Think Like A Brand Strategist: A Successful Branding Strategy in 6 Steps

Have you ever stopped to think about why some brands are more remembered than others? Why do some have powerful messages and others do not? Why do we identify a specific colour with a certain brand or specific visual? Check Nike out. How often do you recall Nike each time the words: Just Do It is mentioned? In many cases, the recall rate is high.

All this is due to an effective branding strategy with which companies seek to influence the mind of the consumer and stand out from the rest. It is not just about selling a product, the brand experience is sold, the brand story is sold, the brand emotion is sold. The brand seeks to position itself in the mind of the consumer through certain experiences and positive values that make it more memorable and which identifies you from your competitors. Here are some ways in which you can start to build your brand using these 6 ideas.

1. Set your Brand Goals

The first step in creating your branding strategy is to define your goals. What do you want to get? Recognition? Diffusion? Consolidation of your identity? Or a change in the image you had until this moment? You have to be very clear about your objective, it must be concrete and achievable because it is what will mark the actions of your branding plan. The more concrete and measurable, the better. Only in this way can you evaluate if you are getting the desired results.

2. Define your Audiences

Before launching to apply the branding strategy, you have to study your target audience, what it is that they want, what they are looking for, what do they consume, what do they like, what are their pain points. How can your brand be relevant to them? Having a well-profiled target will help you develop the most appropriate strategies to connect with them effectively. Using this stage to also test key brand messages with them will also be useful. Here is an example of a buyer persona for a client. Based on the expectations and pain points, we were able to develop a customised brand experience for this persona.

3. Study your Competitors

It never hurts to know what your competitors do. Study what they do, their successes and failures, how they do it, etc. because it can be useful to you. It is not about copying, but learning from the mistakes and successes of others to develop successful strategies. It is about setting benchmarks and using best practices to help you be successful. What can you analyse? Here are some suggestions:

• Their Brand ecosystem
• Their Brand Strategy
• Type of messages that they send
• Visual elements
• Communication channels they use
• The audience they are targeting and how they respond
• What they don’t do and do

Knowing the above information helps you to strategise how you intend to out-maneuver your competition. There is a saying, "When your competition goes right, you go left."

4. Create a Strong Brand Ecosystem

An essential factor in your branding strategy is to include a section in which all aspects of your brand and its assets are clear. Here are some things to consider:

• ?Start with your Brand DNA. Indicate elements such as your Brand Vision, Brand Mission, Brand Values, Brand Personality and Brand Positioning. Ensure it is concise, presentable and easy to understand, and most importantly, it must represent the brand.
• The brand colors. They transmit some sensations or feelings, so you will have to choose the ones that best support the message you want to launch. For example, if you have a green products company, it is advisable to have a green color because it is associated with nature.
• The tone of the communication must be consistent with the values of the brand. It can be informal, formal, child, adolescent, technical, etc. What do you want to transmit? Are you an ecological, artistic brand or maybe you want to transmit innovation?

All these aspects should be included in your brand guidelines manual that allows to maintain the uniformity of the brand and avoid duplication in communication in different formats. A complete brand ecosystem should include your brand DNA, your brand messages, your brand visuals, brand assets and brand applications,

5. Be Strategic in your Communication

Ensure you have a clear strategic plan that helps you reach your brand goals. Communication needs to use multiple tactics to get your brand out there. Here are some crucial elements to consider in your brand communication.

• Your corporate website. This one must transmit your brand values through its corporate design. It has to keep the corporate colors, the logo and the slogan must appear well, the tone of the communication must be the same as previously defined. The contents of the web must support the message you want to convey.
• Social networks. Likewise, your profiles on social networks must maintain corporate identity. Set them up so that your corporate colours are prevalent; the profile image must be your logo and the tone of the communication must be maintained. You will have to build a social media plan to define the actions to be taken to support your brand strategy. You can combine paid ads with free content.
• Email marketing. If used wisely, you can contribute in a remarkable way to your branding strategy. For this, you have to offer something very attractive that allures the users and generates interest. Of course, always keeping with the corporate design via a well-designed e-newsletter.
• Display advertising, printed advertising, billboards, public relations, etc. A wide range of possibilities to take into account according to the objectives of your branding strategy and, of course, your budget.

Ensure you maintain brand consistency across these touchpoints at all times.

6. Evaluate your Brand Results

It is useless to invest a generous budget in your branding strategy if you will not study the results you’ve obtained. The objectives should be clear, achievable, concrete and measurable. In order to conclude the success or failure of your branding strategy, you have to establish performance indicators that show you the results achieved. In this way, you can enhance what has been successful or correct what went wrong.

I have to add that I have only given you the tip of the iceberg. Branding is so much more and if you would like to explore my book:?The Brand Playbook , it will contain over 88 strategies and ideas to consider for your brand. Wishing you success in building your world-class brand!

To your Brand Transformation,?

Dr. Jerome Joseph, CSP

Dr?Jerome Joseph ?is a Global Speaker, Brand Strategist, Best-selling Author, and Global Brand Thought Leader ranked No 2 in the World in 2020. He has worked with over 1000 brands in 35 countries over the past 24 years. Jerome is the CEO of?The Brand Theatre Worldwide ?a strategic Brand Consulting firm and?The Global Brand Academy ,?a corporate training firm focused on Brand outcomes.?

Check out Dr. Jerome's corporate training and brand consulting services @

www.jeromejoseph.com / www.thebrandtheatre.com / www.theglobalbrandacademy.com