You’re working on brand development. How do you know when you’ve solved the problem?

1 Define your goals

The first step in any problem-solving process is to define your goals. What are you trying to achieve with your brand development? What are the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives that you want to reach? For example, do you want to increase your brand awareness, loyalty, reputation, or differentiation? Do you want to attract more customers, retain existing ones, or enter new markets? By setting clear and realistic goals, you can focus your efforts and track your progress.

3 Develop your strategy

The third step is to develop your strategy. Based on your goals and research, you need to decide how to position your brand in the market, how to communicate your value proposition, and how to deliver your brand promise. You need to define your brand identity, voice, tone, story, and personality. You also need to choose your brand elements, such as your name, logo, slogan, colors, fonts, images, and sounds. You need to create a brand style guide that outlines the rules and standards for using your brand elements across different channels and platforms.

4 Implement your tactics

The fourth step is to implement your tactics. This is where you put your strategy into action and create your brand assets and touchpoints. You need to design and produce your products or services, your website, your social media profiles, your marketing materials, your packaging, your signage, and any other physical or digital representations of your brand. You need to ensure that your brand is consistent, coherent, and compelling across all your touchpoints. You also need to train your staff and partners to embody and deliver your brand values and message.

5 Monitor your results

The fifth step is to monitor your results. This is where you measure and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of your brand development. You need to collect and analyze feedback from your customers, employees, stakeholders, and the market. You need to use quantitative and qualitative indicators, such as sales, revenue, profit, market share, customer satisfaction, retention, loyalty, referrals, reputation, or recognition. You need to compare your results with your goals and benchmarks and identify the gaps and areas for improvement.

6 Adjust your approach

The final step is to adjust your approach. This is where you learn from your results and make changes and improvements to your brand development. You need to review your goals, research, strategy, tactics, and results and see what works and what doesn't. You need to test and experiment with different ideas and solutions and see how they affect your brand performance. You need to keep your brand relevant, responsive, and resilient to the changing needs and expectations of your customers and the market.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?