What is brand strategy?

If you plan to build a recognizable brand in your industry, your business must be able to effectively communicate the promises and experiences that consumers will benefit from when they purchase your business’s product or service.

The business must be able to communicate this through any interactions that the consumer will have with the product both physically and visually. As a business, you want to control the perception of your brand as much as possible. The reputation that your brand has with customers will either raise or diminish the perceived value of your business’s products or services, which will further impact the price that customers are willing to pay.

A brand strategy guarantees control over the perceived value of your business’s products and services. It is one of the most important factors for improving the performance of your business.

Why do businesses need to implement a brand strategy?

Adding brand value to your business’s product or service removes any association of your product being perceived as a commodity. When consumers can distinguish the features and benefits that differentiates what the business offers from other competitors in the market, they are able to assign a brand value to the product or service that is being sold to them.

Developing the value of your brand will help consumers understand exactly what your brand is about.

How can a brand strategy add value to a business?

Branding creates price elasticity, which means the business can have more control over the price for products and services in the market, rather than in a commoditized market where the market will lower force businesses to lower their price due to similar brand offerings in the market.

The more the business can create a unique selling proposition (USP) to differentiate their brand offering in their market, the more price elasticity they can leverage, which means the business can sell their products or services at a higher price and earn higher profits.

What steps should businesses take to build a successful brand?

A strong Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The business, products, services, interactions, fulfillment, and experiences must be unique to the demands of the consumer in your market. The unique selling proposition that you pitch will create trust with your brand.

The questions that your business needs to answer are:

• What do you want your business to be known for?
• Will your business effectively communicate that throughout all areas in the business?
• How do you want people to be feeling when they interact with your business?

A few approaches to brand positioning include:

• Quality
• Price
• Experience
• Convenience

Salesman Elmer Wheeler summarized selling the USP in his famous “Sell the sizzle” approach, which can be seen in the video below.

Source: Video

Communicate your brand’s message effectively.

A business must be able to effectively communicate what the brand offers and promises. A well-crafted brand message will pitch the business’s promise to the consumer whenever they interact with the brand. This includes when they see any visuals, hear or see any mentions, and when they physically engage with any of the brand experiences promoted by the business.

Once the core message has been crafted for the targeted audiences, the perception of the brand must be managed. Business must manage the use of visuals, logos, designs, and experiences to maintain the brand value.

The business needs to establish brand guidelines and processes to ensure that there is consistency across these areas of the business.

Serial entrepreneur Mike Harris explains his experience behind communicating a brand’s message effectively.

Below are a few steps that a business can take to communicate their brand effectively.

• Use images that are consistent with core message that the business wants to communicate.
• Consistently use visuals and designs that will allow consumers to easily recognize the products and services offered by the brand. This includes the use of color palettes, logos, and product designs.
• Effectively manage the communication channels used to connect the brand with consumers.
• Ensure that processes across your business’s technology, assets, staff, and resources are consistent with the experiences and promises offered by the business’s brand.

If you would like to learn more about how a brand strategy can help your business, get in touch with the LLT Group team today.

Image credit: Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay