How important is a brand strategy?

Does my business need a brand strategist to create a comprehensive brand strategy that aligns with its goals and values?

A brand strategy and identity are not just important. They are the key to unlocking the full potential of your business. Investing in these areas will give you the knowledge and tools to steer your business towards success.

We've written a plethora of blogs about the benefits of having a brand strategy — take a look at how to rebrand yourself. It'll arm you with many questions and really get you thinking about where your business is and how you could improve it.

All too often, branding is seen as something that big businesses have that startups and small businesses don't need. There's a need to prioritise products and services and find a way to make money. But, in reality, having a brand strategy is essential for a company of any size!

An example we love to use is when it comes to targeting your audience with a strategy. 

When you have a clear understanding of your audience, you can strategically target them with personalised campaigns, making every marketing dollar count. 

Or, you can find out what your audience needs and wants and target them with a very personalised campaign, investing the money saved on making the purchase experience so fluid and exciting that they will tell friends about it. This can increase customer loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals, which are invaluable for brand building.

There's nothing better than free brand awareness building.

Brand strategy doesn't include logos, fonts/typography, or colour palettes. While these are part of branding that most people understand, they are the bare minimum of what your brand should represent.

A brand strategy outlines 8 key areas, from foundations to target market, customer experience, and brand aesthetics. It's one thing you need to have to create a long-lasting, memorable brand.

To us, these 8 categories are broken down into the following sections.

Foundations of your Brand DNA

Your brand foundations are everything to your business. They include the problems you're solving for the world and your customers, how your business is perceived (Brand Perception), your why, brand purpose, brand vision, mission statement, brand values, and goals. Intentionally aligning your brand is a good starting point.

Identify your Target Market

It is essential to identify your ideal customers and know how to repel them. Creating brand personas that delve more into your audience's psychological beliefs and desires is also important. It's also important to outline potential communication channels—websites, email marketing, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Slack, Podcasts, and PR opportunities.

Competition Research

Building a brand that stands out from competitors is not just important. It's a necessity. By understanding their strengths and weaknesses, you can identify opportunities and threats, giving your business a competitive edge.

Choosing the best Brand Positioning

It's time to look at how to build your reputation and what makes you stand out. What are your brand's benefits, both functional and emotive? What is your brand's value proposition?

Brand Personality, Voice and Messaging

It's time to start humanising your brand and applying it to your target market. You'll need to build the brand personality, identify appropriate brand archetypes, and tone and voice of the brand. After that, you can begin integrating the values and tone of voice into the messaging to highlight the brand's benefits. Finally, you can work on taglines and brand promises.

Elevate your brand with the right name

We leave naming the brand to the end as the work we do upfront on the strategy puts us in a great position to do so. A great name is distinctive, easy to remember, elicits an emotional response from your audience, and communicates your brand values.

Map out the Customer Journey

The key to a good experience is to have customer journeys mapped out in detail. Outline what you're communicating and where. Turn mundane interactions into mind-blowing experiences and grow your brand awareness.

Plan your brand identity design

This information should help you turn your strategy into a visual design. What touchpoints for your customer journey do you need to create? What visual cues spring to mind for the logos, icons, fonts, and colour palette? The brief gives us the details to make your perfect brand identity.

Working with brand strategists like Snapper Studio

All our work focuses on working closely with brands, elevating the brand strategically and helping position them for sustainable growth that aligns with the brand's purpose. The blog posts featured above will point your brand strategy in the right direction, but it won't be our tailored approach. If you want to work together, contact us on our contact page.