11 Components of a Killer Brand Strategy
Many companies see a brand in terms of its tagline, logo or other superficial things, but a true brand is always far more than that. A true brand can be recognized by its far-reaching strategies. A strategic plan is the most important thing in any organization, and you can’t come up with that plan out of nowhere. You must keep in mind certain things and the most important among them is the insightful assessment by your team, customers and the market as a whole. Finally, combining these insights into a useful strategy.
We asked experts in assorted marketing companies and consolidated the data into this list of 11 components that are essential in any killer brand strategy.
- Competition
Competition is the most important thing in marketing. In order to advance in business, one must have a clear idea of who their competitors are. If a company is unaware of its competitors, it is not going to advance significantly, let alone outperform others. The first step is identifying them and the second step is learning from them. You can learn much more from your competitors than you think.
You can only promote your brand if you are able to heighten its essence from the maddening crowd. You need to convince people that it is a unique thing.
- The Question – Why?
“Why” is the most important question that any company can consider if it wants to progress. A company must think initially about why customers would be interested in their products and/or services instead of choosing another business. If you think about the entire “Why” question, you will be better able to understand your own company and you will, consequently, be successful in promoting your brand.
- Brand Architecture
Generally, brand architecture is a vast term, but here we are taking into consideration how your brand fits in the overall brand portfolio. The brand architecture involves your product developing strategies and how compatible they will be with the overall brand.
- Creative Elements
The inclusion of creative elements in the development and promotion of your product will make it unique. The creative elements (brand imagery) include things like typography, imagery, verbal tone, logo, and palette, etc. All these creative elements will ensure the uniqueness of your brand, raising it above the crowd.
- Position in the Consumer’s Mind
You must also take into account what position you occupy in the potential consumer’s mind. The idea behind your product is actually the position, and you must make sure that you are reaching them correctly.
- Promise
Relationships are built on promises and so are businesses. If you honestly promise your customers something, you shouldn’t refrain from that because it will ruin your reputation. Give customers what they expect.
- Reasons to Believe
Whatever strategy you use for the promotion of your product, it should never be an abstract one. Instead, you should build your strategies on practical grounds which will convince the consumers rationally. Avoid making consumers victims of your emotional arguments.
- Market Opportunity
Nothing flourishes without an opportunity and marketing is not an exception. Opportunity isn’t taken here in its literal or conventional sense; as someone will knock on your door with established business, and all you have to do is own that; it’s quite the opposite. The opportunity here means research.
No business can prosper without initially finding the empty spaces which it can cover. If you are offering something to the public which they already have, why would they buy your product. You should focus on the areas which you think are capable or worthy enough to give you some opportunity. For instance, if you make a cosmetics factory in a country where people are dying of hunger, do not expect your business to prosper.
Opportunity is something that can be synonymous with extensive initial research. All you have to do is find this opportunity and see your business prosper.
- Customers’ Insights
Companies hire professionals solely for the purpose of expert opinions and insightful remarks that they can use to make their products/services better. These professional experts are not the best option you can rely on. These experts may know all the theoretical details regarding any specific product, but it is highly unlikely that they would be aware of the practical impacts of any product on customers.
Only customers can give you the best possible insightful remarks and opinions. This is not to say that you should abandon the expert opinion altogether; expert opinions, when combined with the practical insights of customers, are much better than solely relying on theoretical implications.
Knowing customer opinion might be difficult, but it is not impossible. You can conduct surveys to know whether customers are satisfied or not, and what changes they suggest to improve your brand.
- Key Messages, Campaigns, and Stories
No matter how good your brand is, it isn’t going to hit the market unless people know about it, and this is where you have to create messages, campaigns, and stories. Key messages explain the nature of your product and the “why” which is it necessary for consumers. Key messages should be developed in a way that after knowing them people should find themselves easily able to find and own the products.
A brand campaign is something that we also call advertising. There are subtle ways of advertising which can be developed and important among them are social media campaigns. You should advertise your products/services on social media to get maximum attraction from customers.
You can also inspire people to buy your products/services by telling them the motivational reasons behind the development of your product.
- Personality
By many business experts, the personality of the company employees is the most effective thing that can really affect the consumption of any brand. Apart from the personality of individual employees, the reputation of the company as a whole also matters.
It is obvious that you will have to hire campaign experts for the promotion of your brand; whether these experts are humorous or serious will affect your brand.
Guest blog by Lisa Myers, software engineer at Rebates Zone.