A brand strategy is a plan that defines your brand identity, positioning, messaging, and goals. It helps you communicate your value proposition, differentiate yourself from competitors, and connect with your target audience.
Here's how to create a brand strategy in the context of business development by following these six steps:
Your brand purpose is the reason why you exist, beyond making money. It is the impact you want to have on the world, and the problem you want to solve for your customers. Your brand values are the principles that guide your actions and decisions, and reflect your culture and personality. To define your brand purpose and values, you need to ask yourself questions such as: What is your mission? What are your core beliefs? What do you stand for? How do you want to be perceived?
Ideally, your brand purpose is ONE sentence that captures WHY you exist. This sentence should matter to the business owner or leadership team, the employees that make up your company culture, and your customers and external stakeholders... at the same time. If "brand purpose" doesn't completely resonate with you, you could also use the term "brand passion" or "brand cause." Brand purpose is much more about why you and your employees get out of bed in the morning than goals or more tangible metrics you strive to reach.
In an era of constant change it is quite difficult to define the brand purpose. Well most may think that luxury brands may be associated with traditional products or services (the so called old money aesthetics), however is not the whole truth because luxury is defined as "something that is enjoyable and expensive that you do not really need" and it could be anything. Hence to have a good narrative for your brand purpose it is also important to understand the creator's passion accompanied by the audience's taste. Moreover, understanding your uniqueness will lay the foundation for defining your purpose.
Your target audience is the group of people who are most likely to benefit from your products or services, and who you want to reach and engage with your brand. Your target market is the segment of the market where your target audience is located, and where you have the potential to grow and compete. To identify your target audience and market, you need to conduct market research and analysis, and create customer personas and profiles. You need to understand their needs, wants, challenges, preferences, behaviors, and motivations.
One tool we use to help clients consider these things is an exercise we call The Buyer Utopia. First, think about your ideal clients. Consider their emotions and experiences. Remember their stories. What challenges have they faced?Next, picture the Utopia where these clients (and others just like them) live. Ask yourself questions about them and write down everything that comes to mind. Here are a few questions we love to ask: What is the soundtrack playing in the background? Why did they move here? What are their personal values? By doing this exercise, you can gain valuable insights into who your people are at a deeper level. What do they want and need to hear? How can you use empathy and compassion to better connect with them?
This is such a key part of your overall business strategy - this is just one of 4 key elements that we have as part of building a marketing machine in your business. Once you have undertaken this task, its how you then connect your activity to the other aspects of your business such as your existing clients, your offering and the range of communication tools at your disposal. Markets change, needs change, preferences change and we need to be agile with a plan so that we can respond and maintain marketing momentum. Research is a constant and there will be so many people in your team who have valuable knowledge that can support this task. Showing people where they can get involved and impact the bigger picture is massive. ??
Audience for the luxury brand is the lifeline for the survival of the brand. Researching about your audience segmentation should be top priority since most of your marketing and targeting will be done based on identifying the key factors which would result from leads to conversions. Once the audience segmentation is done, it is important to dive into the brands persona. This will enable the brand to identify occupation, hobbies, pain points, aspirations, and purchasing behavior. Moreover also understanding OTL & BTL regions will enhance the brands leverage in targeting the audience.
Your competitors are the other brands that offer similar or alternative products or services to your target audience, and that influence their buying decisions. Your industry is the broader context in which you operate, and that affects your opportunities and threats. To analyze your competitors and industry, you need to use tools and methods such as SWOT analysis, Porter's five forces, and benchmarking. You need to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and identify their unique selling points, market share, and customer loyalty.
Well when it comes to luxury brands, I believe it is important for the company to annalyse the market and its competitors but not get into competition since the scenario with luxury brands is what makes it unique rather than what makes it better. Understanding markets will give key insights about trends and buying power. Also researching about case studies will provide solutions on how to tackle challenges.
Your brand positioning is the way you want your target audience to perceive your brand, and how you want to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Your brand messaging is the set of words and phrases that you use to communicate your brand positioning, value proposition, and personality. To develop your brand positioning and messaging, you need to craft a positioning statement, a tagline, a slogan, a brand voice, and a brand story. You need to make sure that your brand positioning and messaging are clear, consistent, and compelling.
One thing that might be useful when developing brand messaging is to identify three core messages. You must always convey these "big ideas" when talking to clients, potential employees, or stakeholders. You can always create talking points underneath each core message, but if you have too many messages, what you say becomes convoluted.
A common sentence you might have heard in a luxury brands story narrative is "State of the art" and this is used for a reason which holds true. A luxury brand is a form of art which is exclusive and comes at a premium price tag. Ensuring using the rite tone and language plays a major role. Storytelling plays the most important role in creating a brand message. Brand message needs to synchronize with its audience and create a desire for them to experience the brand.
Your brand identity is the visual representation of your brand, and the elements that make it recognizable and memorable. Your brand assets are the tangible and intangible resources that you use to express your brand identity, and to support your brand strategy. To design your brand identity and assets, you need to create a logo, a color palette, a typography, an iconography, a style guide, and a brand book. You need to ensure that your brand identity and assets are aligned with your brand purpose, values, positioning, and messaging.
Before you begin designing your visual brand identity, start with brand strategy. You need to clearly identify who you are as a brand. What do you stand for/against? What is your personality + voice? One way to analyze this might be to use Brand Archetyping. Next, you need to consider who you are selling to (it isn't to everyone, I promise) What past experiences have clients had? What values do they live by? What shared values do you have in common? From there, you need to determine what emotion you want your clients to feel when they encounter your brand. Do they need you to 'save the day' or care + nurture them softly? Are you bold and assertive? These types of questions can help you determine how to create your visual brand identity.
Brand assets have to be strategically planned by constant trial and error prior to its launch. Moreover the assets need to align with the brands purpose, vision, mission and objectives. Brands need to consult experts and designers from similar industries to create assets which resonate with its audience. The values also play a major role since being ethical will benift the brand on the long run. Colour, typography and style shall remain constant to create a long lasting impression for brands on its audience. Lastly, positioning and messaging are very important to tap into the audience subconsciously.
Your brand strategy is not a one-time project, but a continuous process that requires implementation and evaluation. To implement your brand strategy, you need to integrate it into every aspect of your business, and to communicate it to your internal and external stakeholders. To evaluate your brand strategy, you need to measure and monitor its performance, and to collect and analyze feedback from your customers and the market. You need to adjust and improve your brand strategy as needed, and to keep it relevant and responsive.
One great way to evaluate your brand strategy is to undergo a professional brand audit. It will help you understand how strong your brand is & what your reputation is with employees, stakeholders, & clients. When evaluating your brand, it is important to understand what things strengthen the brand and are working well, so you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I recommend having a 3rd party conduct interviews with internal & external stakeholders, reviewing online materials & reviews, and analyzing data, insights, & analytics from current marketing and sales efforts to identify gaps, missed conversions, or problems in your funnel. A brand strategy agency like Wax Creek, Inc. can conduct comprehensive audits with all these pieces.
Brand strategy is not a one man show nor is it a trial and error process because when it comes to luxury brands the audience's are generally knowledged of the premium products and services they opt for. Moreover in case of a luxury brand strategy, mistakes won't be easily forgotten as these will leave a lasting impression on its customers. Hence brands shall strategically evaluate there brand strategy by conducting testing, trial and error feedback prior to launch through internal and external smaple teams. After launch brands should however evaluate their strategy to improve the overall quality.