Here's how you can balance creativity and practicality in developing a brand strategy.

Different brands have different objectives, but all should aim for growth. In evidence-based marketing, this means increasing market penetration (Double Jeopardy Law). Achieve this by building salience—being easily thought of (mental availability) and bought (physical availability) in more consumption occasions by as many people as possible. So, regardless of your short-term goals, ensure they align with this long-term aim.

Crafting a successful brand strategy requires a delicate dance between creativity and practicality. It's about weaving imaginative narratives and visually compelling identities while keeping a firm eye on the practical aspects like market trends, audience preferences, and business objectives. By nurturing this balance, brands can authentically engage with their audience while driving tangible results and long-term success.

Creativity loves constraints. It seems counterintuitive. But you're more likely to come up with more creative solutions when you give yourself constraints to play in. Without constraints, you tend to default to what's been done in the past. As creativity researcher Patricia Stokes wrote: “Free to do anything, most of us do what’s worked best, what succeeded the most often in the past.” - Start with the goals. - Use those goals to develop constraints. - Use the constraints to come up with more creative solutions.

The most successful creative people don’t simply throw (beautiful) spaghetti at the wall to find a brilliant idea. They understand the problem, focus on the target audience they are trying to influence, and propose ideas as solutions. Creativity and practicality should go hand in hand, bolstering your overall strategy rather than fighting against each other. If you establish a clear understanding of the challenge your brand strategy needs to overcome, you can use those parameters to think creatively about solving your problem. Alternatively, if you start with broad creative brainstorm, you’ll find you’re wasting your time.

In my experience, clarity is key. Ask yourself what success looks like for your brand. Who are you talking to? What message do you want to send? Defining these goals gives you a solid foundation, ensuring that your creative ideas always align with your brand's core purpose.

Three ways I’ve found success: 1. Encourage a culture of sharing. Call on all team members to share. Give your perspective last. Ask follow-up questions. 2. Give the time and space for brainstorming. Don’t jump to solutions at the start. 3. There’s not a one size fits all way to brainstorm. Test different formats and methods.

Balancing creativity and practicality in brand strategy is essential. Start by establishing clear goals and target audience. Then, let creativity flow in crafting your brand's story and identity, while ensuring that each creative decision aligns with your practical objectives, such as scalability and market viability. Regularly evaluate your strategies to ensure they're both innovative and effective in achieving your business goals.

- Lists! List down the problem statements. List down your most creative, out of the box ideas to solve them. - Keep your research industry agnostic. Inspiration can strike from anywhere. - Analyze for feasibility, and practicality - Formats can be diversified. Campaigns can be tailored to the business needs

Separate ideation and evaluation. Ideation activates a different part of the brain than evaluation. And, by switching back and forth between these two modes of thinking, you impede the ability of either function to work at its maximum level. In short,? switching between ideation and evaluation hinders the generation of ideas. Here's an excellent process for doing that: - Hold a brainstorming session on Friday. Ideas only. - On Monday, set another meeting. - Spend the first 10 minutes of the meetings capturing any new ideas. - Evaluate the ideas. This allows your brain to subconsciously process the ideas over the weekend and create new associations and new ideas. Then, and only then, proceed to evaluation.

Hire great talent. That's where I think the "embrace creativity" step starts in answering the question "how can you balance creativity and practicality in developing a brand strategy?" Writers and designers aren't created equal nor are they machine parts sitting on a shelf (you can't replace one with another like you would a battery). Invest in and nurture talent and team because mediocre talent typically yields mediocre results. You need creatives with talent and drive to bring great brand strategy to life. All the team brainstorming tricks and seminars in the world won't make difference-making creative appear from the safety of mediocrity.

The above explained is actually the point where brand strategy and marketing strategy intertwines. They meet here because the strategy sets the tone for marketing and so operational realities are better explored with the marketing teams insights and input??

Understand the investment your organization is willing to make for your brand strategy, rebrand, or other brand project BEFORE you go dive into the project. This doesn’t just mean financial investment. Get a good idea of how your leadership values a brand and what sort of outcomes they are looking for (attracting a new type of customer, refreshing your website for 2024… different goals can drive wildly different strategies). Understand expectations around timelines, budget, and partnership from others (design, web, etc.) and any other potential limitations. Of course, ADVOCATE for prioritization and resources if you need them, but be ready to make your case by demonstrating the future value of your (and the company's) brand investment.

The word "practicality" in the question, "how can you balance creativity and practicality in developing a brand strategy?" strikes a chord with me. It does so because I've seen it and like words put a screeching halt to creative work that has a chance to impact brand awareness and affinity. "It's not practical" is often the easy way out of creative that makes people uneasy. "It's not what we always do" is really what people are saying in these situations and it's when you know you may be on to something. Great creative isn't easy and there are no guarantees. But don't make the decision to abandon it lightly. Fight for it I say. All the best creative I ever did began with someone saying, "you'll never be able to pull it off."

I guess feasibility is where creativity meets reality. Look at your resources time, budget, and team capabilities. Can you actually implement these ideas? By being realistic, you ensure your creative strategies don't stretch your brand too thin and remain executable.

Integrate a tight-knit feedback loop based on perspectives on various stakeholders - customers being at the top of the priority list. Be in that loop consistently to iterate on strategy decisions and stay on top of the game of branding.

Even if you think your brand strategy is beyond perfection, you need to integrate feedback because: 1. Your leadership wants to (or should want to) give it 2. You should consider diverse perspectives, including those of your customers (or at least stakeholders to represent their various POVs) 3. Your brand strategy might NOT actually be perfect Feedback will HELP you. While you should have reasons for the brand decisions you’ve made (and you can speak to these), you never truly know how people will respond to a seemingly great idea until you test it. Identify the stakeholders who can provide real value, diverse perspectives, and honesty, and capture and incorporate their feedback to present the best version of your brand.

In my view, feedback is invaluable. Listen to your customers, team members, and stakeholders. Their insights can highlight what works and what doesn’t. Use this feedback to fine-tune your strategy, making sure it resonates with your audience and stays true to your brand.

Even if you’ve iterated on your brand strategy and presentation based on internal feedback, you need to prepare for the real-world reaction to your brand — good or bad. Consider your brand launch approach, and don’t feel that you need to “hard launch” to get visibility. (People don’t really care that you’re announcing a re-brand.) Instead, gradually incorporate your new brand elements into campaigns, visual assets, or communities and gauge the response. Consider what performance metrics you can use to monitor brand awareness, traffic, social engagement, and more. And consider gathering a customer focus group or use surveys to have your target audience weigh in on your brand as you evolve it.

Actually, testing is your best friend. Try out your ideas on a small scale first. Pilot projects and A/B tests can show you what clicks with your audience. This approach lets you experiment with creativity without fully committing until you know it works.

Adopting a "test and learn" approach is incredibly beneficial. By implementing small-scale focus testing, we can capture crucial feedback on how different brand elements might perform. This iterative approach allows us to continuously refine our strategies based on actual audience responses, minimizing the risks of broader implementations. It’s a smart, innovative way to navigate through various creative options, ensuring we choose the most effective path.

Stay agile and be willing to pivot your strategy based on real-world performance and feedback. Regular reviews and updates will keep your brand relevant and responsive to market changes.

Staying flexible is crucial. The market changes, and so should your brand strategy. Regularly review and tweak your approach to keep it fresh and relevant. This ensures your strategy remains a perfect blend of creativity and practicality, evolving with the times.

Have a clear brand guide and brief your team effectively. Without creativity, your brand may struggle to stand out. Creativity without boundaries undermines the brand. Don't just be different. Be meaningfully different (credit: Kantar).