brand strategy: essence, stages and key components

Apple wouldn’t sell sold over 200 million iPhones annually because of the well-known bitten apple on the logo, and Starbucks couldn't build a network of 30 thousand outlets in 75 countries just due to mistakes in the names on the cups. We associate such features with the largest companies, and the secret of their success is in the right brand strategy, which goes far beyond the development of a name, logo, and slogan.

It's the identity of our business, its character, its history, its values: anything that makes us unique, memorable and evokes emotion in the audience. Let's dive into the world of good brand strategy, with which your company will navigate its way to customer trust, recognition and success.

What is brand strategy?

Brand strategy is a long process of forming a business's image, which makes it attractive to the target audience. Unlike companies that operate without a clear style and positioning, brands establish an emotional connection with customers, build trusting relationships, firmly occupy their market niche and constantly expand it.

Building a brand creates the added value of the business – what our customers will get, in addition to the products themselves. With Apple, we gain status, with Nike – dedication and energy, with Mercedes – quality and reliability.

In simple terms, a brand is a harmonious combination of the visual and verbal components of our company. Name, logo, slogan, values and mission, design of the website and store, style of communication with customers in social networks, by phone, in physical branches – everything that is included in brand strategy, we lead to a single concept.

For example, we are a law firm and position ourselves as a serious and reliable company. Memes slip through the site, albeit thematic, and managers allow an informal tone in telephone conversations — we will not be able to build an emotional connection with customers and convince them of our professionalism.

But brand promotion is not only about beautiful design and an attractive story. It is not enough for us to talk about our values in words — only by the actions of our brand the audience will be able to understand us and feel us.

A simple example: if we declare that the convenience of customers is in the first place for us, but it is impossible to find the necessary sections on the site, and applications are processed for several days, then there will be no trust in us.

Why does it matter?

Do we need brand strategy? If we want to have a clear position in the market, stand out from competitors and gather interested and active regular customers around us – definitely yes! Let's look at 5 reasons why brand strategy is important for business.

1. Recognition. A well-developed logo, well-thought-out visual identity, website and packaging design are stored in the client's memory. Even if he forgets the name, he will easily find our products on the shelves of the supermarket, pay attention to a store in the city, subscribe to social networks, and see an account designed in a familiar style in the recommendations.

2. Competitiveness. Brand strategy creates features that will attract customers and be associated with our company.

3. Increased audience satisfaction. Our customers don't just buy quality products or use the services of professionals – they also get emotional pleasure. For example, by ordering a perfume from Chanel, we enjoy not only their aroma, but also the purchase of an expensive status thing.

4. Advertising effectiveness. After we develop a brand, your customers will promote you better than advertising campaigns — they will tell their friends and acquaintances, share their impressions on social networks, use branded items, and attract the attention of others. A glass that changes color when you pour a drink went viral on social media - it boosted sales better than any advertising campaign.

5. Formation of an initiative staff. A strong brand attracts not only customers, but also employees who share the company's values and are focused on results. It shows that working with us is prestigious, we respect the staff and give everyone the opportunity for professional self-realization.

Brand strategy elements

The basis of brand strategy is a brand core. On it, we build a visual that is responsible for the external perception of the company, and a verbal system — the "nature" of the business that we will show to customers.

Brand core

A brand core is the foundation on which brand architecture and positioning are built. It reflects the main idea and philosophy of the business, its global goal. Therefore, before coming up with a brand, we conduct research that forms the platform. Let's think about why we started our business, what we want to bring to the world, how do we make the life of our audience better?

Let's figure out how to develop a brand and consider the following components:

1. — the essence of the brand: a short life goal of the company, for example, Ford makes vehicles safe and affordable;
2. — values: principles and beliefs that match the views and ideals of the target audience and employees of the company, the direction of the advertising strategy and brand positioning depends on them, for example, the Sportmaster network has a team spirit and a desire for self-improvement and reaching the top;
3. — mission: the main task of the business, by fulfilling which it makes the world a better place, for example, Kaspersky protects personal space on the Internet and takes care of cybersecurity;
4. — positioning: the determination of a place in the market, a point of detachment from competitors, thanks to which we establish an emotional connection with customers;
5. — segmentation of the target audience: groups of potential customers, with a focus on which key messages will be built;
6. — an archetype: one of the 12 brand character types that reflect a company's values and ideals, such as M&Ms as "simple-minded," Nike as "hero," and Wikipedia as "sage."

Visual system

The visual component includes the following components.

1. A logo is a unique, memorable element that briefly reflects the essence of our company. Examples are the famous Apple apple, the recognizable Lacoste crocodile, and the minimalistic letter "M" at McDonald's.

2. Corporate colors are a palette that will be used in all design elements. In terms of psychology, the color fits our company's activities: for example, black and gold for premium products, blue for sporting goods.

3. Typography is a font solution that we will use in the design. The choice depends on what idea our brand carries - if it wants to inspire trust, you can use a handwritten font, like Ford, emphasize modernity - sans serif, like Gucci.

4. Corporate elements are patterns and iconography that are applied to all branded products and make them recognizable. They are easily integrated into advertising elements, website design, and social media profiles.

5. Branded media are printed flyers, business cards, outdoor advertising, banners for online promotion, branded merch which are in line with the corporate identity. Web design elements are the online face of our company. It forms the first impression of online visitors, introduces the brand and answers visitors' questions ("what do you sell?", "how do you deliver?", "where can I read reviews?", etc.). A good website is easy to navigate, informative and designed in a general style.

Verbal system

The verbal component of brand strategy includes:

The name is the basis of the brand. It is memorable, easy to pronounce and spell, unique and not registered as a trademark by other companies. It can be associated with business activities - for example, the Sportmaster chain of stores sells sportswear and equipment, Burger King specializes in the production of burgers. They often do without it - Apple echoes the "apple" logo, Tinkoff is a modified surname of the creator.

2. A slogan is a catchy phrase that briefly introduces the company. She is creative, positive, and unique. Here are examples of slogans that have brought brands worldwide fame: "Just do it" for Nike, "I'm lovin' it" for McDonald's, "Connecting people" for Nokia.

3. Tone of Voice is a style of dialogue with the target audience, which we will broadcast through all key messages. It can be traced in advertising, on the website, in social networks, and in the style of communication between employees and customers.

4. Editorial policy is a regulation that defines the standards and capabilities of Tone of Voice.

Stages of creating a brand

Building a company's brand takes a lot of time. You can order brand strategy in an agency - it is always developed together with the client, since only you know your business best of all, it is your developments that will make your brand strategy successful and reflect its true spirit.

We write down all our thoughts and ideas, record our reasoning, and save the references of the elements we like. We will look at how to create a company brand from individual elements and how to come to the ideal concept step by step.

1. Investigations. Conduct research of the product, market, competitors, find out who our target audience is and how it can be interesting. We do not limit ourselves to general formulations in the style of "young people love everything technological and progressive, and the older generation is conservative and reliable". Immerse ourselves in the atmosphere in which your potential customers live.

Analyze the brand strategy of other companies in the niche - thanks to this, we will not make a mistake and will not "steal" someone else's idea, protected by copyright. Let's delve into our advantages over competitors — they can be used as a point of detuning and highlighting our own uniqueness.

2. Brand core. Based on the research, we determine how to create a brand concept — we think over its essence, values, mission, market positioning, you can add the history of the company's creation, the personality of its owner.

3. Visual system. Now that we have decided on the nature of the brand, we need to back it up with a memorable design. The logo should be well recognizable, look harmonious at any scale and not have offensive connotations. The simpler the image, the better – ideally, even a child can repeat it.

To choose a shade, study the psychology of color — for example, blue is suitable for medical institutions, green — for healthy lifestyle products and ecology, orange — for food and entertainment. Don't use unpleasant combinations like bright red with acid green or olive with brown.

4. Verbal system. At this stage of brand development , we think over the naming, slogan and style of communication. We approach the name seriously – we need to check that it is not occupied by anyone, easy to pronounce and remember, and does not cause negative associations. The name of the company is most strongly associated with it, it is very difficult to change it in the process of rebrand strategy.

Examples of failed naming are water called "Blue Water" on the Russian market or Chevrolet Nova cars in Spanish, where "no va" means "does not go". Think through the slogan and the style of communication with the audience.

5. Brand guideline. All information needs to be collected in a single document — it will be used by marketers and designers when promoting. There we fix the system of all brand attributes, identity, and verbal components.

So, brand strategy is the process of creating a company's image in all spheres of its manifestation on the basis of an in-depth study of the business area, its target audience, products and competitors. Its goal is to form a brand image that makes it attractive to the target audience, that is, potential customers, partners, employees.

Brand strategy is a combination of all visual elements, naming, key message, positioning, mission and values that fit into the concept of business and complement each other, creating the "character" of the brand. With its help, we make the business unique, stand out from competitors, attract active employees and interested customers to the company.

Good brand strategy cannot be developed quickly, but the investment of time and money will pay off. Now you know how to create your brand and what the secret of business success is — to go from a company that just sells products or services to a brand that gives its audience emotions and has its own mission.