Basics of brand strategy proces

The First Fundamental Mistake in Brand Analysis

One of the primary mistakes when analyzing brand concepts, products, and advertisements by owners and their teams is their approach to evaluation. We often ask ourselves, "Would I like this?", and we consult our spouse, grandfather, colleague, or brother for their opinion, neglecting the most crucial detail: Are they part of our customer group?

Considering the many components that constitute a product, brand, or advertisement, it's easy to overlook this. The best way to avoid these mistakes is by implementing a process called brand strategy development.

"People don't buy products and services. They buy relationships, stories, and magic." — Seth Godin

What is Brand Strategy and What Will You Learn From It?

1. Know Your Recipients: You'll understand who they are, how they communicate, how they perceive messages, what they pay attention to, and what might repel them. You'll also determine who they are, where they are, and get ideas on how to reach them.
2. Understand Your Market Position: You'll see where your brand stands in the market, where your direct and indirect competitors are, and how they operate. This will help you identify your strengths, allowing you to conquer the market.
3. Understand Your Brand: You'll determine exactly what your brand is and establish its foundations, beliefs, and values.
4. Find Your Brand's Personality: You'll learn how it should be perceived, how it should communicate, and how it should speak to be noticed.
5. Build Basic Communication Concepts: This will not only allow you to efficiently launch an advertising campaign or website construction but also extract the essence that will identify your brand and products in a few words.

Why You Need a Strategy

A lack of a systematic strategy results in random decisions in actions, which have random effects. Without executing a plan, you often go through processes several times before realizing they don't work. The mere "testing" is based more on the current moment and idea than on strong foundations. Research, testing, implementation, and accurate elimination of incorrect assumptions will generate more costs than the time spent building a solid strategy foundation.

If you've ever looked at an advertising campaign and wondered how they did it, why everything there plays together, the slogans are inventive and surprising, and the branding is presented in a visually pleasing manner without "screaming" a large logo everywhere, it's all about preparation and strategy. You can't come up with such things by accident.

Basics

• Who Are You Selling To?: Determining who your customer is will help you define the communication method, choice of words, images, colors, locations, and what they want to see.
• Who Is Your Competition?: With whom do you share the market, and who, despite similarities in operation, is entirely opposite? This will help you see what sets you apart, the similarities between your competition, and how you can use this knowledge or adjust your actions.

Constructing Brand Theory and Its Communication Basics

• The Heart of Your Brand (Brand Heart): A good brand believes in principles set by itself. This ensures consistent action and focus on specific pillars of activity. This matters both for sales and for acquiring the right team. Elements include:
  • Purpose: Why you exist
  • Vision: The future you aim to help create and how
  • Mission: Your goal and the future you want to establish
  • Values: The principles guiding you
• Brand Personality: It's essentially a character (just like a human's). Is your brand enthusiastic? Reserved and refined? Curious about discoveries and novelties or focused on classics? This element influences many communication aspects, such as product descriptions, packaging appearance, or direct customer communication.
• Brand Voice: The way your brand speaks. The words, phrases, slang, and jokes you use convey your identity both directly and indirectly. Consider how you want to speak and how your customers want to speak to you. Additionally, the "Tone" is your attitude. The tone in which you communicate is modeled in the way you want people to feel when they hear it. For example, Uber defines its tone as: Optimistic, inviting, bold.

Message

• Brand Messaging: Identify your message pillars. These are the key stories you want to tell about your brand, what makes you unique and different. Every content you create should reinforce these main messages at all touchpoints.
• Value Proposition: Your value proposition is a concise explanation of both the functional and emotional benefits your product or service brings to customers. It's not just who you are and what you do differently, but also how you solve their problem and why they should choose you over competitors.
• Tag Line: Your tagline is a sentence, phrase, or word used to summarize your market position.