By definition, brand strategy is a long-term plan for the development of a successful brand in order to achieve specific goals. A well-defined and executed brand strategy affects all aspects of a business and is directly connected to consumer needs, emotions, and competitive environments.
Goal Definition
As you develop a brand strategy, it helps to start at the beginning. In other words, begin by setting your business goals. Why are you creating a new brand? What do you hope to achieve by launching the new brand? Use those long-term objectives as a basis for all of your strategic branding efforts.
For example, are you trying to reach a new audience? Your brand strategy for achieving that goal is likely to be quite different from a business that wants to steal market share from a category leader, and that’s why goal definition is a fundamental starting point for any brand strategy. The first question you have to answer is, “Why?”
Avoid the Short-Term Trap short-term trapIt’s easy to get caught up in the short-term activities and tactics that drive business today, but when it comes to building a brand, that’s a big mistake. Brands aren’t built overnight, so your brand strategy shouldn’t be focused on short-term tactics but rather on long-term goals and sustainable growth.
Admittedly, it’s hard to stay strategic when executives are weighed down by data and demand measurable growth and positive ROI right now. The best brand leaders, however, fight against short-term focus, because they know being short-sighted is a brand killer.
Thomson Dawson, Managing Partner of PULL Brand Innovation described this problem well in an article written for Branding Strategy Insider earlier this year. He wrote:
“Brand managers and agency account planners are tactics driven. That’s because 80% of the daily processes within marketing departments and ad agencies are based in project management. Creative Briefs tend to be control documents, rather than a forum for