A brand strategy defines what an organization stands for. The promise it carries out and the personality it conveys. It can aid you to recognize who you are and can act as a blueprint to encourage everyone around it to communicate with it.
Without a distinct identity, everything from the content, culture, and the core of a business can suffer. But there is a reason this problem is so pervasive. Establishing a robust and unique brand strategy takes time, effort, and commitment.
That’s where many individuals can get stuck.
These are many facets of a company. They exist to influence humans, to experience something distinct, regularly subconsciously. The feeling will persuade them to execute specific decisions that serve the brand. If you build significant products and services, it’ll benefit both customers too.
Most creative designers are usually trained or sometimes born with the inability to produce things that are appealing or functionally sound. Those are important skills amplified when aligned with a brand strategy.
A brand strategy is a single source of objective truth.
Guiding decisions that generate all the daily experiences that clients, prospects, and employees naturally have with a business.
Brands maintain direct control over many of these elements:
- Images and messages distributed;
- Product packaging and shelf display, as well as store design (if it’s a digital business);
The brand strategy may even guide decisions on whether to construct physical environments.
The way employees interact with them in person or remotely, like from a call center. The most significant experience also is the one in which brands have the least control over. A customer’s opinion and emotional connection to the brand, both in general and versus the competition. When they’re not trying your products, services, or in a brand controlled environment.
When a friend states, let’s meet somewhere cozy. Which brand immediately pops to mind? If a friend says, I will purchase a pair of Nike’s. What do you think of it? What images and feelings come to your mind? What happens if that same friend says I bought a pair of crocs?
Your brand is something that will live in the hearts and heads of your customers and prospects. Your strategy must be your reference point. It will guide the delivery of a consistent experience across all business touch points. Consistency will allow it to develop trust and familiarity among clients. That’s the unique phenomenon that will guide their hand towards your tube of toothpaste on a shelf of 30 others or apps in a big supermarket. The sole factor that will remind them to go to your website at the right time.
There are three fundamental moments of truth
- The first moment of truth is when the customer is looking at a product next to its competition. This can be in-store or online. Do they choose yours? What influenced them to do so?
- The second moment of truth is when the customer purchases the product and uses it, to what extent does it meet the expectations set earlier?
- The third moment of truth is when the customers provide feedback about the product and services they use. We share it with the company and their friends, colleagues, family members, etc. What did they share and why?
Final Words
To recap, every time someone experiences your brand, intentionally or not. It is a unique opportunity to powerfully reinforce who and what the brand is. If the experience is inconsistent, people will struggle to accurately identify the brand.
The inability to identify or remember the brand in a favorable light will limit its success. And it’s why having a solid and continuous brand strategy is important for every private business.
