Advertising Strategy Planning
What do Advertising Strategy Planners do ??
Advertising Strategy Planners assess the company's goals and identify areas for improvement. They are responsible for researching industry trends and conducting relevant and current market research. They prepare reports on strategic ideas for senior management teams and them with their research findings.
Strategy & planning provides thought leadership for key technology decisions, and the ability to refine and track changes to the enterprise strategy.
Strategy Planning Responsibilities
To write an effective strategy & planning job description, begin by listing detailed duties, responsibilities and expectations. We have included strategy & planning job description templates that you can modify and use.
Sample responsibilities for this position include:
This role will be responsible for developing and implementing strategic plans to achieve business objectives, as well as monitoring and evaluating performance to ensure goals are met. This includes analysing market trends, identifying opportunities for growth, developing metrics for performance measurement and collaborating with cross-functional teams to drive results.
Requirements to become an Advertising Strategy Planner
Responsibilities of an Advertising Strategy Planner
What is an advertising campaign?
An advertising campaign is a set of elements that have the purpose of promoting a service or a product that belongs to a single company. Here all the pieces must be related to each other, so the slogan, message, colour and style must have the same tone of communication.
The advertising campaign is characterised by having to specify the media in which the idea will be promoted, be it radio, television, press or digital media.
Once this has been defined, you can think about the type of campaign that best suits you to promote your product.
Structure of a campaign
We cannot talk about structuring a campaign if we have not first studied the product that we are going to launch on the market. Here you must take into account elements such as the reputation of the service and the needs it solves for customers.?
Let’s take a look at the most common structure used today:
1. The brief
This is a report containing all the basic information about the company, product, service and even the competition.?
This document is worked on together with the client, so you should get together right away to start putting together the basics of your campaign.?
2. Group approach
On the other hand, we have the target group approach, which is basically the selection of the target group.?
In short, in this stage we segment and define the so-called target group and this includes relevant data such as:?
3. SWOT analysis
How many times have you heard this word? Without a doubt, every publicist must manage it to perfection, especially when it comes to managing a promotional campaign.?
So, the idea is to determine the threats and opportunities for growth in the market and then take action.?
4. Communication problems
Now we find communication problems. These are the potential problems you will have in getting your message across to your target group.
There are many challenges that can arise, from not finding the right media to send the message, to using the wrong tone, to not being able to decipher the metrics of the campaign.
Being aware of this in advance will allow you to prepare for potential conflicts that may arise.
5. Advertising objectives
Defining objectives is one of the most important elements of an advertising campaign structure. No two campaigns are alike, so it’s essential that you focus on defining what you want to accomplish right from the start.?
This can range from gaining a new customer base, penetrating another market or enhancing brand reputation. Analyse your needs and define what’s best for the business.?
6. The creative strategy
OK, you’ve got your advertising objectives and the audience you’re going to target, so now it’s time to plan your creative strategy.?
Think through the tactics you will use to achieve the goals you set out to achieve. Get together with your team and get it down in a document so you can get to work as soon as possible.?
Objectives of an advertising strategy
Let us now look at some of the objectives that any advertising strategy should achieve:?
1. Informing the audience
Of course, there is no more important objective in an advertising campaign than informing users.?
But informing about what? Well, about new products, promotions, changes in brand identity or any other news that is of interest to the audience.?
Always focus on the problem you are trying to solve and you will see how in a short time the numbers will start to come in.?
2. Convincing users
Convincing users is one of the most important tasks of a campaign. You have to convince customers that you have the ideal solution to the problems they have at the moment.
The key is to know what you’re going to convince your customer of, as it isn’t the same to encourage them to buy a product as it is to encourage them to renew their licence for another year.
The words will never be the same and that’s why you should do a preliminary study before taking action.
3. Sending your brand image
The more your target customer remembers your brand image, the more likely they are to buy the product you sell.?
To achieve this, you can create an awareness campaign in which you send promotional posts across the platforms that your audience uses the most.
4. Increasing interest
In order to increase interest in the products, you first have to show the benefits of each of the services.?
In this sense, you must choose very carefully the media through which you will promote yourself, as well as identify the user’s pain points to touch those items that affect them most in their life.?
5. Speeding up decision making
One of the reasons why brands don’t look favourably on the numbers generated by the business is because it slows down the customer’s decision making. In other words, the faster a customer makes a choice, the more likely they are to buy from you.
If a user takes a long time to buy, it is because they are still not 100% sure that this is the ideal option for their life. Therefore, focus on the quality of the message and you will see how everything starts to work.
6. Differentiating yourself from the competition
Last but not least is the goal of differentiating yourself from the competition.
The internet has made opportunities appear out of nowhere, so it’s becoming easier and easier to create a digital project that is positioned at the top of Google.
This way, it’s no longer enough to have many years of experience and a great reputation in the market. You have to show that you are different from the rest.
How do you do this? Through campaigns that highlight the values that make you unique and unmatched in the market.
Types of advertising strategies
Finally, let’s look at the types of advertising strategies that are most commonly used today to create an effective campaign:
1. Content advertising
First we have content advertising, which aims to influence the user’s emotions through valuable content in different formats.
The idea of this type of advertising is to reach as many people as possible in order to spread the brand’s image and tone. This differentiates it from content marketing, as content advertising does send the message to specific groups in order to be much more effective.
Among the most popular ones we can find today are:
2. Pull advertising
On the other hand, pull advertising is aimed at getting customers to awaken the interest you need for them to buy your products or services, so it’s used when the company has an important position in the market.
However, if you don’t have this recognition yet, you will have to invest in a traditional campaign to let people know what you have to offer.
After you do this, you won’t have to convince anyone that your product is good, because people will already know about it.
3. Push advertising
If you want to introduce a new product to the market, this is the alternative you have been looking for.?
It’s also known as a push strategy and it helps your company to position the service in the market as quickly as possible. Nowadays we can see it very often on social networks because they are the most attractive way to view this type of message.?
4. Consumer-based advertising
Lastly, we have consumer-based advertising, which is advertising that is based exclusively on the customer, nothing else.?
To implement it, you have to thoroughly analyse your target audience to determine what they are looking for, what their needs are and what they prefer when it comes to consuming content.?
In this sense, three particular strategies emerge:?
5 Types of advertising campaigns
Several advertising campaigns are currently in use. Some of them are:?
1. Government campaign
Government campaigns are those implemented by governments in order to promote their administration during their period in power. The idea is to improve their image in society and recruit more followers to their movement.
Believe it or not, they are among the institutions that use advertising campaigns the most, since at the end of the day they need the support of the citizens in order to aspire to public positions.
2. Institutional campaign
The institutional campaign is the one that allows the organisation to gain greater recognition within its environment. The idea is to increase the public’s recognition of the company, as well as to notify if there are any new products or services.
It should be noted that institutional campaigns do not promote a specific product, but rather the brand itself. Therefore, the values that identify the institution and those intangibles that differentiate it from the competition are promoted first and foremost.
3. Social campaign
Now it’s the turn of the social campaign. It’s characterised by having a cultural nature, so the idea is to make the user aware of an issue that affects everyone equally.?
Climate change, support for nature, animal care and healthy habits are an example of this.
4. Election campaigning
When a candidate is running for an elected office, he/she needs the support of the people and that’s when he/she decides to create an election campaign.
It differs from the governmental campaign because in this case it doesn’t promote any institution, but rather highlights the qualities of the candidate. Thus, if you are currently facing an election period, it’s very likely that you will see this type of campaign very soon.
5. Product launch
If a company wants to launch a new product or service it should create a campaign to promote the arrival of the new item on the market.?
The idea is to generate a great expectation in the public so that they are paying attention to the launch date. If done properly, this will increase the chances of selling large quantities of the product in the first few days.
What Is an Advertising Strategy?
An advertising strategy is an action plan designed to increase sales of certain products or services, attract new customers, and invite existing ones to make multiple purchases. An advertising strategy is part of a brand's marketing plan, so it must be aligned with the company's objectives. It is also essential to take into account branding, tone, and brand identity, so that the user experience does not have dissonant elements.
What Types of Advertising Strategies Are There?
There are many possible advertising strategies, as each brand's situation, identity, and objectives are unique. To get an idea of the possibilities, let's take a look at how HubSpot classifies the 3 major types of advertising strategies.
1. Content Advertising
This advertising strategy seeks to directly influence consumers through different channels with a direct, clear message that aims to reach as many people as possible. Although it has similar characteristics to content marketing, it is not the same since it is more direct and more focused on the brand. Within content advertising, we can distinguish the following different subtypes:
2. Pull Advertising
This advertising strategy is typical of brands that are already well known and well positioned in the market. Instead of going after customers, this strategy aims to keep a brand in the consumer's mind and propel people towards it. It focuses on identification with the brand and long-term loyalty.
3. Push Advertising
This advertising strategy is more suitable for new products or services, since it seeks to make something known among consumers in order to position well and generate sales. The push strategy can use different channels, from traditional media to social ads. In many cases, it goes hand in hand with pricing strategies. For example, offering cheaper launch prices to generate an initial critical mass of consumers. It is also common for push advertising to be done in tandem with content marketing, so that a new brand can establish its authority early on and position itself as an expert in its sector.
12 Examples of Advertising Strategies
Let's take a look at some of the most widely used and effective advertising strategies according to PPCExpo and other experts in marketing and advertising.
1. SEM
Paid advertising on search engines (SEM) such as Google consists of positioning ads targeted to certain keywords. This way, when someone searches for a term related to your brand, your ad can appear in a prominent position among the results. SEM is one of the most popular advertising strategies in the digital environment, as it allows you to directly target those with a high purchase intent based on their searches. In addition, it is a very versatile strategy, as it allows you to reach very different audiences at different stages in the buying process.
2. Social Ads
This advertising strategy consists of placing paid ads on social networks, usually through a pay-per-click model. What makes this work well are the great targeting possibilities. Keep in mind that social networks have large amounts of data on their users, so you can segment very specific audiences based on factors such as their lifestyle or interests. In addition, you can also use these platforms to get in touch with users who already know your brand (by importing your databases or installing a data pixel) and to create audiences similar to your visitors, leads, or customers, so that you only target the users who are most likely to convert.
3. Amazon Advertising
Amazon ads offers pay-per-click advertising with some unique advantages. For instance, Amazon has a wealth of information about its users' shopping preferences. But above all, this platform allows you to place ads right where and when users are most likely to make a purchase, which results in higher conversion rates.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing is an advertising strategy that has maintained effectiveness over the years by reinventing itself over and over again. According to some studies, the ROI of this channel is close to 40 dollars for every dollar invested. In addition to its spectacular ROI, another great advantage of email marketing is that it can be adapted to all types of situations, brands, and campaigns, from the first steps of lead generation to long-term loyalty. No wonder it is one of the preferred advertising strategies for brands!
5. Native Advertising
Native advertising is a format that consists of placing paid content on various platforms that adapts in form and function to the environment it appears in. Although it must be clearly identified as advertising, it is integrated into its context in a much less intrusive way than other formats (such as banners). It also provides valuable content to users, which leads them to consume it voluntarily.
6. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is an advertising strategy that relies on the authority of those with a strong presence on social media to promote a product or service to their followers. Previously, there was a tendency to value the number of followers that a person had above everything else and campaigns were created for the widest possible dissemination. Now the trend is to value the level of interaction more and look for experts in niches with smaller audiences (microinfluencers).
7. Discounts and Promotions
Discounts and promotions are always popular as they offer a product or service at a lower price than usual for a limited time. This way, a sense of urgency is generated that encourages users to buy. This advertising strategy can be very useful to generate a critical mass of customers at the launch of a product or to boost sales in the short term, but abusing it can lead to a decrease in the perceived value of the product or service.
8. Contests
Similar to discounts and promotions, contests or sweepstakes serve to generate interaction and attract interest in a brand in the short term. While this is a strategy that brands have been using it for a long time, it has experienced a recent boost thanks to social networks. Many brands create contests and sweepstakes on platforms like Instagram or TikTok to increase their follower base and level of engagement. Of course, these events must always be framed within the broader objectives of the brand.
9. Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing is one of the most original and innovative advertising strategies. It is based on the use of unconventional techniques to achieve maximum diffusion at a low cost. Creativity is a fundamental element to achieving surprise and impact with minimal resources.
10. Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are an advertising strategy that is not aimed at getting existing customers to repeat their purchases frequently and even become brand ambassadors. There are different types of loyalty programs, such as points or tiered programs. In all of them, the objective is to generate a long-term relationship between a customer and a brand and improve the customer lifetime value. This term refers to the amount of profit generated during the time someone remains with a brand. In turn, this allows brands to reduce the cost of acquiring new customers.
11. Mobile Ads
Mobile advertising is a strategy that focuses on reaching people via mobile devices like phones or tablets. These ads can appear in a wide variety of places online from websites and social media platform to various online games or gaming platforms.
Another advantage of these ads is that, if the user has their location enabled on their device, businesses that are near their current location can reach them with targeted ads. Mobile ads and promotions can also be activated through QR codes that people can scan with their devices.
12. Podcast Ads
As podcasts continue to grow in popularity, more and more brands are advertising on podcasting platforms. Typically, brands have their ad read out by the host of the podcast they'd like to be featured on. While this may sound very simple and straightforward, it's important to keep in mind that hosts often have a high level of trust with their audience, so having them promote a product or service can be more effective than a standard ad.
In addition, many brands let hosts ad lib while reading the advertisement. This allows hosts of comedy podcasts to create funny, entertaining ads. Other types of hosts may recount their personal experiences with the sponsor's product or service, making the ad more compelling and less salesy.
Lastly, brands often provide podcast hosts with a discount code not only so that listeners can get a deal but also to allow the brand can track how successful the collaboration is.
What is a social media marketing strategy?
A social media strategy is a document outlining your social media goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them and the metrics you will track to measure your progress.
Your social media marketing strategy should also list all of your existing and planned social media accounts along with goals specific to each platform you’re active on. These goals should align with your business’s larger digital marketing strategy.
Finally, a good social media plan should define the roles and responsibilities within your team and outline your reporting cadence.
What is a creative advertising strategy?
Creative ad production enables you to create the components of marketing messages and help you set a target audience and what tone will best fit them. Creative strategy is similar to a blueprint or marketing outline that companies develop before marketing a project. It helps the ad production companies develop a strategic approach and take steps that help them with the growth of the business.?
This strategy can shape any file format and guide the design and production team in developing advertising materials for the campaign. This file contains essential details like research of the market, efficient delivery strategy, and an imaging plan. All these parts play a significant role in helping the company meet the set goals.
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Importance of a creative advertising strategy
Coming up with creative briefs is time-consuming and often complicated as the deliverables must align with the goals of your project. However, defining definite objectives about your project can help you kick-start your advertising campaign and help ad production companies focus on what your company wants to achieve with the project.?
An accurate blueprint and outline of a creative brief can help you better understand your audience and the end goals of your project. This will help your team stay focused on the task and help ad video production teams develop the right advertisement strategy.
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9 steps of creating an advertising strategy with a creative plan
A creative plan is a starting point for your advertising strategy and developing an initiative for your product. Your creative plan should be comprehensive and include all the details about how it will help the business grow.
Following are the key components to fit in a creative program that help ad production companies to develop a beneficial advertising strategy.
1. Start by describing your company
When you are marketing your product or service, it can be helpful to understand your audience, what your business is about, and what it represents. Providing your audience with a bit of background history of your company and what services you offer can help them understand its core values.?
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2. Set your target audience
Defining your ideal target audience can help you better understand your customer wants and needs. You can understand your audience by sharing demographic information or behavioral insight that you collect. Determining who your product or service is for can help you reach your audience’s mind. Eventually, help can help you with the advertising strategy.?
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3. Describe your project
When you launch a new advertising strategy, it can be helpful to include a summary of the product or service you are offering. Describing its purpose and need can help you with a fresh start with your audience and help you reach out to a new audience.
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4. Include all deliverables
It is necessary to include all the deliverables of your campaign in the file of your creative plan. Including all the crucial details about your project can help the design and production team develop advertising strategies that can help you grow your business.
The file should include all the correct information about the format, size, and other vital details for your project.
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5. Describe the voice, tone, and style
The tone and style of your creative ad production must collide with your brand’s purpose and the project that needs marketing. This is a sensitive part and requires a tactful approach by ad production companies.?
For example, if you are designing a brochure about your project, it is necessary to use the right voice and style to captivate your audience. Having a clear understanding of the purpose of your project and your target audience can help you carry out this step effectively.
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6. Outline objectives and success rate
This might be the crucial reason why you need to develop a creative brief for your marketing strategy. Defining the goals and objectives can help you measure the success metric of your plan. You need to set a clear understanding of your project’s goal, what your business hopes to achieve, and how it can help you with success.
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7. Define project timeline?
Include all the deadlines for the edits, prints, creative proof, or any other necessary step for your project. Including the details about your project completion and the dates associated with the steps can help you carry out the project efficiently. It can help set a clear guideline for you and launch the project on time.
GoVisually is an effective platform that can help you bring your team on one page. It can also help you set deadlines and goals for your project. Moreover, it can also help you with the approval process of your ad campaign.
8. Define your stakeholders
Listing down all the teams involved in the review and approval of your project can help you with the smooth launch of the project. Include the contact information about the creative ad production teams and how and when they have to step in to approve the process.?
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9. Budget plan of the project
Your creative plan should include a brief about your advertising strategy budget. It can help you prioritize the steps according to the budget and also help you set realistic goals. Before carrying out the process, it is helpful to consult the design and production team as they help you meet your expectations on budget.
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4 tips to help with creative marketing
The goal is to understand how you want to introduce yourself to the world. How you want to present your brand to the market and what image you want to build helps you develop a creative marketing plan for your project.?
Developing a creative strategy can be time-consuming and might take up a portion of your budget. However, here we have budget-friendly tips for you that can help you efficiently advertise your product or service.
Have a sensitive approach
These days, people prefer to see authentic and carefully planned out content from the brand. Sharing your company’s values and operations can help you build trust with your audience. Connecting with your audience is the primary goal of your creative plan, which is only possible if you keep a sensitive approach with your customer.?
Carefully thinking about individual customers and understanding their ideas can help you create a strong bond with your customers. Moreover, having a genuine approach towards your customers makes your company seem more humanized and helps you easily interact with the audience.
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Design videos according to the platform
Your ad video production plays a crucial role in the advertising strategy of your project; hence it is necessary to understand the platform you are using for your advertisement video. Your audience expects to see different media based on the forum you are advertising. For example, it is best to use youtube videos in landscape orientation, while on the other hand, it is best to promote videos on Instagram in portrait mode.
While some media channels prefer a video consisting of audio, other platforms might not like a voiced video. All this needs to be efficiently planned out, which the ad video production team needs to do. Developing a plan can help with a consistent strategy for advertising your project.?
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Be responsive to customers
Your customers want to be heard and given value only if you respond to their queries and are easily accessible to them through phone or the internet. The best way to be available to your users is by adding a chatbox to your website. It can help your customers easily reach out to you, and it will also help you solve their problems efficiently.?
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Analyze and refresh your creative plan?
To keep your advertising strategy practical and up-to-date, it is necessary to refresh your creative plan every three months. The primary purpose of your advertising campaign is to drive the audience towards your project. And customers appreciate new marketing strategies. It is necessary to update your goals every once in a while to plan a better campaign for your project.
Moreover, it helps you refresh your goals and the company values. Which can help you change your ad production while keeping the same creative strategy. This also ensures that your message remains fresh to the target audience.
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Marketing is the systematic planning, implementation, and control of business activities to bring together buyers and sellers. Marketing encompasses a range of activities to sell a product or service. Advertising is just one aspect of marketing strategy — it is a paid, public, persuasive message by an identified sponsor. The purpose of advertising is the non-personal promotion of a business's products or services. The approach is unique to that product or service.
The focus of advertising is to make repeat or potential new customers aware of an individual product or service, while the focus of marketing encompasses the overall picture to promote, distribute, and price products or services.
Scope
The scope of advertising is quite limited compared to that of marketing. It includes radio and television commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, flyers, brochures, emails, social media, web advertisements, and even cold calls to potential clients. Advertising is also about how frequently an ad reaches the target audience. The video below explains what advertising is all about.
The scope of marketing is much broader. Marketing starts with research, including target audience, customer needs, solutions to problems and ways for bettering competitors. The scope of marketing includes everything that goes into advertising. In addition, it also includes the sales, the company's ongoing relationship with the public and overall customer service and satisfaction.
Process
Advertising Plan
To advertise a product, businesses start by identifying their target audiences. a copy platform, media venues and a concrete plan for reaching the target audience. Advertisers then conduct a post-analysis of the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. Much of the marketing process actually comes before the advertising process. They then create a media plan for enlightening their potential customers about their product or service. A good marketing plan includes:
Marketing Plan
The marketing process starts with the three things: an analysis of the market size and potential, analysis of the distribution channels through which the consumer receives the product or service, and analysis of competitive products and services. Based on the data collected, advertisers develop pricing strategies including sales commissions, incentives and volume discounts. At that time they make detailed advertising plans that include sales tracking, market share analysis and advertising effectiveness measurements. Included in marketing is the budget, which determines the percentage of the cost of the product or service. A good marketing campaign entails:
promotional strategies, and comparison of your product against these
Theories
One theory of advertising is the hierarchy-of-effects model. This model clarifies the objectives of an advertising campaign by identifying six steps in the consumer mindset:
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The marketing mix theory of advertising focuses on four elements called the four P's:
Theories of marketing tend to be more in-depth since the process itself is so involved. One theory of marketing is game theory. Essentially, businesses see themselves as players of chess with rival business. This theory rests on the assumption that rival companies are acting similarly, or are trying to best their rivals. Marketers attempt to see matters from the rival's perspective in an effort to "win" the game.
Market segmentation is a traditional form of marketing. With this approach, a broad target market is divided into segments of consumers with common needs and priorities. Marketers then design strategies to reach these consumers.
Holistic marketing recognizes that everything is important in the field of marketing. Businesses acknowledge that a broad, integrated perspective is necessary in developing, designing and implementing marketing strategies. Four components characterize holistic marketing:
What is a Brand Strategy?
We will start by defining brand strategy as the process of achieving long term goals during your organization’s evolution. Said another way, brand strategy is the plan you follow so your most important outcomes emerge in the world.
Branding is a way to bring your organization’s intangible aspects like its authenticity, personality, reputation and unique selling proposition into one neat concept.
You can understand strategy by comparing and contrasting with a related concept, tactics.
Many people conflate tactics and strategies with each other. This conflation leads to confusing branding strategies with branding tactics.
A strategy is your map for achieving long-term goals that do not always need a discrete endpoint. A strategy is more like a process or a path that involves moving iteratively towards your goals.
Tactics are a far more concrete concept. They are essentially action steps taken to achieve the goals set in your branding strategy.
Some common branding tactics are to create a website, launch a new ad campaign or create visual content for a company blog.
Branding strategists may also use initiatives as a synonym for tactics because they typically have an objective time frame and discrete endpoint.
To craft an effective brand strategy, you must understand what your brand stands for and the extraordinary impact it hopes to make on the world.
Additionally, it is helpful to articulate any promises or guarantees you make to your customers. Expressing your brand’s personality conveys how communication with customers is a critical step in the brand strategy process.
4 Types of Branding Strategies
Now that we have explored an overview of brand strategy, we will move to the four most important types of branding strategies you need to know.
Here's an infographic to summarize the four branding strategies. Keep scrolling to read about each brand strategy in more detail.
Type #1: Brand Extension
The first type of brand strategy we will explore is a brand extension. When you use the brand extension strategy, you are expanding your existing brand into new product categories.
The strategy’s essence is to expand your reach by moving into new markets on your existing brand’s strength.
When you extend into new categories, they can be related and unrelated to your current category.
Nike is an excellent example of a company that expands its reach through brand extension. They have grown from shoes into products as diverse as sunglasses and golf balls.
What is essential to keep in mind from a brand strategy perspective is to select new categories that match your brand mission statement and values.
Ultimately, the strategy you are using is to launch a new product underneath your established brand name in a new product category.
Although starting a new product seems like a daunting task, it is a viable strategy for brands of all sizes.
It is a viable strategy because you can ride the strength of your pre-existing brand, including all of the social proof and value that comes with it.
Even though the new product will be unfamiliar in the marketplace, the goodwill you have built up will create a greater likelihood of market penetration in the new category.
This success will help you reach a new audience and increase your overall brand strength.
Type #2: Line Extension
The second type of brand strategy we will explore is line extension.
In the brand extension strategy, you expand your brand’s presence in a new product category. The line extension strategy does something similar by increasing your reach inside your existing product category.
A great example of this takes place in the creation of new cell phone products. When a company like Apple creates a phone with a larger screen to appeal to a larger segment of customers, they use the line extension strategy.
When you use this strategy, it can help to win over customers who are choosing your competitors because they are looking for a product with specific features.
Instead of losing these customers, line extension can be a profitable way to increase your brand’s strength.
Ready to get started with translating your brand strategy ideas into an interactive presentation for your team? Use the digital branding and promotion template to get organizational buy-in!
Type #3: Derived Branding
The third brand strategy we will explore is the derived branding strategy.
While the first two strategies have covered how to expand your brand as a strategy of improvement, this strategy is about breaking things down.
Your product or service will likely include some key components that come together to deliver value for your customers. The derived branding strategy is when you isolate a particular feature and give it a separate branded identity.
An example of this is the consumer electronic company Intel. Their chips are in many PC products. Instead of branding Intel computers as a standalone entity, Dell chooses to give a component of the PC its own brand identity.
Type #4: Individual Branding
The fourth type of brand strategy we will explore is individual branding.
This strategy involves emphasizing personal characteristics, values and accomplishments that executives or team members have that highlight your brand’s mission.
It's beneficial for executives and leadership to use their platforms to amplify brand values. Plus, it's easier for people to connect with people.
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Essentials for a Winning Brand Strategy
Now that we have reviewed the four types of brand strategy you can use, we will discuss some essentials for creating a winning brand strategy.
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Essential #1: Employee Buy-In
The first essential that is crucial for you to dial in with your branding strategy is employee buy-in. Having an authentic approach to branding is the most sustainable way to create an effective employee buy-in strategy.
One way to create more authenticity in your branding is to link your forward facing company culture with your outward facing brand voice.
The most critical step in reinforcing this link is clearly articulating the promises you make to customers and your company’s underlying values.
This clarity is a great way to make sure your employees feel aligned with your brand. If they resonate with your company’s values and mission statement, and you articulate the branding strategy’s importance, you are sure to be on the same page.
Whether you are already clear on your company values or need to do some work articulating them for your branding strategy, you can ask the following questions.
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Essential #2: Consistency
The second essential for winning brand strategy is brand consistency. Brand consistency is the regular delivery of content that aligns with your values and brand strategy over time.
This consistency means that your audience can expect exposure to your key messages and core offerings regularly. Brand consistency means you always deliver core messages with consistent visual branding and other regular brand elements.
Easy ways to achieve brand consistency include creating a brand style guide and ensuring you deliver messages in a similar tone across time.
When you achieve brand consistency, your customers will start to recognize your messages and build positive associations.
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Essential #3: Lean into Emotional Benefits
Emotional branding is the process of creating a relationship between an audience and a brand by provoking their emotions. We can achieve this by creating a brand that appeals to your ideal customer’s emotional state and aspirations.
The work of Marc Gobé is a good reference point for emotional branding.
He created the emotional branding concept and detailed it in his book The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People.
The philosophy is based on the observation that connections occur on an emotional level in relationships between brands and people.
Emotional branding is powerful. It focuses on the audience and gives them the chance to control what type of content or product they get. They’re in charge. Wondering how to implement this in your brand?
You can see a great example from this company that offers simple meal planning. It allows the customer to customize a meal plan to their taste. They can include/exclude ingredients and choose a portion size that will suit the family, creating a deeper connection with their customer.
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Essential #4: Take a Flexible Long-Term Approach
Getting the most out of your branding strategy means taking a long-term approach.
Do not be afraid of making efforts now that may take a while to materialize. Branding is a long-term investment that will pay dividends if you continue to improve.
There is an important balance to strike between long-term planning and short-term flexibility. It's crucial to leave space in your branding strategy to adjust to real world feedback as it arrives.
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How to Build a Brand Strategy in 8 Steps
Now that we have reviewed some of the essentials, we can shift to some concrete tips. We will now move on to eight practical steps you can take to develop your brand strategy.
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Step #1: Establish Your Core Values
The first step to build your brand strategy is to establish your core values. Core values are the beliefs you have about your brand that inform your actions.
Use this template to jot down the values that matter most to your brand.
These core values are why your company exists and are related to the specific problems you hope to solve for your customers.
Often, the company’s founding forged these values, and they are unlikely to shift much as your company grows. They are a foundational anchor of your brand strategy.
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Step #2: Create a Strategic Positioning Statement
The next step to creating a brand strategy is to make a positioning statement. The positioning statement is a description of your product as well as your target market.
Its purpose is to show exactly how your product serves a particular need in a target market.
Here's an editable template you can use to craft your brand positioning statement and visualize its various elements.
You can use a positioning statement as a tool to make sure your marketing efforts are on the same page as your brand strategy.
You can also use the positioning statement to communicate your value proposition to your ideal customers by featuring your brand’s core characteristics.
Before crafting your positioning statement, you have to find clarity on the following aspects of your brand.
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Step #3: Understand Your Ideal Customer Profile
The third step to build a winning brand strategy is to understand your ideal customer profile.
An ideal customer profile is a description of the type of customer that would gain a lot of value from your product or service.
They are the easiest to sell, have the highest retention rates and love to refer others to your product.
In short, the ideal customer profile is a description of future customers that have the characteristics of your most important success stories.
Here's a buyer persona template you can customize to visualize and organize details about your ideal target market.
After you develop a thorough ICP, it will help you clarify the value you create for your customers. This will help you layout your branding strategy that is like a beacon for new customers and revenue.
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Step #4: Craft a Brand Promise
The fourth step in building a winning brand strategy is to craft a brand promise. A compelling brand promise combines the brevity of a tagline with your unique selling proposition.
The more any brand delivers on the promises they make, the more effective their brand strategy becomes. Conversely, if you can not match your expectations, the brand strategy is failing.
This risk of not matching the brand promise is why it is vital to create a valuable brand promise that is both exciting and realistic.
At Visme, we help you design and share beautiful on-brand presentations, infographics and other visual communications. This statement is a brand promise.
It is an experience you can expect to receive when you interact with our design tools.
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Step #5: Have a Visual Identity
The next step, when it comes to brand strategy, is to have a visual identity.
Now that we have explored various ways to find clarity on how you create value for your customers, we need to translate that into your customer facing communications.
Visual identity is the overarching description of the images and visible elements of your brand. The visual identity includes everything from your website to your business cards and social media accounts.
Use this template to define your visual identity elements, such as logo variations, brand color palette and brand typography.
The images you chose are a crucial form of communication when making an impression on your audience.
Your overarching visual identity will impact your ideal customers on an emotional level. Because of this impact, visual identity is an essential tool for building an effective brand strategy.
Conversely, if things go awry on this step, visual identity can become an obstacle to further growth.
A short description of the visual identity includes all of the imagery that expresses who your brand is and why you are different from everyone else.
A vital step in developing a brand strategy is to create and or review your brand style guide. A brand style guide will give you, and everyone on your team, instructions on creating a consistent visual identity.
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Step #6: Review Crucial Customer Touchpoints
The sixth step in creating a brand strategy is to review crucial customer touchpoints.
Reviewing these touchpoints will help assure that your brand strategy is consistent in the most significant locations where people discover your brand.
A brand touchpoint is a point of contact between your audience and your brand. It includes things like your email newsletter, social media profiles and website.
Here's a template to help you visualize your customer touchpoints.
When you create a winning brand strategy, discovering the most crucial, revenue-generating touchpoints is a good step.
Understanding where your branding efforts make the most impact will help you prioritize any tweaks that can significantly impact your results.
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Step #7: Get Clear On Your Brand’s Voice
The next step to building a winning brand strategy is to find clarity on your brand's voice. Defined simply, a brand voice is the standard way you communicate with your audience.
Here's a template you can customize to pinpoint your brand voice.
The ingredients of a brand voice are reasonably straightforward.
First, you must address the brand voice toward your ideal customer. Second, the brand voice should stay true to the brand values you described earlier in the brand strategy process.
If you include those two ingredients, an authentic style will emerge. For some brands, the voice takes a more authoritative tone. Additionally, for others, a more playful voice feels more authentic.
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Step #8: Build a Regular Brand Audit
The final step for developing a winning brand strategy is to schedule a regular brand audit.
A brand audit is a thorough review that describes how your brand strategy performs compared to the goals we articulated during the brand strategy creation.
You should schedule these audits quarterly. Block out 1-2 hours to review your visual identity. Ask yourself these open ended questions.
What is a brand strategy in marketing?
The definition of brand strategy is a long term and organization wide initiative for your brand to achieve concrete, measurable goals. Designing strategies to work across the entire organization is a mark of winning brand strategy.
Brand strategy helps you improve customer experiences, increase revenue and become more competitive in the marketplace.
How much does brand strategy cost?
Creating involves understanding the essence of your company. Additionally, it consists of understanding how your product fits within that mission and the marketplace.
Understanding these types of questions takes investments in your time and energy as a leader or employee in the company. It will be a variable cost depending on the value of your time.
How to build an employer brand strategy?
The best way to build a strong employer brand strategy is to understand your organization’s needs.
When you understand your business’s short and long term needs, you can craft an effective strategy. Understanding your needs will help you find clarity on everything you want to accomplish.
This clarity will help you align your goals with existing skill sets in the labor market.
When you do this, you can craft an employer strategy to attract the skills that will move your company forward.
To gain even more clarity on this issue, you can ask questions like:
How to create a brand strategy roadmap?
Creating a brand strategy roadmap is an important step to take when developing a winning brand strategy.
There are four elements that you should include in your brand strategy road map. These include vision, brand purpose, values and goals.
The vision component in the brand strategy roadmap will discuss the direction your brand is traveling. It defines an ideal outcome your brand is hoping to create in the world.
The purpose component asks the question, why is this vision important? What is the motivation underneath your ideal outcome? What makes it essential to the world?
Next, the value section helps you define what your brand stands for. What are your standards for operating as a company? How does this shape your strategy?
The goals section is where you get more concrete with your brand strategy roadmap.
What exactly do you hope to achieve? Make sure to include the specific metrics that track your results.
What does a brand strategy look like?
A great metaphor to help guide your brand strategy is to look at brand strategy like storytelling.
Our favorite stories transcend their medium. They are more than books, shows or movies. They are a lived emotional experience.
Stories achieve this experience with a simple structure. They have a beginning, a middle and an end. Additionally, they always have some kind of transformation or change involved.
When you build your brand strategy, make sure it communicates how your product or service creates a change in the world. Include language about where the customer starts, what it is like using your product and where they end up.
A good story is not just something to read on a page — it’s an experience. And for something to be an experience, it needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end. At the end of the story, there must be some kind of change from the start.
What does a director of brand strategy do?
A director of brand strategy is typically responsible for managing various brand strategy projects for multiple clients. Often, they collaborate with marketing and design teams to meet organizational goals to increase brand awareness within the market.
What is a brand strategy document?
A brand strategy document can include several different brand strategy templates that your team will use to improve their work. It may include details on your value proposition, brand narrative, customer personas and positioning statements.
Why is brand strategy important?
Brand strategy is important because it helps you cultivate a strong presence in the market. It gives you a definition that your customers will recognize.
Additionally, it gives you concrete benchmarks to track your progress. Without a brand strategy, you will find yourself unable to judge your branding efforts’ progress accurately.
How to Create Your Own Brand Guidelines
Ready to create your own set of brand guidelines? We have a quick three-step process to help you put together the perfect brand manual for your team, affiliates and even customers to take advantage of.
Step #1: Develop your brand identity.
Before you can begin putting your brand on paper, you need to come over with an overall brand strategy. This branding project includes things like your mission statement, messaging, logo, colors and more.
Developing a strong brand identity is the first step in building brand strength and recognition. What catches your audience’s eye? Think about your industry and what could help your brand to stand out from the rest.
First, come up with your brand colors. Understanding color psychology and what the various shades of different colors mean can be a big help in this area.
Take your newfound brand colors and use them to design a logo. Select your fonts and determine your brand message and overall tone of voice.
Once you’ve determined each essential part of your brand, you’re able to move onto step two.
Step #2: Use a professionally designed template.
You want your brand guidelines to be as easy for your team to browse through and understand as possible so they can ensure brand consistency across the board.
Using a professionally designed template and simply inserting your own brand elements into the placeholder elements can be a great way to make creating your own branding guidelines quick and painless.
Check out a few of our brand guidelines templates here, or scroll down to the bottom of the post to get a better look at a few templates that might work perfectly for your brand.
Step #3: Include all essential elements.
There are a variety of different design elements that are must-haves in your brand identity guidelines. We walk through them below so that you don’t miss a single piece.
Mission Statement
The first page or section of your brand guidelines – unless you include a table of contents to make navigation easier – should have a mission statement, vision statement, story or other type of motivational statement about your brand.
Why does your brand exist? What is its mission? What are you trying to do or achieve for your customer? What is your brand story?
Put all of this in a single sentence or paragraph and include it at the beginning of your brand book.
Logo
The next section should include your logo and specifics about the ways that it is and isn’t allowed to be used.
Branding requires a lot of specific information. A few things you might want to include are:
You need to ensure that your logo is always used properly so that when people see it, they instantly are reminded of your brand.
Additionally, you probably spent a lot of time and/or money developing your logo design, and you want it to be handled in a visually appealing way.?
Being specific about your logo ensures no one on your marketing team will mishandle your logo and put out marketing materials that don’t represent your visual identity.
Typography
After your logo, you want to cover your brand’s particular fonts chosen and what each one of them is used for.
Showcase your the typeface you’re using for headings versus body copy, what size it needs to be, weight, spacing and more.
Include the fonts you’ve set for your logo and tagline as well so that each person on your team knows how to recreate each piece if necessary.
Color Palette
Your next page is all about colors. Go back to that color palette you put together while developing your brand identity and pull it all together for your brand guide.
Here, you want to include samples of each color included in your palette and differentiate between your primary color(s) and your secondary color(s).
It’s also a good idea to include hex, CMYK and RGB codes for each of your colors so no matter who is using them and for what purpose, they’ll get the exact same color every time.
Patterns
In addition to fonts and colors, one of the brand assets that many companies use is a specific pattern.?
Patterns help make designing branded documents, social media graphics, marketing materials, presentations and more easy for everyone. They give you a starting point as well as ensure your visual content is always cohesive.
These can be created using a tool like Adobe Illustrator, but you can also create patterns in Visme and save them as content blocks that can be pulled into designs again and again.
Do’s and Don’ts
Another good section to include within your brand guidelines is an area with acceptable and unacceptable usage of your branding.
Share specifics on how your logos can be used, how your fonts and colors can and can’t be mixed, where your patterns should be placed on a design canvas and more. Include any other brand uses that might be necessary.
Senior Managing Director
10 个月Rizwan R. Very well-written & thought-provoking.?