8 Essentials & Templates for Developing a Brand Strategy in 2021: Best Brand Marketing Strategy

Taking the effort to establish a winning brand strategy is a critical goal for your company's improvement.

In this piece, I've compiled a list of the most important actions you should take to improve your brand strategy, as well as practical advice you can use right immediately.

Let's get this party started!

Contents Table of Contents

What is the definition of a brand strategy?

There are four different types of branding strategies.

The Elements of a Successful Brand Strategy

8 Steps to Creating a Brand Strategy

To Get You Started, Here's a Brand Strategy Template

Most Commonly Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the definition of a brand strategy?

We'll begin by defining brand strategy as the process of attaining long-term objectives as your company grows. To put it another way, brand strategy is the approach you use to ensure that your most critical results are visible in the world.

Branding is a method of combining intangible characteristics of your company, such as its authenticity, personality, reputation, and unique selling proposition, into a single idea.

By opposing and contrasting strategy with a related idea, tactics, you may have a better understanding of strategy.

Many people make the mistake of mixing together tactics with strategy. This confusion causes people to mix up branding strategy and methods.

A strategy is a road map for accomplishing long-term objectives that may not necessarily require a clear conclusion. A strategy is more of a method or a path that entails iteratively achieving your objectives.

Tactics, on the other hand, are a far more tangible idea. They are simply actions done to fulfill the branding strategy's objectives.

Creating a website, launching a new marketing campaign, or creating graphic material for a corporate blog are all popular branding techniques.

Because they generally have an objective time range and distinct endpoint, branding strategists may use initiatives as a synonym for strategies.

To create a successful brand strategy, you must first understand your brand's values and the remarkable influence you want it to have on the world.

It's also a good idea to spell out any promises or guarantees you offer to your consumers. Communicating your brand's personality demonstrates how important consumer communication is in the brand development process.

There are four different types of branding strategies.

We'll move on to the four most essential sorts of branding strategies now that we've covered the basics of brand strategy.

The four branding tactics are summarized in this infographic. Continue reading to learn more about each brand approach.

Brand Extension is the first type.

A brand expansion is the first sort of brand strategy we'll look at. You're extending your existing brand into new product categories when you employ the brand extension approach.

The goal of the approach is to broaden your reach by using the power of your existing brand to enter new areas.

When you branch out into other categories, they might be connected or unrelated to the one you're in now.

Nike is a great example of a corporation that uses brand extension to extend its reach. They've progressed from shoes to sunglasses and golf balls, among other things.

What's important to remember from a branding standpoint is to choose new categories that align with your brand's goal and values.

In the end, your goal is to introduce a new product in a new product category under your existing brand name.

Despite the fact that launching a new product appears to be a difficult undertaking, it is a realistic approach for businesses of all sizes.

It's a realistic strategy because you can rely on the power of your current brand, which includes all of the social proof and value it brings.

Despite the fact that the new product will be unknown in the marketplace, the goodwill you have established will increase the chances of market penetration in the new category.

This achievement will enable you to reach a new audience and strengthen your entire brand.

Line Extension is the second kind.

Line expansion is the second sort of brand strategy we'll look at.

You increase your brand's visibility in a new product category via a brand extension plan. Similar to the line extension approach, the line extension strategy expands your reach inside your present product category.

The development of new cell phone devices is a fantastic illustration of this. The line extension approach is used when a business like Apple produces a phone with a bigger screen to appeal to a broader proportion of customers.

When you employ this technique, you may be able to sway clients who are considering your rivals because they require a product with certain characteristics.

Rather than losing these consumers, line extension may be a lucrative strategy to strengthen your brand.

Are you ready to start transforming your brand strategy concepts into a team-friendly interactive presentation? To gain organizational buy-in, use the digital branding and promotion template.

Derived Branding is the third type of branding.

The derived branding strategy is the third brand strategy we'll look at.

While the first two methods focused on how to strengthen your brand by expanding it, this strategy is all about tearing things down.

Your product or service will almost certainly have a few essential elements that work together to provide value to your consumers. When you isolate a certain feature and give it its own branded identity, you're using the derived branding strategy.

Intel, a consumer electronics firm, is an example of this. Many PC products contain their chips. Instead of branding Intel PCs as a separate entity, Dell opts to name a specific component of the PC.

Individual Branding is the fourth type.

Individual branding is the fourth sort of brand strategy we'll look at.

This strategy focuses on CEOs' or team members' personal traits, values, and accomplishments that support your brand's goal.

Executives and leaders can benefit from using their platforms to promote brand values. It's also simpler for people to connect with one another.

The Elements of a Successful Brand Strategy

We'll go over some fundamentals for establishing a great brand strategy now that we've gone over the four sorts of brand strategy you may utilize.

Employee buy-in is the first and most important need.

Employee buy-in is the first and most important factor to consider when developing your branding strategy. The most sustainable method to build an effective employee buy-in strategy is to take an honest approach to branding.

Linking your forward-facing business culture with your outward-facing brand language is one approach to increase brand authenticity.

The most important step in reaffirming this connection is to clearly articulate the commitments you make to consumers and your company's core beliefs.

This clarity is a wonderful approach to ensure that your staff are on the same page as your brand. You'll be on the same page if they share your company's values and mission statement, and you communicate the relevance of the branding strategy.

You can ask the following questions whether you already know your company values or need to work on expressing them for your branding strategy.

• Who do you think your ideal customer is?

• How do you provide value to their lives?

• What is your vision for the future?

• What are your personal values?

• Where do you want your firm to go in the world?

Consistency is the second most important quality.

Brand consistency is the second requirement for a successful brand strategy. The regular distribution of material that matches with your values and brand strategy over time is referred to as brand consistency.

Because of this consistency, your audience can anticipate to see your essential messages and primary products on a frequent basis. Brand consistency entails delivering key messaging with consistent visual branding and other brand aspects on a regular basis.

Creating a brand style guide and ensuring that communications are delivered in a consistent tone throughout time are two simple methods to create brand consistency.

Customers will begin to identify your messages and form favorable connections after you establish brand consistency.

Lean Into Emotional Benefits (Essential #3)

Emotional branding is the act of triggering an audience's emotions in order to establish a link between them and a brand. We can do this by building a brand that appeals to the emotional state and ambitions of your target consumer.

Marc Gobé's work on emotional branding is a solid starting point.

In his book The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People, he developed the emotional branding idea.

The idea is founded on the fact that in relationships between brands and individuals, emotional ties emerge.

Emotional branding is really effective. It focuses on the audience and allows them to choose the sort of information or product they will get. They are the ones in charge. Are you unsure how to incorporate this into your brand?

This firm, which provides easy meal planning, is a fantastic example. It enables the client to personalize a meal plan to their preferences. They may include/exclude items and select a serving size that is appropriate for the family, allowing them to form a stronger bond with their customers.

Take a flexible long-term approach, which is essential #4.

Taking a long-term approach to your branding strategy can help you get the most out of it.

Don't be scared to put out efforts today that may take some time to bear fruit. Branding is a long-term commitment that will pay off if you keep improving.

It's crucial to establish a balance between long-term planning and short-term adaptability. It's critical to make room in your branding plan for real-world input as it comes in.

8 Steps to Creating a Brand Strategy

Now that we've gone over some of the basics, we can move on to some practical advice. We'll now go through eight actionable actions to help you build your brand strategy.

Step 1: Decide on your core values.

Establishing your fundamental beliefs is the first stage in developing your brand strategy. The convictions you have about your brand that guide your activities are known as core values.

Make a list of the values that are most important to your brand using this template.

These fundamental principles are connected to the specific challenges you intend to solve for your consumers and are the reason for your company's existence.

These principles are often established at the start of a firm, and they are unlikely to change much as it expands. They are the cornerstone of your brand strategy.

Create a Strategic Positioning Statement (Step #2).

Making a positioning statement is the next stage in developing a brand strategy. The positioning statement describes both your product and your target market.

Its goal is to demonstrate how your product meets a specific demand in a target market.

You may use this customizable template to create your brand positioning statement and see its many parts.

A positioning statement may be used to ensure that your marketing activities are aligned with your brand strategy.

By emphasizing your brand's fundamental qualities, you may utilize the positioning statement to express your value offer to your ideal consumers.

You must first gain clarity on the following components of your brand before drafting your positioning statement.

• Who do you work for?

• Do you have something to give them?

• How are you going to present it to them?

• How does this compare to what's already available?

Step #3: Know Who Your Ideal Customer Is

Understanding your target client profile is the third stage in developing a great brand strategy.

An ideal client profile is a description of the kind of person who would benefit greatly from your product or service.

They are the simplest to sell, have the best retention rates, and are enthusiastic about recommending your product to others.

In a nutshell, the ideal customer profile is a description of potential consumers that share the same traits as your most successful customers.

You may use this buyer persona template to visualize and organize information about your ideal target market.

After you've created a detailed ICP, you'll be able to better understand the value you provide to your consumers. This will assist you in developing a branding plan that acts as a beacon for attracting new consumers and income.