Sniper’s Shot at How to create a great brand strategy.
Revenue, Growth, Scaling, all of it is more like a beautifully furnished apartment which the time will strike down if not nurtured the right way, your “Brand” is the old stone building that’s going to stand for, probably longer than even you, or me. That’s why you need to figure out how to create a great brand strategy for your company urgently.
When I started my career with a product development company, I was not as well versed with how brands, companies, products and more importantly, the people involved and influenced by them think, act and react as I am today.
From teaming up with bright product managers and developers to create content for clients to work in marketing, I learned how companies in different industries and segments stand the chance of being bestowed with tremendous success while being at the risk of failure or over-time due to a multitude of factors.
In this blog, we shall talk about the most important factors that decide your company’s fate “over time”. In the long run, if I may.
Brand Strategy.
Crafting a meaningful brand strategy which perfectly defines the functional, as well as the intentional purpose of your company, is very crucial.
It is essentially the plan which is aimed at helping you achieve the long-term goals, goals on how you want your brand identity, brand experience and brand story to be told by your customers and the products itself.
Let’s go ahead by taking on each step of the brand strategy, one step at a time.
As to the design aspects, make sure you check this out.
A Crystal Clear Origin Story.
Everything has an origin. Your product or company needs to have one too. That is what defines you, and what you do. Not only it helps you to create a loyal base of customers, but it helps you with building trust between you and your stakeholders, and potential investors too. So the first step when you’re looking to create a great brand strategy to take is come up with a darn good origin story.
Apart from all this, it helps you in differentiating yourselves from the competition. Anyone can replicate a product or some features from you.
They may even poach some clients or employees, but the origin story of your’s is something that can never be replicated.
A great example of how your origin story can help your brand would be to look at how Levi’s managed to cash in on their century old origin story. When the company missed the bus to “the premium denim” trend when the other competitors started offering high-end $200 jeans while Levi’s continued with their usual 39 dollar tough jeans.
This led them to be perceived as a low-end and unfashionable brand, which took a toll psychologically amongst the customers and obviously — financially in their revenues. They overcame this though, by using their origin story as Levi’s jeans is what the american gold miners used to wear back in 1850 since the job meant rough terrain and whatnot. They branded themselves as the jeans that helped make America!
So, I think I’ve made my case for having a darn good origin story compelling enough.
Brand Experience before Brand Identity.
Since the latter is a result of first, it is important for any brand to first focus on making sure that brand experience for your customers is incredible. What the customer experiences is what determines their statements, praises and negatives about the brand. Which is what brand identity is -
As Jeff Bezos says, “Brand Identity is what people say about your brand when you’re not in the room.”
And since you have already read and heard a lot on how to do this, I would try not to bore you the hell out by doing it. Also, the feeling that you know a gazillion times your customers and product better than me tells me not to attempt lecture on how to make sure that brand experience is awesome.
Be Consistent to be the King.
Once you get started with a origin story, the next thing to do is to remain consistent with the message you want to send. Also, being consistent helps you to foster trust and comfort among the customers of your company.
Getting right with consistency begins with closely co-ordinating the visuals and the tone across the different platforms. This includes your website, social media accounts, ads, print materials and everything that’s associated with your brand.
We have discussed this point at length here.
Refrain from painting yourself with every “Buzzword” or “Trend”
This one is probably the hardest one to do. Not every CEO is able to resist the temptation of painting his company with the trending buzzwords in the industries or anywhere in general.
However, there’s no harm if the trend truly defines what you do.
Attaching yourself with these trends gives you the opportunity to present your company in a fresh and modern way. But at the same time, doing it too much could mean losing your identity.
So what do we learn here, taking inspiration from the design trends and buzzwords is totally fine, but do not even try to paint yourself completely with it.
A genius and thought through Brand Storytelling will always be a life saver.
This one’s a keeper. Nothing in your branding exercise will ever matter more than this. Brand Story is what converts mere fried chickens with a couple of new spices to be called KFC Chicken buckets or Popeye’s for that matter, or a trivial potato to be Lay’s Potato chips by Fritolay!
Yes, it’s true that the products aforementioned are great. But, don’t ever kid yourself into thinking that the brand story of KFC, Popeye’s or Lay’s isn’t the reason why y’all choose these products over anything.
So, figure out what your brand storytelling is going to look like when you set out to create a great brand strategy for your company. Of all the things about your brand, this is the part where your A-Game needs to come swinging.
Emotions and Loyalty instilled in the customers never hurt anyone.
Emotions, what your customers feel while using your products or services are pivotal for you. Part of the reason why it’s important is because loyalty is what decides whether they will keep coming back to you again and again. Keep this in mind when you take up the task of how to create a brand strategy.
Say you are a fan of American Eagle tees, maybe because their Large size fits you better than that of A&F’s. Or no reason at all. You go there repeatedly just because you like shopping over there. That’s what “Emotions” and “Loyalty” do for you, which are a result of what you offer them in the name of “Personalized Experiences”.
When it comes to Millenials, however, Loyalty is found to be elusive. They don’t really prefer keep coming back to the same brand or company. Hence, you’ll need to work harder on it.
Always strive to show them that you “get” them. As a matter of fact, every interaction that you have with your customer determines whether the customer is going to be loyal to your company in the long run or not. Formulate a plan on how you’re going to use emotions and loyalty when you’re working on how to create a great brand strategy.
Copywriting must be done right.
Copywriting is nowhere crucial if it isn’t in branding strategy. Partly because it is what you communicate with your customers through.
“Content is King”. Everyone knows this, who doesn’t?
If you’re the one. Well, I just told you!
But it’s very important to understand that the copywriting and typography associated with your content creation strategy is important to align with the goals and image of your company. Do remember the fact the importance of copywriting when you set out to create great brand strategy for yourself.
Use words in your copies that “describe” you “accurately”. Being vague or too much over the top will always be counterproductive.
Let’s create a great brand strategy together!
Our formula of how to create a great brand strategy is reflected totally in the products we’ve developed. Not only this, the care with which our product managers and designers craft a platform is the sole reason why these products do so well in the real world markets.
If you are looking to start a new project, and need consultation for anything related to branding, feel free to get in touch with us.
