Your team needs to develop a brand strategy. What are the best tools to help you succeed?

Utilizing a SWOT analysis can unveil critical insights into your brand's position within the marketplace, highlighting areas for growth and improvement. For instance, a burgeoning coffee shop chain might discover its strength in customer loyalty, weakness in digital presence, opportunities in expanding its sustainable product line, and threats from larger competitors. This analysis becomes a cornerstone for strategic planning, guiding the brand towards leveraging its strengths, addressing weaknesses, seizing opportunities, and mitigating threats to enhance its market stance.

Miro: Visual collaboration platform for creative ideation and organization. Market Research & Audience Insights: Sprout Social: Social media management with built-in audience listening and analytics. Brandwatch: Comprehensive consumer intelligence for competitor analysis, sentiment tracking, and market research. Brand Identity & Design: Canva: User-friendly design platform with templates and assets for creating brand visuals. Adobe Creative Suite: Industry standard for professional design software like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Content Creation & Management: SEMrush: All-in-one SEO and content marketing platform for keyword research, topic brainstorming, and content optimization.

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to identify and understand the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to a business, project, or venture.

Before diving into tool selection for developing a brand strategy, it's paramount to establish clear objectives and comprehend the key outcomes you aim to achieve. Without defined goals, it becomes challenging to determine which tools will best support your objectives. Start by outlining specific goals, such as increasing brand awareness or driving engagement, to guide your tool selection process effectively. For example, if engagement is your priority, CRM software like Salesforce or HubSpot can help track interactions and personalize marketing efforts. By aligning tool selection with your specific goals, your team will be able to develop and implement a brand strategy that yields meaningful results.

Ditch the dry questionnaires and unlock deeper insights with visual archetypes. Imagine showing your clients captivating images that embody different brand personalities. As they choose the ones that resonate most, it's like watching their brand DNA come alive for them in a completely different way. Visual archetypes go beyond words and help clients "see" the brand - it also helps with: Emotional connections: Images bypass surface responses, tapping into core values and igniting meaningful conversations. Unveiling the "why": Explore the essence of the brand, not just the "what," fostering clarity and direction. Values-driven strategy: Link chosen archetypes to specific values, ensuring the brand story resonates authentically.

Don't forget the voice of the customer . Sometimes we are so obsessed internally that we forget to actually talk to the people who will actually use our product or service . We fall in love with our brands but the consumer always doesn't

Brand archetypes serve as a blueprint for crafting a brand identity that deeply connects with your audience. By aligning your brand with an archetype, such as the Hero striving to overcome challenges or the Explorer embodying freedom and adventure, you can forge a more profound emotional bond with your customers. A travel agency, for example, might adopt the Explorer archetype, infusing its messaging and visuals with themes of adventure and discovery, thereby attracting customers who value these experiences.

Brand Archetypes is a unique personality driven way of developing brand strategy. Archetypes are personas which govern the tone/style of the brand. Archetype does influences a positioning that the brand intends to occupy in the mind of consumer. Believe me its not a short-cut tool, it does requires adapting the archetype wheel to the category one is working on and lot of plain hard research goes into auditing the competitive landscape. Crafting the brand positioning with primary & secondary archetype is half work done, the next phase of expressing is equally tough. Start with reading book by Carol S. Pearson + Margaret Mark on this to have a good over-view.

Vamos a ponerlo sencillo, los arquetipos son modelos de pensar, sentir y actuar presentes en todas las culturas y civilizaciones. Estos quedan en el “inconsciente colectivo” y pasan de generación en generación. Por eso, es que cuando una marca tiene claro su arquetipo conecta realmente con su público objetivo. Hace unos días estudiaba sobre el mercado actual, y hay una tendencia importante, y es que el marketing de nicho (llegar a personas con valores, pensamientos y experiencias similares a las tuyas o tu marca) está haciéndose cada vez más presente , por lo cual, como marcas es importante tenerlo claro y así conectar con una audiencia, conocerla y poder crecer.

The brand personality spectrum allows you to fine-tune your brand's character, ensuring it aligns with your audience's expectations and preferences. A tech startup, aiming to stand out in a crowded market, might emphasize a personality of Competence and Excitement, showcasing innovation and reliability. This strategic personality alignment helps in crafting marketing messages and brand experiences that resonate well with the target demographic, fostering loyalty and engagement.

A brand personality spectrum is helpful, but sometimes it can be a bit obtuse. Think about it: if someone lists a bunch of adjectives trying to describe a person, you get it...but you don't really GET it. So a fun tactic to try is to actually think of our brand as a person. Who would it be? Workshop this and have stakeholders brainstorm and vote on your celebrity personality. This can make it easier to get a clear image of how that person - and your brand - would actually answer and act in various situations.

Cada marca tiene objetivos distintos, unas para el bienestar, otras para impulsar, otras para innovar, etc. Dependiendo el objetivo, es que se elige una dimensión (sinceridad, emoción, competencia, sofisticación o robustez) a proyectar , y se va construyendo esa personalidad. Siempre las imagino a las marcas como personas, aunque no sean marcas personales, entonces para entender la importancia de que tu marca tenga una personalidad y atraer al público objetivo, piensa en los líderes de opinión en desarrollo personal, no seguirías a alguien que parece que todo está revuelto, que se siente que oculta cosas, que parece que miente; seguirías a alguien consistente, que ha trabajado en su temple y que sustenta esa sabiduría, entre otras cosas.

The Brand Personality Spectrum is a conceptual framework used in marketing and branding to define and position a brand's personality along various dimensions. It helps marketers understand how consumers perceive and relate to different brands based on their personality traits.

Una de mis especialidades, las guías de estilo de marca, tal vez por que me gusta conocer las reglas para saber cuando es bueno romperlas. En el caso de las marcas, es clave aterrizar de una forma visual esas reglas para alinear y no perderse, además, mantener la identidad de marca congruente. Para mi, cada colaborador de tu empresa debería conocer estas guías, y entender la estrategia de marca. Por que así se trabaja en la coherencia de la identidad. El logo, los colores, la letra, no solo es un dise?o para que se vea bien, es un comunicación y códigos visuales que te ayuden a proyectar tu estrategia y tiene un por qué.

I've seen certain companies put a lot of work into their brand but still end up with a messy, confusing mix of different visuals and messaging. The problem being that if you don't have a brand style guide – and ideally also a full writing style guide – you're not going to be able to scale your brand strategy beyond the initial person who knows what's what. Recording the way your brand should and should not appear and speak in one of these "brand bibles" is your path to consistency, scalability and trust.

A comprehensive brand style guide ensures consistency across all brand communications, reinforcing your brand identity and enhancing recognition. For example, a lifestyle brand can detail its use of vibrant colors, modern typography, and a casual tone of voice in its style guide. This document becomes an invaluable resource for teams and external partners, ensuring every piece of content, from social media posts to product packaging, reflects the brand's unique identity and values.

Developing a brand guide is essential for ensuring consistency, clarity, and coherence in your brand's communication and representation across all channels. A brand guide defines your brand's personality, values, and voice. It helps your team understand the essence of your brand and ensures that all communications and messaging align with these core attributes. A well-defined brand guide helps your brand stand out in a crowded marketplace. You can differentiate yourself from competitors and attract your target audience. Consistent branding builds trust with your audience. When consumers encounter your brand repeatedly and have positive experiences with it, they're more likely to trust your products or services.

Conducting a brand audit is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of your brand strategy and identifying areas for refinement. Through this process, a company might analyze customer perceptions, marketing materials, and competitive positioning. This audit can reveal misalignments between the intended brand identity and public perception, offering actionable insights for strategic adjustments. Regular brand audits enable a dynamic approach to brand management, ensuring the brand remains relevant and resonant with its audience.

It can be helpful to step back and map or review your customer journey. The biggest mistake I see companies make is to focus only on awareness when it comes to a brand strategy or brand audit. Instead, think of brand awareness as simply the first step in a multistep journey. The brand strategy needs to encompass the full journey, including new customer acquisition, activation, development, and ultimately customer inspiration, when they will become advocates for the brand. This will feed back into the awareness strategy, creating a flywheel effect for the brand.

I have a somewhat warped conception of how truly great brands function. Not unlikely human beings... first and foremost you have to have a clear idea of who you are and who you want to be and be true to yourself and your values. Brands are like personalities and have to accept that they cannot (should not?) be liked by everybody. The more precise you are in your brand character definition and messaging the more the right audience for you will become clear and responsive to who you are. Trying to be everything to everybody only dilutes your identity and makes you easily forgettable.

Before any of these tools or frameworks you need to do a proper diagnosis. Otherwise you’re just throwing thoughts at the wall. Start by uncovering what you as a business know, believe and have heard from customers about your brand. Test that with a simple anonymised survey sent to current and lapsed customers and depending on your category any hot prospects. I’d than run a survey with a panel vendor targeting category buyers to understand how they see your brand versus your competition. Strengths, weaknesses, awareness, key attributes. Also do a review of your brand against your competitors. How can you be visually and tonally distinctive, how can you cut through. All of this will help you develop a strategic view on how to win.

Sometimes taking a reference of an established brand strategy framework can help. There are various tried and tested brand strategy frameworks like simon sinek's golden circle, keller's brand equity model, or aaker's brand equity model. Using an existing framework can be a good starting point.

Beyond these tools, the integration of customer feedback loops into your brand strategy is invaluable. Actively seeking and incorporating customer insights can lead to more informed decisions and foster a customer-centric brand culture. For instance, a software company might use customer feedback to refine its user interface, directly addressing user needs and enhancing satisfaction. This approach not only improves the product but also strengthens customer relationships, demonstrating the brand's commitment to meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

I see very little mention of customers and stakeholders here. The most effective tool in brand strategy hands down is a deep understanding of your audience.. And you must go beyond the obvious niching, demographics and psychographics and develop a deep understanding of their lives and their narratives.. Brand building is about emotionally connecting yourself, business and ideas with HUMANS and so brand building is a game of emotion, motivation and connection… Understand who you are trying to connect with and motivate..