Here’s A Complete Brand Strategy Development Framework You Can Steal
Crafting a Winning Brand Strategy Framework: A Definitive Guide
In today’s dynamic and saturated market, creating a brand strategy that resonates with your target audience is more crucial than ever. It’s not just about having a catchy logo or a sleek website; it’s about constructing an effective brand strategy framework that aligns with your business goals and values, and effectively communicates your story to the world.
Building a brand strategy framework is akin to laying the foundation for a skyscraper. It requires meticulous planning, a clear vision, and a deep understanding of your industry landscape.
It’s about defining who you are, what you stand for, and how you want to be perceived by the world. It’s a holistic approach that encompasses every aspect of your business, from your visual identity to your communication style, ensuring consistency and coherence in every interaction.
In this post, we will delve deep into the art and science of building a robust brand strategy framework. We will explore the essential components, share insightful tips, and provide practical advice to help you create a brand that is not only memorable but also has the power to drive growth and foster loyalty.
Whether you are a budding entrepreneur, a small business owner, or a seasoned marketer, this guide will equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to navigate the branding journey successfully.
Every branding agency will have their own method to building your brand strategy, here At The Branded Agency, we break down the process into five key components that will help you position your brand for success.
If you only learn one thing today, let it be this: Start with your WHY. No one is going to care deeply about a brand that is only functional. It needs to be rooted in something deeper.
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The good news is that creating a brand strategy doesn’t have to be complicated.
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Brand Strategy Framework
Your Brand Strategy Framework is a foundational structure that outlines the principles, approaches, and actions required to build, develop, and manage your brand effectively. Defining actionable and meaningful brand values is crucial as they guide communication and decision-making to ensure brand consistency.
Here are the steps to getting started with your brand strategy:
First, you need a clear mission statement that defines your company’s purpose and who you’re doing it for. This goes beyond being the cheapest or most convenient. It is a deeper feeling and a bigger impact you wish to have on the world and your customers.
Second, your vision statement sets the long-term direction for your company and defines what success looks like. This will help shape your tough decisions. (Does it actually make sense to launch that new product category?!)
Then comes the brand promise. This is your pledge to our customers, telling them exactly what they can expect from us. You can encapsulate it, by creating a tagline. It needs to be easy to remember and straight to the point.
After that, we decide on our brand positioning and key messages—this is how we want people to think of us when they hear our name. It helps us shape how people talk about us when we are not in the room.
Finally, your brand personality, voice and tone helps with your brand storytelling. It is a creative way to express your personality and build stronger relationships with your customers.
If this makes sense to you, keep reading as we explain the brand strategy process in more details. With our expertise, you can create a clear, effective brand strategy that will help you stand out in your industry.
If it’s too much, reach out to us at The Branded Agency, we can assist you with all aspects of your brand strategy - from positioning and brand pillars, to defining your mission statement to creating compelling brand storytelling.
What is a Brand Strategy?
A brand strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines the goals and objectives of a brand and how it will achieve those aims over time.
Strategic brand management involves creating a comprehensive plan that outlines the steps needed to develop a successful and powerful brand, including defining the target audience, competitive positioning, and messaging.
Typically, this involves working with a branding agency or other marketing professionals to develop a roadmap for implementing various branding activities such as building awareness, increasing engagement, and promoting customer loyalty.
There are several key components that go into creating a successful brand strategy.
These may include developing a clear positioning statement, identifying and understanding your target audience, coming up with effective branding tactics such as marketing campaigns or social media outreach, and measuring the effectiveness of your efforts over time.
The result of a good branding strategy is more than just having a pretty logo to call your own.
The Benefits of a Good Brand Strategy:
Increased returns on your marketing dollars and sales efforts. Having a brand strategy in place means you get to clearly define your target audience - who they are, what they do, what turns them on and what makes them tick. A marketing and sales team equipped with this information can narrow down their focus, increase qualified leads and be more efficient with their time, effort and money.
Instant affinity and unshakeable loyalty from your target audiences. Effective brand strategies will address your target's desires and frustrations directly, making them think “this brand knows EXACTLY what I'm feeling”. Once you've captured their attention this way, it's much easier to nurture them into buying what you have to offer.
Consistency throughout your brand, even while it's in the process of evolving and growing. In order to move fast and deliver fast, every member across all teams needs to be aligned on each aspect of the brand. From brand colours and font to brand voice and tone, nothing builds recognition and trust like a consistent brand strategy guide and identity.
Without a brand strategy, you will be guessing what will work instead of fully understanding why each marketing and business decision is made.
This will inevitably create a lot of confusion and conflict within your team and make it difficult to attract people - be it customers or employees- who believe in the same purpose and share the same values as you do.
A brand strategy is the foundation of any successful marketing and business decisions.
Without it, you'll be left guessing instead of making informed choices.
This can create confusion and conflict within your team and hinder your ability to attract customers and employees who share your values and purpose.
Before diving into brand strategy development, it's essential to answer two key questions:
Who is your target audience and what do they need and want?
Why aren't their needs or wants being met?
However, it's crucial to revisit and refine your understanding of your audience to ensure your brand personality aligns with your target market.
A well-defined brand personality can strengthen brand awareness and loyalty among customers and differentiate your business from competitors.
Don't leave the success of your brand to chance.
Let The Branded Agency guide you in crafting a powerful brand strategy that resonates with your target audience and drives business growth.
Finding out who you're talking to is essential to defining your brand personality i.e. who you want to be as a brand, so this will be numero uno on your to-do list.
2. Who Are Your Competitors?
When it comes to brand strategy, it's important to understand the competitive landscape.
Who are your competitors and what do they offer?
How can you differentiate yourself in the market?
To start, conduct a thorough competitive analysis to identify the key attributes in your market, such as price, quality, and customer reviews.
This will help you evaluate your competition and identify areas where you can improve your own brand positioning and unique selling proposition (USP).
By understanding what your competitors are doing well and where they fall short, you can develop a brand strategy that sets you apart and positions you for success. So, take the time to research and analyze your competition - it will pay off in the long run.
The 3-Part Framework To Developing Your Brand Strategy
Now that we've convinced you why a brand strategy is worth investing your valuable time and resources in, here's how you can start creating one for your own brand.
At The Branded Agency, our brand strategy framework is grouped into 3 key parts:
Brand Positioning Strategy (Values and Vision)
Brand Communication Strategy (Voice and Tone)
Brand Identity System (Logo, Patterns, Colors & all Other Visual Elements)
1. Brand Positioning: The foundation of your business
A lot of new companies and startups tend to gloss over this first section of their brand strategy.
They might think this is only something that bigger companies embark on, and so things like your brand purpose, vision, mission and core values might be something they whip up in half an hour in order to put it on the company website.
But trust us on this one, getting this basic foundation right from the get-go will make all the difference once the brand begins to expand.
Knowing exactly what your brand stands for provides clarity internally so that every decision made will always be aligned for the sake of the same goals and objectives.
Defining your brand's core values will also help build an authentic, genuine brand that's not just in the game to sell and make money.
By building a strong brand core, you don't just get customers - you get a community.
These are the people who hold the same beliefs as you do and will commit to going long-term with the brand.
Now more than ever, people are more than willing to pay a little extra to support a brand that is ethical and driven by purpose.
To get down to your brand core, answer these questions:
Brand Purpose: Why do we exist?
Brand Vision: What does the future look like? What can we do to help create the future we want?
Brand Mission: What do we have to do in order to create that future?
Core Values: Which principles will guide our behaviour?
Key Messages: What makes your business unique? What key messages do you want to deliver to your target audience?
Brand positioning - a glassware brand’s core reason for existing.
If you don't know where to start with building your brand positioning, get in touch with us.
We're one of the leading branding agencies in Vancouver, Canada and there's nothing we love more than discovering the heart and soul behind every company.
2. Brand Communication Strategy: Communication Objectives and Principles, Brand Key Message Guidelines, Brand Voice and Brand Tone, Copywriting Guidelines
Once you’ve identified and developed your brand positioning, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to express who you are as a brand to the world. Crafting and delivering a clear and impactful brand message that resonates with your target audience is crucial.
To be clear, this is different from deciding on your colours, font type and logo (although it can be tempting to skip right to the pretty stuff, we get it!). With your brand messaging, you first decide on what it is you’re trying to communicate in the first place.
To get your brand messaging down pat, you would start by defining your:
Brand Communication Objectives
Brand Communication Principles
Brand Key Messaging Guidelines
Brand Personality
Brand Voice
Brand Tone
Copywriting Guidelines
Brand Communication Objectives
There are many different objectives that can be included in a brand communication strategy, depending on the overall goals of a particular brand. Some common objectives might include increasing awareness and visibility, improving customer engagement and satisfaction, growing market share or revenue, or strengthening brand loyalty among existing customers.
Brand Communication Principles
There are several key principles that are essential for effective brand communication. These may include crafting a clear and compelling brand positioning statement, developing targeted messaging that resonates with your target audience, using the right channels to reach your customers, and measuring performance to optimize results over time.
Additionally, it is important to stay focused on the core values and mission of your brand, and to continually experiment with new ideas and strategies to stay ahead of the competition.
Brand Key Messaging Guidelines
There are several key guidelines that should be followed when developing brand messages. These may include identifying a unique selling proposition for your product or service, focusing on the benefits that your brand can provide to customers, highlighting any key differentiators or competitive advantages, and communicating your key value propositions in an engaging and compelling way.
Additionally, it is important to stay consistent with your messaging across all channels, and to always put the needs of your customers first in order to build lasting brand loyalty.
Brand Personality
Just as every individual has a personality, so does every brand. Note that this personality is often inherent, you don't pluck it out of thin air, it's something you probably are already living and breathing as a brand without even noticing it.
Think of human characteristics that you'd attach to your brand: Is the brand caring and loving? Maybe it's adventurous and likes its adrenaline being pumped.
Your brand personality is dependent on your brand core and is heavily influenced by the beliefs and values you hold close to your heart. When you are able to clearly define your personality, you'll be able to inject it into every aspect of your brand from the way employees are greeted on Monday mornings to what you put on your ads.
Read more here to find out how to discover your brand personality.
Brand Voice
A brand voice is how your brand speaks and sounds to the world. It represents your brand's unique personality and varies accordingly: motivational (Nike), empowering (Dove), energetic (Red Bull). Remember your target audience here and how they want to be spoken to.
Brand Tone
On the other hand, your brand tone depends on each situation and context. This can change with who you're talking to. While your brand voice may be energetic, you may use an excited tone on one person and a more muted yet encouraging tone on another. To define your brand tone, think about how you want to make people feel. Want them to feel at ease? Choose a brand tone like friendly, casual and playful.
3. Brand Identity System: The Visual Representation of Your Brand
The brand identity system encompasses the visual elements that represent a brand, such as logos, typography, colors, and shapes.
It is the aspect of branding that most people immediately associate with the terms “branding.”
While it is possible to dive into creating a brand identity system before developing a brand positioning and messaging, it is ideal to consider it as the final step in the branding process. It is the step that helps to tell your story in an authentic and compelling way.
This is where the brand is given a distinct face, voice, and personality that people can connect with and trust.
It is important to remember that designing a brand identity system is not about creating a visual representation for a brand, but for the people who will interact with the brand.
Designing a brand identity system can be an exciting process, but it is crucial to resist the temptation to overcomplicate the design.
Simple and memorable logos are often the most effective.
While subjective personal preferences can play a role in choosing typography and color, good design is informed by science.
For example, research has shown that color can influence brand perception and purchase intent.
This is why some brands go to great lengths to trademark specific brand colors, such as Christian Louboutin, Coca-Cola, and Tiffany & Co.
Customer Feedback in Your Brand Strategy Framework
One of the most overlooked but important parts of a brand strategy framework is customer feedback. This not only makes your brand more relevant and appealing but also builds stronger relationships with your target audience. Here’s how you can include customer feedback in your brand strategy.
Why Customer Feedback
Customer feedback gives you direct insight into how your audience sees your brand, products and services. It shows areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, a clear path to improvement. By seeking and including this feedback you can make sure your brand development strategy is aligned with your customer’s needs and expectations and therefore customer loyalty and retention.
How to Get Customer Feedback
Surveys and Questionnaires: Use online surveys to get quantitative and qualitative feedback from your target audience. Tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms make it easy to collect and analyse feedback.
Social Media Listening: Monitor your brand’s mentions and hashtags on social media to understand public opinion and common themes in customer feedback.
Customer Interviews: Interview a diverse group of customers one-on-one to get deeper insights into their experiences and preferences.
Feedback Forms: Add feedback forms to your website or at the end of purchase processes to capture immediate feedback.
Reviews and Testimonials: Analyse reviews on your website, social media and third-party sites like Yelp or Google Reviews to see what customers like and where to improve.
Feedback Analysis and Implementation
Once you have the feedback, the next step in the brand strategy process is to analyse it and extract actionable insights:
Categorise Feedback: Group feedback into categories like product quality, customer service, pricing and brand perception.
Identify Trends: Look for common themes and trends in the feedback to see what’s broken or what’s working well.
Prioritise Actions: Based on the analysis prioritise actions that will have the biggest impact on customer satisfaction and brand perception.
Develop Action Plans: Create specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) action plans to address the prioritised feedback.
Communicate Changes: Tell your customers what you’re changing based on their feedback. This shows you value their input and are committed to continuous improvement.
Examples of Feedback Changes
Product Updates: If customers are consistently asking for a feature you don’t have, add it in the next update.
Customer Service Improvements: If feedback shows customers are unhappy with customer service, invest in training for your support team and streamline your response processes.
Brand Messaging: If customers are confused about your brand’s value proposition, tweak your messaging to be clearer and more compelling.
Monitor and Iterate
Including customer feedback is an ongoing process. Monitor the impact of the changes you make and continue to gather feedback to ensure your brand strategy framework is working and relevant. This iterative approach will keep you ahead of the market and continuously improving your customer experience.
By integrating customer feedback into your brand strategy framework, you create a more responsive, customer-centric brand that is well-positioned for long-term success.
Your Brand Strategy Is Always A Work-In-Progress
Once you have your brand strategy in place, it's time to create brand guidelines to ensure consistency in how you look, what you say and how you act as a brand.
Of course, don't be afraid to make changes as you go along - a brand framework is a structure that should be periodically evaluated and improved on as your company grows.
Naturally, your brand strategy should not be a divine bible that stays unchanged. If you want to experience growth, you will need to be constantly evolving and the same goes for your brand strategy.
If all of this sounds overwhelming or is simply too much work to take on, consider getting help with a creative branding agency.
Follow our tips on how to decide if you need branding services, or you can give us a nudge and we'd be more than happy (see also: ECSTATIC!) to nudge you in the right direction.
Out of all the brand strategy agencies out there, we are the ones that care enough to go the extra mile for you and your business!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a brand framework?
A brand framework is a structured way of building, developing and managing a brand. It outlines the principles, methods and actions to create a strong, cohesive brand that aligns with business goals and resonates with your audience.
Why is a brand important?
A brand is important because it defines your brand identity, positioning and messaging. It ensures consistency across all touchpoints, builds customer loyalty and differentiates your brand in a crowded market.
What are the parts of a brand strategy?
The parts of a brand strategy are:
Brand Core: Your purpose, vision, mission and core values.
Brand Positioning: How you want to be seen in the market.
Brand Messaging: Key messages and value propositions.
Brand Personality, Voice and Tone: How your brand talks and interacts with its audience.
Brand Identity System: Visual elements like logos, colours and typography.
How do I write a brand positioning statement?
To write a brand positioning statement, identify your target audience, define your unique value proposition and articulate how you differ from competitors. This statement should capture the essence of what makes you unique and why customers should choose you.
What is brand messaging in a brand strategy?
Brand messaging is how you communicate your brand’s value and benefits to your audience. It’s your key messages, tagline and overall tone of voice. Good brand messaging means your audience understands and connects with your brand.
How do I ensure consistency in my brand communication?
Ensure consistency in brand communication by developing and following brand guidelines that cover your visual identity, messaging and tone of voice. Review and update these guidelines as your brand changes.
What is a brand identity system and why is it important?
A brand identity system is all the visual elements that represent your brand, like your logo, colour palette, typography and imagery. It’s important because it creates a consistent and recognisable brand image that builds trust and loyalty with your audience.
How do I measure my brand strategy?
Measure your brand strategy by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) like brand awareness, customer engagement, market share and customer loyalty. Review these metrics regularly to see how your strategy is working and make changes as needed.
Here are some very specific step by step branding guides for: Real Estate Branding, Law Firm Branding, Accounting Branding, Doctors and Health Branding, Dentists Practice Branding, Optometrists Branding, Jewellery Branding, Makeup & Beauty Branding, Skincare Branding, Pet Food Branding, Fashion Branding and Construction Branding.
Other Resources
Branding in a Box for Small Businesses