What is brand strategy?
What is brand strategy? A clear definition to help you become a better brand strategist.
Brand strategy is a platform that bridges business strategy with branding & marketing.
(Don’t feel like reading? Here’s the video version below)
A couple of important aspects here:
Bridges: It's a 2 way street between business strategy and branding/marketing. It's not just a 'translation' of business goals into marketing or branding (for my definition on branding, click here), it's a bridge. A lot of times, marketing feedback bleeds back into the business strategy and can even inspire new business. Understanding your consumer might give you insights to develop new products that eventually define your business strategy.
It's a platform for branding & marketing. A platform is something to build off, it's supportive of both disciplines and gives them a long-term perspective. Marketing looks at brand strategy as a starting point for new ideas, customer insights, advertising ideas and more. It also feeds back information into the business. Branding also builds on the same platform, giving marketing a recognizable face and being consistent without being boring.
Business strategy: Business strategy is really important for any business. It’s understanding what market you are in, what pricing model you have, how you are going to turn a profit, what competetive advantages you have and how you are going to deal with competitors as a business (and a lot more). Usually, organisations that have been around for a while have a more defined business strategy then start-ups.
Marketing: Marketing and branding are not the same. Marketing is related to the four P’s: price, promotion, product and place. In a lot of cases, people tend to see marketing only through the lens of the ‘promotion’ P, while in reality it’s a balancing act between all four. Advertising is part of the promotion P for example.
If you are interested in learning more about the value of brand strategy, check out this article.
