency

Also known as focusing solely on what matters, being consistent enables business owners to dodge distractions and only make meaningful decisions that will add up to the company. Ensuring consistency in each step can cumulatively build a strong brand reputation and improve the awareness and attractiveness levels big time.

3. Emotion

Depending on the nature of each service or product, brands can play well with emotions in order to increase sales. For instance, there’s a great fascination associated with Coca-Cola’s campaigns, but frankly speaking, no one knows when a soda drink becomes accompanied by immense feelings of joy and happiness. This is how successfully emotions can be an integral part of a brand strategy and eventually a great selling point, too.

4. Flexibility

In a fast-paced world like today, social trends can change on a daily basis, and lots of products get in and out in a flash. For these reasons and more, keeping brands flexible, relevant, and creative is the best protection against this turbulent market. This is why fun digital campaigns are becoming the primary method to attract new customers. Brands have also shifted to unconventional advertising solutions such as product placement and corporate social responsibility (CSR) sponsorships and programmes.

5. Employee Involvement

While having a module to follow is good, getting the employees involved in applying that module is even better. Since employees are the true representation of the brand, it’s important that they, too, understand and apply the ethics and internal ‘teachings’ of the company they’re representing.

A famous example of excellent employee placement is how businesses heavily rely on consumer experiences like Uber, which now uses GIFs and other humorous images to respond to followers on social media. This shows the little steps a company can take to improve its employee involvement further and increase its brand attractiveness.

6. Loyalty

Rewarding loyal customers is often undermined. A successful strategy never fails to include those who contribute to the brand’s image and reputation. Brand loyalty is always sought to keep a good proposition in the market.

7. Competitive Awareness

When determining how to develop a strong brand strategy, studying the competitors’ advantages and niches is vital to brand development. It allows businesses to improve their strategies, pose greater values or pricing, and understand the low points of the competitors and try to compensate them.

The Four Branding Strategies

Not all brands market for the same purposes. Having a solid brand strategy to lay on during decision-making processes is something companies aspire to reach. Therefore, marketers should understand the several branding strategy templates and how they enable businesses to strive.

1. Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is a strategic exercise aiming to influence how consumers perceive and choose a brand. It refers to the unique space a brand occupies in the minds of its target audience in relation to competitors and involves crafting a distinct and favourable image of the brand that sets it apart and communicates its value proposition. It is often articulated through a combination of attributes, benefits, beliefs, and values. Let’s break down each element:

Attributes

Attributes help consumers understand what the brand offers and how it differs from other market options. They are basically descriptions of products or services. These can be tangible aspects, such as its size, colour, design, or performance. They constitute a good marketing positioning, even alone.

For a smartphone brand, attributes could include the camera quality, battery life, and screen resolution. Although this straightforward approach has become super dull and unattractive unless combined with a couple of other approaches, many brands still stick to it.

Benefits

Benefits, on the other hand, go beyond attributes and focus on the positive outcomes or advantages consumers gain from using the brand. These benefits address the needs and desires of the target audience and highlight the brand’s value proposition.

In other words, they are exactly what customers are looking for when checking out a new brand. What will this product do? How is it helpful? Is it worth the money? These are a sample of the questions the brand should be answering. Perhaps this is the most commonly used approach to brand positioning to date.

Beliefs

Beliefs refer to the principles, convictions, or philosophies that a brand associates with. These may reflect the brand’s ideology, purpose, or stance on certain issues. Consumers often connect with brands that share similar beliefs or values.

For example, a brand promoting sustainability and environmental responsibility may believe in minimising its ecological footprint and using eco-friendly materials. This brand attracts consumers who believe in sustainability, too.

Values

Values are the core principles that guide a brand’s behaviour and decision-making. They represent the ethical and moral standards that the brand upholds. Communicating values helps build trust and credibility with consumers.

Beliefs and values are deeper perspectives that enrich the brand and give consumers a personal preference. They will always pick out sentimentalism over materialism. That’s why the more professional brands realise that winning people’s hearts is essential for successful brand positioning.

But because this heavily relies on emotions, brands should pay great attention to the messages they convey and the visuals they’re using. A simple mistake in this area could devastate the company and ruin the brand’s reputation for quite some time.

2. Brand Name Selection

Picking the right name can be tricky. In order to avoid as much confusion as possible, it’s better to note these common issues:

• Select a name that can be easily translated into foreign languages. Steer clear of funny or senseless translations that can ruin your reputation overseas.
• Don’t choose a name that’s too narrow, like “OnlineBooks” or “Wedding Dresses in Belfast“. Rising companies and start-ups who are still expanding their businesses shouldn’t select a limiting brand name.
• A brand name should be easy to read, pronounce, and remember. Avoid complicated names or names that are often misread.

Go for Distinctive

Unique brand names are definitely a great asset to the business. Nothing is more frustrating than when people mix between irrelevant companies just because they share an identically pronounced or a similar-looking name.

So, before choosing your brand name, double-check if some other company has it anywhere around the world. Check again to see if this will be picked in the future.

Additionally, pick a name that means something to the company itself. This is a great tip that unconventional marketers and brand managers live by. When a company selects a name that resonates with its beliefs and values, it maintains a great deal of truth to its essence.

3. Brand Sponsorship

Brand sponsorship refers to a marketing strategy in which a brand associates itself with a particular event, cause, organisation, or entity to gain exposure, enhance its image, and connect with a specific target audience.

Through sponsorship, a brand provides financial or in-kind support in exchange for promotional opportunities and visibility associated with the sponsored entity. This marketing tactic allows brands to align themselves with values, activities, or audiences that are relevant to their target market.

Brand sponsorship takes various forms, each serving different strategic purposes for brands. Here’s an overview of the common types of brand sponsorship, which include manufacturer’s brand, private brand, licencing, and co-branding.

Manufacturer’s Brand

A manufacturer’s brand product is a product sold under the brand name. It is, by definition, the “Common practice where a manufacturer markets a good or family of goods under its own brand name(s). The objective is to attract and retain satisfied customers whose loyalty may be transferred to the manufacturer’s other products.”

Private Brand

Also called private labels, store brands, distributor brands, and own labels, private brands are owned and sold by a retailer or distributor. These brands are created and marketed by the retailer, and the products are typically manufactured by a third-party supplier.

For example, Kirkland Signature is a private brand owned by Costco. Costco creates and sells various products, including food, under the Kirkland Signature brand.

Licencing

In addition to the previous two options, licensed brands have steadily become a more convenient solution for manufacturers. Since it enables them to obtain attractive celebrity or character names such as Disney, Mickey Mouse, Pink Panther, and more.  

Co-Branding

Finally, co-branding. The popular practice is where two brands of different companies join forces and produce one product together. This method is often seen as very attractive to consumers, especially if the two brands are well-acknowledged in the market.

4. Brand Development 

Brand development is simply how the brand is shaped over time. Each brand’s image and function can grow and develop every once in a while. Brand managers and strategists should make room for their companies to nourish. That’s why brand development should take a huge part of your brand strategy.

Line Extensions

Number one in brand development is line extension. As previously stated, brands take new forms and increase their product lines after each successful period of operations. A line extension is an affordable tool businesses use to introduce new products without confusing the audience in any way since they place them under the same brand name.

Brand Extensions

Moving on to brand extension, this method, too, uses the same existing brand name to launch a new product category. What this trick does is familiarise the consumers quickly with the new product and rely on the brand’s well-established reputation. Moreover, this way, the product is welcomed into the market and doesn’t face the usual risks and threats any newly launched brand or product may face.

Multi Brands

As for multi-brands, it’s the combination of several brands together in a certain product category (e.g. Procter & Gamble). The beauty of this practice is that it allows companies to spread widely in the market to suit the needs and the varying values of the consumers. It cuts down the number of competitive companies and creates a dynamic workflow that is as hard as it is lucrative.

New Brands

Lastly, we have new brands. Sometimes, a company seeks a fresh start or a fresh perspective when its old brand name starts losing its sparkle. Establishing a new brand name is a popular solution to introduce a new product category in the market. Not to intersect with brand extension, companies with great brand names seek an extension as opposed to poor brand names who direct their efforts into creating new brands.

Brand Your Product: How to Build Your Brand Strategy

Much like time, market trends are always changing. Brands struggle to stay on top of trends and not be swept sideways by their constant demands. Building a brand from scratch is a multifaceted process that requires strategic planning, creativity, and consistent effort. Here are some elements to help you create a brand strategy and speed up your company’s branding process.

1. Get a Kicker of a Logo

Logos are very expressive. A great logo will save lots of time, effort, and money on the marketing process. You should know how to design a good, modern logo.

2. Get your Brand Messaging Straight

As previously mentioned, messaging is as important as wrapping paper for a Christmas gift. It complements, adds value, and excites the recipients.

3. Integrate the Brand

The concept and mission of the business should be highlighted in the brand image. It should be integrated into each step the company takes, even if it’s just giving a comment to a local journalist.

4. Establish a Brand Voice

Having a brand voice is a great method to unify your brand’s written and visual content. It can potentially signify the brand among other competitive companies in the market.

5. Have a Concise but Meaningful Tagline

The easiest way to conceptualise a tagline is by summarising a company’s key concepts, mission, and vision in one short sentence. This sentence is the tagline sought after, and also pure gold.

6. Create Design Templates and Brand Standards

Continuing with the efforts to achieve brand unification, creating several design templates using the brand voice and goals or a guide of standards that reflect the company’s ethics is a good way to stabilise the brand’s status in the market.

7. Stay True at All Times

Maintaining integrity all the way is one of the binding elements for creating a successful brand at several stages.  

8. Be Consistent

Consistency is the step that no brand should ever neglect at any point in its business. Regardless of the nature of the company’s short or long-term goals, being consistent will allow the brand to achieve better numbers and retain a good reputation.

How to Boost Brand Building

Brand building is the strategic use of marketing strategies to enhance the brand’s relevance, shape its reputation, and increase its visibility. This process is a key marketing priority that profoundly impacts the company’s overall growth and profitability. Here are several vital points to boost brand building:

• Prioritise Referrals: How do starting businesses increase referrals? Simple! It’s all about clear placement among the target audience, presenting the brand’s objectives and vision and highlighting its niche.
• Generate Leads: Referrals also help with generating new leads. Marketing towards attracting new prospects is essential.
• Work on Business Development: How does a company approach more prospects, attract potential convert, and seek more investments? It starts with a detailed business development that leaves little to chance.
• Watch Billing Rates: How much money are branding consultants deducting?
• Who’s on the Team: Recruiting can be a hazard; however, an efficient team is probably the key to a company’s success. The larger brands invest in their recruited talents, the greater the growth they can achieve later.
• Value Right: The aforementioned points enable business owners to guarantee a premium valuation, which is the additional qualities or characteristics that make a company more valuable than similar entities in the market.

Brand Development Definition

In the management dictionary, brand development is the process of retaining the consistency of a brand in terms of quality, trust, and value that customers find in the company. It is the process of creating and strengthening your professional services brand.

Its Four Phases

• Having a Brand Strategy – How do companies introduce themselves to the market? What are the risks and pitfalls that should be avoided? And how do they maximise communication and brand exposure? The strategy should be aligned with the business objectives.
• Creating a Brand Identity – How does this company present its vision, mission, values, and beliefs? It should show in everything from its written content to the use of visual elements and ads.
• Graphic Design – Coming up with a unique, attractive design to distinguish one company from another and influence the consumer’s perception. Successful brands pay great attention to the details put into their logo, tagline, and website.
• Organising Brand Management – Following up, reporting, managing the investments, eyeing the progress of the brand and more.

How to Develop Your Brand Strategy in 15 Steps 

Developing a brand strategy can be easy. This easy-to-follow ten-step guide summarises everything business owners should put into consideration.

1. Construct a Business Strategy

Brand strategies are obedient followers of business strategies. Simply put, the nature of a business strategy determines the direction and the goals of a company. Thus, it’s the ultimate way to start implementing the company’s path. Successful brands rely on the foundations they’ve put in their business strategy in any given decision-making process.

2. Create a Brand Identity

You should clearly articulate your brand’s mission (why you exist) and vision (where you aspire to be in the future). Then, you should identify the core values that guide your brand’s behaviour and decisions. Key elements to develop your brand identity include:

• Logo – Select colours, fonts, and icons that express your brand personality.
• Colour Palette – Use colours that align with your brand’s emotions and meanings.
• Typography – Choose readable, on-brand fonts for headings/body text.
• Voice and tone – Define the style of language that embodies your brand.
• Messaging – Craft compelling taglines, slogans, and marketing copy.
• Visuals – Carefully create images, illustrations, and videos that convey your brand consistently.

Your brand identity creates instant brand recognition and helps differentiate you in the marketplace. It should be professional, consistent, and aligned across all customer touchpoints.

3. Develop a Brand’s Values and Personality

Your company’s brand values and personality should stem directly from your target audience’s insights. You should reflect on what you stand for as a company, what makes your brand unique, and what your customers are really looking for from your brand experience. Some key brand personality dimensions to define include:

• Warmth – Are you friendly, inclusive, or serious/corporate?
• Competence – Are you an expert/innovative or casual/approachable?
• Sophistication – Are you polished, upscale, or folksy and down-to-earth?
• Trustworthiness – Are you reliable, ethical, and honest?
• Excitement – Are you fun, daring, or more low-key?

Ensure your brand values align with those of your target audience. The goal is to develop a consistent personality that customers can recognise and connect with across all touchpoints.

4. Identify and Research Your Target Audience

A key step in developing your company’s brand strategy is identifying who you want to reach with your brand. You should take time to research and analyse your target demographic and psychographic groups by conducting surveys, interviews, focus groups, and customer analysis to build an in-depth profile of your ideal target audience. This will allow you to craft tailored branding and messaging that truly resonates with your audience.

Important factors to consider include:

• Age, gender, location, income level, education level, and marital/family status.
• Values, attitudes, interests, lifestyles, behaviours, and motivations.
• Where they spend time online and offline.
• Which social media platforms and influencers they engage with.
• Their pain points and needs the company’s brand can fulfil.

Understanding the needs and mindset of the target audience is the key to achieving high profits. Why? Businesses have gotten a good glimpse of their customers’ priorities and now understand the best methods to speak, convince, and sell to them. The narrower and more detailed the segment, the easier it is to analyse it.

Dedicating a decent amount of research to understanding the target audience, including their needs, behaviours, and opinions about the brand, helps produce better decisions in the brand strategy process. Since the research will enable the brands to view matters from the client’s perspective, it will reduce the risk probability and increase reach drastically.

5. Conduct a Brand Audit

You should evaluate your current brand assets, including the logo, visual identity, and messaging.
Moreover, you should analyse competitors to identify your brand’s unique selling points and areas for differentiation.

6. Establish Brand Positioning

Knowing your target audience paves the way to correct strategic brand development. However, brand positioning or market positioning alone can differentiate a brand from its competitors. In other words, it answers all the questions a prospective investor or client might have when trying to get familiarised with your brand.

The typical brand positioning statement is usually three to five sentences and mainly attempts to incorporate the brand’s essence. It should include the brand’s promise, motives, and perhaps a dash of vision.

7. Craft Your Brand Messaging Strategy

The next step is aligning your brand messages with the decided-upon strategic points. The messages conveyed should be understandable and meaningful to potential clients, employees, and stakeholders, to name a few prospects.

The beauty of a brand messaging strategy is that it can be extremely flexible depending on the kind of recipient. The language and tone used on social media will definitely differ from the one used on outdoor billboards. It’s also good to note that brand responsiveness is among the top valuable elements in any messaging strategy.

8. Develop Your Name, Logo, and Tagline

Your visual and verbal brand identity should clearly communicate your brand values, personality, and positioning. So, choose your company name, logo, tagline, and other trademarks carefully.

You should ensure that the brand’s name, logo, and tagline fit what your company is trying to convey and where it seeks to position itself. Name and logo irrelevance or inappropriate tagline can be disastrous. It wouldn’t hurt to conduct some research and a couple of surveys to come up with the best name and logo.

9. Create a Content Marketing Strategy

Just as there are special conditions that go into creating a business strategy and a brand strategy, the very same applies to content marketing strategies. Content is the endpoint of long research and numerous KPIs and objectives; therefore, they must be carried out and executed perfectly to achieve the desired goals.

Content, the basis of messages, is used to attract potential customers, nurture current ones, reflect the ethics and goals of a brand, and improve reputation and visibility.

10. Develop a Website

Having an up-and-running website that complements your brand identity is an excellent way to improve reach and strengthen the company’s reputation. People can tell a lot about a brand’s functionality, coherence, and spirit from its website.

Successful business owners use websites to their advantage by stressing key messages for prospective clients and audiences alike. Additionally, websites are great outlets for showing off that storytelling aspect of the brand: where it started, where it is headed, and what it does. Another technical perk to having a good website is the strength of its search engine optimisation (SEO).

11. Integrate Across Channels

You should ensure consistent branding on your website, social media profiles, and other online platforms. Meanwhile, you should maintain brand consistency in physical spaces, packaging, and marketing collateral.

12. Engage Your Audience

To have a successful strategy, you must create valuable and relevant content that aligns with your brand identity and foster meaningful interactions with your audience on social media.

13. Build Market Toolkit

Summarising your key markets served, and core service offerings in an easy manual is a much-needed tool. It enables brands to share their essential values and unique propositions concisely. In addition, it allows the brand to travel faster and reach more people more easily. Whether in the form of a pamphlet or an e-brochure, market toolkits always come in handy.

14. Adapt to Market Changes

You should stay aware of the industry trends and adapt your brand strategy accordingly. You should also monitor competitors and be prepared to refine your strategy to maintain a competitive edge.

15. Assessment and Tracking

While developing a brand strategy for your business is a mega task in itself, it cannot work alone without constant implementation, tracking, assessment, and modification whenever necessary. Think of your brand strategy as a constantly evolving asset. Surely, great intentions and research will not suffice.

In order to ensure the best assessment possible, create an easy-to-handle measurement strategy to always stay on top of things as business gets harder and more hectic. Only then do business owners have the needed information and intelligence to take grand decisions, and make the correct adjustments and the right conclusions to help their businesses strive.

How Do You Create a Brand Awareness Strategy?

Brand awareness is a strong asset that is always sought. The following elaborate guide from Getambassador explains how business owners can secure good brand awareness rates by applying the following steps to their strategies.

Step one: Efforts to Target ­Specific Audiences

The best efforts directed toward increasing brand awareness should be divided into targeting the following two segments:

1. The first segment is the current customers who pay attention to the brand messages, whether by following the website, social media outlets, or other communication platforms.
2. The second one is where all the efforts count. When the brand includes potential customers and its desired target audience in its message, it significantly increases brand awareness. This can be amplified via digital media sponsored posts, social media campaigns, CSR projects, and TV ads.

Step Two: Search Result Re-targeting and Brand Recall

Re-targeting is where technology really kicks in. It is a type of digital ad that targets users who have visited or interacted with a brand’s website or social media channel. This method is used to maximise brand recall and attract new consumers. It can be adjusted by approaching these four types of users:

• People with preliminary brand awareness.
• Those who have previously visited the website.
• Users that have opened an email.
• People who have previously searched for the brand/product by name.

Step Three: Prioritising Social Customer Engagement

Social customer engagement is no longer optional for successful brands. Having an up-and-running queue of social media channels is a great way to ensure that the brand is interactive and responsive. Marketers are also stressing the vitality of being present on social media because it

1. Allows businesses to tailor better experiences for their customers.
2. Attracts prospective consumers and entices them to engage with the brand.
3. Paves the way for building a strong loyal customer base.
4. Keeps brands on top of things. It allows a bit of storytelling and brand awareness, too.
5. Helps turn potential leads into profit.

Bonus Tip: A brand Awareness Strategy Can Lead to a Better ROI

This mix of combining the efforts to target a specific audience segment, the use of search result re-targeting ads for brand recall, and prioritising social customer engagement provides the brand with an inclusive plan to raise its brand awareness in the market and ultimately increase the Return on Investment (ROI).

This combo is most beneficial when merged with continuous processes of data collection and analyses. Since the brand’s number of brand loyalists, direct sales, and digital reach and interaction will increase, the ROI will do as well. To improve the ROI even further, you should follow these points religiously to maximise their results:

1. Approach social media influencers and get them to endorse the brand or its product on their platforms.
2. Use special, branded packaging that speaks on behalf of the brand.
3. Never neglect SEO research; always ensure the brand’s website ranks well.
4. Pay extra attention to how social media channels are doing. Do not miss changing the profile image and the cover photo with each ongoing digital campaign.
5. Twitter is important. All brands maintain a good image on Twitter and sometimes engage in humorous brand battles by mentioning each other.
6. Use Google AdSense auto ads to your advantage.

Statistics on the Benefits of Developing a Brand Strategy

In the following lines, we list insights and trends that highlight the importance of brand strategy. Please note that these are just a few examples of the many benefits of developing a cohesive brand strategy. By taking the time to develop your brand, you can set your business up for long-term success.

Increased Brand Awareness and Recognition

A successful brand strategy can help you increase brand awareness and recognition among your target audience, leading to more leads and sales. For example, a study by Adobe found that brands that invest in brand consistency see a 23% increase in revenue.

Improved Customer Loyalty

A winning brand strategy can help you build stronger customer relationships and loyalty. Customers are more likely to be loyal to brands they trust and connect with on an emotional level. For example, a study by Oberlo found that 88% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support.

Increased Market Share

A well-executed brand strategy can also help you increase your market share by making it easier to attract new customers and retain existing ones. For example, a study by McKinsey found that companies with successful brands have a 70% higher chance of acquiring new customers than companies with weak brands.

Higher Profits

A compelling brand strategy helps you achieve higher profits by making charging premium prices for your products and services easier. For example, a study by Interbrand found that the world’s top 100 brands are worth an average of $163 billion.

References

• Adobe, “Consistency is Key: Adobe Report Finds Brands with Consistent Identities Increase Revenue by 23%” (2022)
• Oberlo, “E-commerce Branding Statistics for 2023” (2023)
• McKinsey & Company, “The McKinsey Global Branding Index” (2022)
• Interbrand, “Best Global Brands 2023” (2023)

Case Studies of Successful Brand Strategies

Studying other successful brands can provide inspiration and models for developing your own brand strategy. Here are two real-life branding strategy examples:

1. Nike is known for its iconic “Just Do It” slogan, motivational messaging, and brand ambassador athletes. Its brand identity is built around performance, achievement, and confidence. It has a strong visual identity with a “swoosh” logo.
2. Target‘s brand personality focuses on style, affordability, inclusivity, and joyful customer experience. Its brand identity features bright, fun colours and displays. Its messaging emphasises design partnerships and campaigns supporting diversity/sustainability.

Both brands know their target audience deeply and have crafted strong brand identities that pervade their websites, stores, ads, products, and overall customer experiences. Examining best practices like these can help inform your own brand strategy decisions.

Words for Brand Makers

Lastly, a couple of reminders will never fail to elevate a brand’s performance or boost a current brand strategy.

Number One: Having a Deep Understanding of Business Needs

This ultimate advice is priceless. Whenever a company suffers from a certain shortage or glitch, one can always trace it back to how the person in charge understood what the business needed at that incident.

Number Two: Don’t Skip Social Media

Digital media outlets have become the primary source of marketing and advertising. Everything else is just history now. Regardless of the target audience the brand is seeking, having a proactive social media presence will improve the brand’s reach, sales, and more.

Number Three: Value the Team

Your team members are the first brand ambassadors for your brand. Their effort is what keeps the brand alive. Keep them aligned with the business strategy and goals to always direct their hard work in the right place. Invest in employees as much as possible to help them excel in the tasks they do for the brand.

Number Four: Follow Trends in Moderation

Running blindly towards social media or market trends can be very tempting. However, no good can come from following a temporary ‘trend’ without proper research and evaluation. Make sure the brand’s positioning is always correct to avoid any mishaps.

A comprehensive brand speaks to its customers. That is why developing a brand strategy is perhaps the most serious task business owners must do. It practically controls the brand’s past, present, and near future. So, each step counts. In this article, we listed the most practical tips on how to develop a brand strategy. Good luck!