Have you ever been drawn to purchase from a specific business?
Perhaps you have positive feelings towards it after the company issued a no-hassle refund to you on your last purchase. Maybe you identify with their mission, or the business is top-of-mind due to their memorable logo and brand messaging.
All of these factors play a role in a company’s branding strategy. With the right branding strategy, a company can separate itself from the rest and stand out amongst competitors.
In this article, we’ll cover the 6 steps you need to complete in order to bring your brand to life. Before we dive in, let’s take a look at what exactly is a branding strategy?
What is a branding strategy?
A branding strategy is the way a business positions itself to convey its mission, purpose, and the solution it provides its customers.
The strategy is the approach the business takes in an attempt to convey to their consumers their core values and how they want to be represented in the market.
A proper branding strategy can result in an effective, memorable brand that customers love. It can be a core differentiator for the business and remain in the customers’ minds.
Effective branding strategies can pay off too. More than 86% of consumers consider a brand’s authenticity when deciding where to shop. That’s why it’s important to understand the reasons why you’re bringing your brand to life in a specific way.
A strong brand identity that your target audience loves is invaluable. An effective brand with the right visual identity will aid any marketing campaign. A consumer will be more likely to purchase from a successful brand with a memorable brand promise. Furthermore, presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%
Last year, brand strategy was the most vital marketing capability according to 33% of marketing leaders.
Why might that be? Well, it’s not the easiest thing to master. Executing a proper brand strategy takes a lot of work, and one small action can derail the entire process.
Thankfully, we’ve outlined the 6 essential steps you need to take in order to formulate your brand and bring it to life.
6 steps to bringing your brand to life
The proper branding strategy can set your company on a path to success.
Follow the steps below to create a brand that will resonate with customers in a meaningful and enriching way.
1. Define your objective
Without an objective, your brand won’t accomplish what you need it to do.
Start by establishing what you want your brand to represent. This will bring your mission into focus and channel it through your messaging and design.
Consider the following questions:
- Why did you create your company?
- What’s the mission behind your company?
- What do you want your customers to feel when your brand comes to mind?
- How will your brand be different from others in your space?
Consumers are starting to become loyal to brands that stand for something. In fact, over 64% of potential customers make purchasing decisions based on a brand’s social or political stances.
By understanding what your brand stands for, you’ll know when you need to insert your company into the cultural conversation.
To begin your branding strategy process, you should create a dashboard to get everyone on the same page. monday.com offers customizable planning templates that you can use to get started:
It can be overwhelming to face all the work you need to do when you’re getting started. Don’t worry. It’s important to consider how you’ll tackle this massive design undertaking.
As you sit down to think about what you’re trying to accomplish, you’ll position yourself better to bring that vision to life through your branding strategy process.
2. Understand customer pain points
To create a brand that resonates, you need to understand how your customers think.
Consider what your customers value and what they’re looking for in a company. If your product solves your customers’ biggest pain points, it should shine through your brand.
If your customers are looking for a quick and easy solution, you shouldn’t make your customer journey so cumbersome. If they’re in the market for a premium service, your logo and positioning should reflect that style.
By understanding what the customer is going through, you can better position your brand to connect with their pain points. They will look at your products as a solution.
Start mapping out your customer pain points and assign a “value” to each of them:
The value should be an all-encompassing word that acts as a bucket for the issue. You may see that similar pain points all point to the same value.
If so, that would be a worthwhile pillar for your brand.
3. Analyze competing brands
You don’t need to just have a show-stopping logo. You need to ensure it stands out when measured against other brands on the market.
Perform a competitive analysis to understand how your brand will fit into your competitive ecosystem.
This includes examining the pros and cons of the other brands currently in the market. In order for your brand to stand out, it has to be different from other brands in your industry.
You don’t want to copy another brand, whether it’s inadvertently or not. More than 86% of consumers consider authenticity a key factor when selecting a brand.
Conduct a competitive analysis in monday.com to visualize competing companies’ positioning strategies:
Use the insights from the competitive analysis to find a lane that your brand can own.
With these insights, you can see exactly where your brand will be able to shine in the market.
4. Master the right tone in your brand messaging
Now that you have the data, you can head in the right direction.
It’s time to start formulating your messaging. Your copy and messaging should all be written with a similar tone in mind.
Is your brand sharp and witty? Perhaps you’re casual and approachable. Consider how you want to interact with your customers. What personality will your brand have?
Your brand will come to life through your copy. This is what your customers will be consuming. It is a primary element that will distinguish your brand from others.
To strike the right tone for your brand, you should gather inspiration from other brands, media sites, podcasts, compositions, and more.Compile them in monday.com’s inspiration and resources board:
You can review this along the way of your brand development. It will serve as a powerful resource as your tone and brand voice evolves.
5. Establish colors and design elements
One of the biggest components of a brand is the visual design. There are so many design elements to consider when establishing your brand. These include:
- Color
- Iconography
- Fonts
- Image Styles (Illustrations vs. Photos)
Sometimes when people think of a company’s brand, they think of the logo. Although a brand is much more than simply a logo, it is still a critical component.
Design elements are often the most memorable for consumers. These can be consequential decisions in your branding strategy process. Companies that heavily use a specific color in their branding can increase recognition by 80%. When you make your own logo, think of how the design can boost brand recognition.
Since there are so many different elements to design, consider assigning projects to different members of your team or contractors.
You can use one of monday.com’s project management workspaces to accomplish this:
Visual design production can sometimes take a while, but a project management workspace can help everyone stay on track.
6. Test, analyze, and finalize your brand
With all your brand elements in place, it’s time to test, analyze, and finalize your brand.
It’s important to gather feedback from existing customers to understand how your brand is interpreted in the market. This can help you make final tweaks before publishing your brand.
You don’t want to create a brand that doesn’t resonate with customers. How customers think about your company contributes to your overall brand.
Expose your brand to current customers and a controlled group who has never even heard of your brand before. This will allow you to collect unbiased data.
Use monday.com’s data collection forms to gather feedback about your brand:
Once you have the data, you can make any pertinent changes and bring your brand to market.
Getting it right
Effective branding strategies can only be deployed if the entire team is concentrated on a singular goal.
Everyone needs to do their part and follow the proper steps in order to take your positioning statements and mission and bring it to life through your brand.
By having a branding strategy in place, you can use data to inform your brand and ensure you’re taking all the proper steps to make an impact on your customers.
Bring your brand strategy to life with monday.com. Ensure that your team stays on track, deadlines are met, and your brand rolls out successfully. Sign up today.
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