A brand is more than a logo. It’s not just your name or a catchy marketing phrase. It’s the whole journey that your customers take all the way through the buying process of your product or service. This includes both in-person and online purchases.
For branding strategy to be effective, you have to take the opportunity to define what your business stands for and develop the personality of the business. This personality will define your logo, color palette, and even that matchy slogan on the radio. But brand strategy doesn’t stop at creativity.
It also takes into account the following:
- The Voice of Your Business — How your business portrays itself in text and messaging with your social media presence, customer service, and traditional marketing.
- Web app and website — How your customers interact with your brand through your online tools like an app or your website falls into brand strategy.
- Employee Culture — Brand strategy covers the language your management speaks with employees and the language employees speak to each other as well as internal messaging and email.
- How Your Employees Interact with Customers — A brand strategy also covers your employees’ language and direct interaction with your customers.
- Your Vendors — The vendors that your company works with also help define your brand strategy. Does your company only work with other small businesses, or do they shop for the best deal and partner with huge out-of-state or even out-of-country companies to save money?
- Your Packing — The way your product looks on the shelf and the mailing experience is a large part of your brand strategy as customer experience these days is largely wrapped up in the way your brand is presented via packaging.
- Your Brand Name — A name is incredibly important. We all know of those famous brands whose names have now become household names. How about those brand names that have become the common name for the generic product itself even though they are just a brand that manufactures a version of that generic product. A name helps set the tone and define your brand’s entire feel within only a few words.
- Visuals of Your Brand — How are your photo and video content created, designed, edited, and presented? Ever get lost scrolling through your favorite brand’s site on social media because their images are breathtaking and laid out beautifully. Telling a story through your brand’s images and videos is incredibly powerful because your customers will come to know to associate those visual cues with your products and offerings.
All of these factors combine to create your overall brand environment. This is what the customers see, feel, hear, and learns about your product before they’ve even had a chance to purchase it.
Benefits of Defining Your Brand
Defining your brand is one of the most powerful things you can do. It builds a cohesive picture for your customers so that they can feel that they know who your brand is and what you stand for right from the start.
Defining brand strategy means that your customer’s experience is controlled, to an extent, because all of the factors in voice and presentation have been taken into account has been addressed and formulated.
Brand strategy also helps build loyal customers. Customers who enjoy engaging with your content align with your company’s values. If a customer admires your brand and products even before purchasing, they will begin to work your products into their lives because the brand feels personalized to them, their values, needs, wants, and desires.
In conclusion, building a brand strategy is a game-changer for your business. It creates a cohesive environment for your employees to feel supported in selling your product. It builds an infrastructure for your company to deal with and handle communication from the customer all the way up. Most importantly, the brand strategy shows the world what your brand stands for and the quality they can expect from your company.