In today’s multidimensional world, a strong brand strategy is essential to any business plan and can be a powerful catalyst for growth.
As the lines between the physical and digital worlds become increasingly blurred, customers are now everywhere and expect your brand to be everywhere, too. Therefore, brands must address this new challenge and remain present and consistent in their customers’ world, whether via email, social media, video, audio, or face-to-face. That’s why companies must consider making their brand as accessible and available as possible, both online and offline.
By clearly defining your brand with a well-crafted strategy, you can differentiate your company from competitors, develop a unique value proposition, drive sales, and establish a strong relationship with your customers based on a shared sense of value.
Understanding Brand Strategy
The need to carefully develop a company’s brand strategy is often overlooked or under-prioritized, but it is the most powerful choice you can make to help your business grow.
Consumers are more educated and aware of how and where they spend money and have more influence over how brands engage with them. Consequently, brands have unprecedented amounts of pressure to innovate and evolve.
A robust brand strategy is no longer just a nice to have when building a business. It is a blueprint for survival.
At Brand Lounge, we like to say that brand strategy is your North Star. It’s the foundation of your business and sets the tone for how you connect with your customers. Contrary to popular belief, your brand is much more than a name and a logo — it’s the sum of all the experiences customers have when interacting with your company. Your logo and name remain essential pieces of the brand puzzle, but they are far from the full image.
A well-crafted brand strategy is developed by defining your values and the desired customer experience. This strategy should create a distinct image for your company that differentiates you from your competitors and helps you identify the most strategic positioning in the market. Finally, your brand strategy is a combination of the choices you make to define, differentiate, and execute your brand.
Your brand strategy is the heart and soul of your company. It embodies your company’s values, promises, and personality. As Jack Trout, the father of positioning, says, “If you can build a powerful brand, you will have a powerful marketing program. If you CAN’T, then all the advertising, fancy packaging, sales promotion, and public relations in the world won’t help you achieve your objective. ” Your brand strategy should always come before any marketing efforts.
Brand Strategy and Customer Loyalty
A strong brand strategy creates customer loyalty by consistently delivering on your promise and meeting or exceeding expectations. As David Aaker, one of the fathers of modern branding said, “A strong brand creates a special relationship with customers, a bond based on intangibles that customers find hard to articulate but are very real and valuable to them.”
By building trust and an emotional connection with your customers, your brand will become their go-to choice, leading to higher customer lifetime value, increased customer referrals and advocacy, and ultimately higher revenue and profits.
The Role of Brand Strategy in Business Growth
Many businesses have failed by not giving due importance to the need for a brand strategy when building their businesses. The amount of analytical research centered around the business value of brands has increased significantly in the last few years.
Brand Finance’s Brand Strength Index shows that stronger brands consistently have better valuations than weaker brands. A well-crafted brand strategy will help you become a strong brand by uncovering your differentiating factors, establishing an emotional connection with your customers, creating a consistent image and message, cultivating a culture of trust and loyalty internally and externally, and creating a distinct and memorable brand.
Companies that establish and maintain a strong brand can benefit from increased revenue, market share, and shareholder values. A strong brand strategy defines the company culture and creates a sense of purpose for employees. A strong brand can also help attract customers and generate partnerships. For example, Apple’s brand strategy of innovation and simplicity has helped them grow and dominate the technology market rapidly. Every product and marketing campaign they launch reflects this strategy, making it easy for consumers to identify and trust the brand. They’re an excellent example of a strong brand.
Brand Strategy for the C-Suite: Why Should Executives Care?
Your brand strategy will affect your company’s bottom line and needs to start with the founder or executives. When developing a brand strategy, management must be involved to ensure its success and ability to influence the company’s bottom line. Elon Musk and his Tesla executives understood this fundamental concept very well. They played an essential role in creating and propelling their innovative, purpose-driven brand strategy enabling the company to attain a leadership position in the market.
Prioritizing brand strategy is necessary for executives who want to differentiate their company from competitors, maximize resources, and navigate through unforeseen circumstances to ensure a long-lasting impact.
Conclusion
A company’s brand strategy is the North Star, which guides its growth and path to becoming a strong brand. Investing in a solid brand strategy is the key to creating a memorable, well-positioned brand that permanently lives in the multidimensional world of your customers.
Additional Resources
If you want to dive deeper into brand strategy, we recommend works by Jack Trout, David Aaker, and Marty Neumeier. If you need expert guidance and personalized consultancy services to develop a brand that maximizes value, please consider connecting with us at Brand Lounge.
Echoing P.T. Barnum’s words, “No one has ever made a difference by being like everyone else.” Let your brand strategy help you make a difference.
