The Essential Framework For Your Branding Strategy

This article covers everything in my original article, but to get a more in-depth insight, you can read the whole article here.

Every brand and company want to leave a long-lasting and positive image in the minds of their target audience. Unfortunately, there are very few strategic assets available to a company to achieve this goal, and even the span of competitive advantage is getting shorter. That’s where branding and a good branding strategy come in. A strong brand strategy is essential, especially in today’s day and age, for a successful business to continue prospering.

The process of building a solid brand strategy can be tedious, one which takes time, effort, and commitment. And that’s where I hope that this guide to creating your brand strategy framework can be helpful for your business.

But first, let’s delve a little bit into what a brand strategy is all about…

What is a Brand?

A brand is a complicated term in itself and can mean different things to different people. In simple terms, a brand would mean the visual identity of a business, be it the logo or the social media look. But the reality is much more complicated!

To stand out in a densely crowded marketplace, companies look for ways to connect emotionally with customers, become irreplaceable, and create lifelong relationships. This is done by providing the best possible experience to the customer throughout their journey with your business.

Also, not to be confused with marketing — a brand is what people say, feel, and think about your business. On the other hand, marketing is what you say about your business.

The Essential Brand Strategy Framework

Conduct Thorough Research

The Brand Strategy Framework process starts with digging deep and finding what your company wants to communicate to the world. You must know what your organisation stands for: its mission, vision, values, strengths and weaknesses, culture, and target markets.

• Purpose: Why do we exist?
• Vision:?What future do we want to help create (both internally and externally)?
• Mission:?What are we here to do?
• Values:?What principles guide our behaviour?

Clarifying Strategy

After conducting research and finding out what your brand stands for, it’s now time to turn your attention to clarifying your strategy. This step is where you take all the findings from step one and distil them into a unifying idea. In other words, it’s time to refine your findings.

There should be constant discussions to reach a universal agreement about the target market, unique selling proposition, competitive advantage, core values, and project goals.

Design Your Identity

This is where the fun truly begins! After documenting a clear strategy for the brand, the creative design process can begin.

In this phase, design experts are needed to transform your plans into something tangible. Make sure the design team is updated on the brand brief and on the same page as you.

These are some of the tasks that the design team will be undertaking at this stage:

This is where the fun truly begins! After documenting a clear strategy for the brand, the creative design process can begin.

In this phase, design experts are needed to transform your plans into something tangible. Make sure the design team is updated on the brand brief and on the same page as you.

These are some of the tasks that the design team will be undertaking at this stage:

• Company Logo
• Colour Palette
• Typography
• Visual Assets

Create Different Touchpoints

Now that the design process is almost finished, it’s time to start finalizing everything and decide on the touchpoints those design assets will be showcased. Ensuring harmony across the mediums is of vital importance at this stage. Your brand should be able to maintain the right balance between the flexibility of expression and consistency in communications.

• Content
• Website
• Shareable Assets / Collateral
• Stationery
• Product Design

Managing Your Assets

The brand strategy process doesn’t end after ideating and creating your brand successfully. You have to further manage it and nurture it to ensure your name is always at the top.

To do this, these are a few things you can do:

• Continuous Development and Change of Brand Assets:?You can never be negligent over the constant development of your brand as new technologies are developed.
• Turn Your Employees into Your Brand Champions:?Employees are the best spokespeople for your brand, whether you’re a small company or a multinational. You need to nurture the relationship with your employees so that they feel a part of your culture and values.

Brand Book:?A brand book is a document which educates the reader on all there is to know about your brand. Through a brand book, you can ensure that every stakeholder has a portable document of your vision and the meaning of your brand.

Creating a complete Brand Strategy Framework is no easy task, and we understand that. You have other things to do to keep your business running, but having a clear strategy really helps in the long run! If you don’t have an in-house branding and design department, or if you need outside help, you can always decide to hire an agency. To partner with us for your branding needs?contact us here, and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

This article was highly influenced by the book Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler. You can purchase the book?here.

This article covers everything in my original article, but to get a more in-depth insight, you can read the whole article here.