How do I know if my brand strategy is working?

Brand strategy feels squishy and unmeasurable to some people. But there is no need for this to be true.

Since brand strategy is simply a utility to help you reach your business goals, it’s worth assessing whether it is working. And despite its squishy reputation, you should be able to observe its effectiveness.

But how?

Let’s first define terms. Brand is the meaning your business represents in the mind of your audience. Brand strategy is the exercise of deliberately selecting that most fruitful meaning. When you have an intentional brand strategy, everything your business does and says can reinforce and amplify that meaning.

If your chosen brand strategy is performing well, you should see expansions in customer delight, employee engagement, and bottom-line economic value.

Customer Delight

Your business will attract more of your sweet spot customer, and that customer will feel seen and served. They will reward you with their love and loyalty.

Specifically, you might see:

• Price plays a decreasing role in customer decision-making. When price does come up for customers, it’s at the end of the conversation, rather than at the beginning.
• Your customers are increasingly the type of customers that you?want?to have. These are the customers who bring disproportionate value to you, as you bring disproportionate value back to them. It is a virtuous cycle.
• Customers so love what you deliver that they evangelize you to their peers.
• Marketing credibly communicates your benefit, and only touches on features as?support?for that benefit.
• You deliver to your customers something larger and larger as you climb the benefit ladder . Your unique functional benefit that has always satisfied your customers now transcends to a more emotive customer reward, ever enriching your customer relationship.

Employee Engagement

Your employees will operate with crystal clarity and verve. When we humans have a distinctive purpose for our work – a North Star that empowers us to make decisions according to that purpose – we feel part of something bigger. We feel gratified, and we give more.

Specifically, you might see:

• Employees understand the brand and?feel energized by it . When asked what your business means, all employees have a singular, consistent answer.
• You are becoming an employer of choice. People love to work for focused and purpose-driven companies. We yearn for the clarity and sense of agency a North Star brings.
• When you make difficult tradeoffs as a leader, you use your brand as a filter for those decisions. Employees feel empowered to do this, too.
• It is easier to delegate and to push decision-making downward and outward. When everyone is using the brand strategy as the North Star, everyone can make on-brand decisions. You don’t have to micromanage.
• You as the leader are more engaged, too. Focus is hard, but vastly rewarding when it is the?right?focus. You are creating more value every day, with less brute force and with more enjoyment.

Economic Value Creation

A successful brand produces a flywheel to profitable growth. The more you are focused on your chosen brand positioning, the stronger you become at that thing you alone bring, and the more you delight customers and employees alike. This gives you a competitive moat, as you are building a strength not possible to copy. All of these together grow your bottom-line profitability in an enduring way.

Specifically, you might see:

• Pricing power increases with customer delight, boosting your profit margins.
• Marketing effectiveness increases with sharpened focus, lowering costs and improving Return On Investment (ROI).
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) decreases, as you are earning – rather than buying – customer attention, by leaning into a benefit both customer-resonant and unique to you.
• Churn is minimal, as customers are loyal to a product they love.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) increases and remains high.

Brand Drives Profit

Brand can feel nebulous. But confusing nebulous for unmeasurable is a mistake. Brand is the largest driver of economic value in a leader’s toolkit. Do the hard work to define your brand with empathy, conviction and vigor. Then, unleash this asset. It’s the reason your business exists.

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About Lindsay

Ironclad Brand Strategy ?owner Lindsay Pedersen is a brand strategist whose clients include Zulily, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Coinstar and IMDb. Her brand strategies are tested in the crucible of her proprietary Ironclad Method. Lindsay arms leaders with an empowering understanding of brand, and an ironclad brand strategy so they can grow their business with intention, clarity and focus.

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LEADERS:?Lindsay’s book?Forging an Ironclad Brand: A Leader’s Guide ?will teach you the what, why, and how of using brand to supercharge your growth.

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Originally published at?ironcladbrandstrategy.com/ask-lindsay