BUT, LIKE, WHAT EVEN IS BRAND STRATEGY?

You’re here because you are dying to know about this thing we call Brand Strategy. MIRITE?? If you aren’t, then you should be, because a brand without brand strategy is like a plant without water (and plants without water are not cute, trust me).

Okay, let’s get to it. A brand strategy dictates every interaction that your brand has with the outside world so that your brand (and therefore your message) is consistent across the board. Creative is important (colors, logos), but brand strategy is what brings the creative to life, crafting a multi-faceted, living, breathing brand. Besides the obvious, why do you need it? Because the better your brand strategy, the better positioned and differentiated you are in the marketplace and the more likely you are to kick some competitor butt. Are you ready for that? Sweet. Here are the key elements of brand strategy that you need to know.

CREATING BRAND STRATEGY:
CHANNEL THE PINK GOLDFISH AND THE CHILDREN.

Purpose/Why

Small children may actually be onto something when they ask “why” over and over. As Simon Sinek (he has a Ted Talk so he’s pretty legit) says “…people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”. Your purpose, or your “why” is the soul behind your brand and therefore the most important question that you need to answer when creating a brand strategy. Don’t let it come as a surprise that it is also the hardest (but we got you).

Experience

In order to reel in customers and keep them coming back, you need to make sure that they have a positive, uniform experience with your brand across all platforms and touchpoints. Carefully determine what you want that experience to be and do not waver. Don’t you do it!

Personality

Step one: buy a goldfish and dye it pink. Kidding. Don’t do that because it’s fish cruelty and won’t help your brand. Take two. You know how I said earlier that a great brand strategy creates a living, breathing, human brand? Okay so this is the part where you start to create one; cracking voice and imperfections included (but no batteries). Real brand imperfections translate into authenticity which people relate to. Not to mention, a healthy love for your brand’s (very human) flaws helps it stand out as a pink goldfish amongst all of those orange goldfish competitors. Stan Phelps says it best in his book: Pink Goldfish.

Consistency

Without consistency, your brand is all over the place and therefore difficult for customers to remember and to care about. What do you ask yourself before you leave your house? “Keys, wallet, phone?” That was predictable but this is similar. Before you do anything customer facing (and I mean ANYTHING) and close that metaphorical door forever, ask yourself “is this on-brand?” If not, run right back through the door—quickly.

Emotion

Feel-good warm fuzzies. Sunny days. Dessert (if you don’t have a sweet tooth, I don’t know what to say).  Laughter. Whatever it is, make sure that the feelings that your brand brings up are positive because when your customer has a bad day, they just might decide to look to your company for some good vibes. You feel me?

Loyalty

Besides dogs and their unconditional (and often entirely unwarranted if you ask me) love for their humans, other relationships need, well, a lot more work to maintain/create loyalty. Make sure to show your customers (new and old) what they mean to you! Find a way to give something back in thanks for all of the hard-earned moolah that they spend on your product. People love to feel appreciated so get a loyalty program, or something similar, rolling.

Values

Just like all good ol’ humans, your brand needs to have beliefs and values that help guide it through the ups and downs of life as a business. This one is serious because without values, we would all go cray and the same goes for your brand. This could be standing up for a cause or just enacting your values within your company—you pick.

Employee Activism

We’ve allll had it happen to us. You love a brand and then you call customer service and the experience is awful. Not surprisingly, a breakup ensues. Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure that your employees believe in your brand and are motivated to represent it well so that every experience that your customer has is a good one. After all, everyone hates breakups.
BRANDS GET TO PLAY DRESS-UP TOO.

Get it? Got it? Or you’re starting to, right? Basically, brands are a lot like people. They have feelings (or evoke them in others), values, and personality and you want to make sure to get them right from the get-go. If you’ve read this whole thing but your brand still isn’t’ standing up and walking out the door, give LunaBird a call (or text or DM or send a letter if that’s your thing). Still want to know more? What’s that? You love this blog? Next we will discuss another part of Brand Development– Brand Identity. This is all I will say until next time: a logo is not a brand. Ciao!