Instead of asking “who has what I need”, I’m learning to ask, “who needs what I have”. ~ Pastor Denvil Lee
Brand Strategy
Brand Strategy is part of good business planning.
In the beginning, there are visions and dreams. If you are serious about them, they will eventually define your mission and plan. “Who needs what I have?” is a good question to ask in this process. The answer will spell your purpose, your values, and the identity of your venture. It will also help you visualize the first avatar of your potential customer.
The 7 Elements of Branding, I wrote about before, define the way you will show up in the marketplace. They will form the aesthetics of your Brand Design Kit. But before you ask a designer to create this kit for you – you need to have a strategy.
A well-defined purpose is necessary to select the matching graphics, colors, and even tone of voice. Don’t miss that concept: your Brand Strategy defines your Brand Design.
Finally, once you have decided what will represent your venture best – you need to stick to it. Assemble your Brand Guidelines. These Guidelines need to be clearly recorded and followed. This consistency is the only way to be RECOGNIZED, REMEMBERED, and one day – RESPECTED.
The Big Guys have well-trained marketing teams to help with the process. If you are a solopreneur, I prepared a basic outline of the tasks with a few prompts and ideas. I hope you find them useful.
Forming Brand Strategy
1. Your Business Overview and Mission Statement
Remember the “Who needs what I have?” question and write a Business Overview following these prompts:
- What we do,
- Whom we serve,
- Why it is important,
- What makes us unique
This overview will define your company identity and serve as a base for a Mission Statement. Think it through and revise. This Mission Statement will show up in your business plan, on your website, in social media profiles, and in many future presentations so needs to be clear and well-written. Prepare a few versions. On the website, you can present a more detailed and elaborate version. Social media profiles will limit you to a certain number of characters. Edit accordingly. Also, for every online presence make sure to incorporate keywords: words and phrases that will help the search engines to put your statement in front of the right readers.
I am old-fashioned. I still remember times when people interacted in person for networking. Once upon a time, we used a version of such a statement that was called an Elevator Pitch. If you are curious click on the link to read more about it. You can find there also a few more tips on writing one.
2. Core Values and Guiding Principles
Core values are the fundamental beliefs and principles that guide the behavior, decisions, and actions of an organization or community. They serve as the moral compass and define the identity, character, and culture of the group. They will influence future decision-making, interactions, and the overall personality and culture of your company.
These are a few examples of basic values and principles:
- Community Building
- Sustainability
- Environmental Stewardship
- Education
- Health and Well-being
- Community Outreach
Obviously, your values will be aligned with your activities. Take time and start listing as many as you can think of. Later you will select the most important.
4. How We Do It?
Follow the core values you just listed with a description and a framework of specific practices. Create an action plan with your values as the moral compass. It will define the character and culture of your group.
5. Brand Statement
The one sentence that explains it all.
Who you serve, what you offer, and why it is special. I am always in awe when I see the best. Do you remember how in 2001 the iPad was introduced to the market?
1000 Songs in Your Pocket.
These five words changed the world.
Even though none of us really had the 1000 songs that we liked – we felt inspired and certainly ready to buy this new device. It was just brilliant!
And this is the kind of statement you are looking for.
6. Brand Story
We may be fascinated with AI right now, but humans want to connect with other humans. They will not care how much you know until they know how much you care. Sometimes a story from the past will inspire the creation of a company. Other times building a company creates stories. Many of them are worth sharing. Use the prompt below, and previously agreed-upon values and guiding principles when writing a story that you would like to share.
PROMPT: A character … With a problem … Meets a guide … Who provides a plan … And calls to action … That helps with the problem … And ends with success.
Time To Call A Designer
Finally, it is time to work on the elements that will form your Brand Design Kit: logo, color palette, fonts, illustration style, tone of voice, patterns, and layouts. Being a graphic designer by trade these were the first components of branding I was writing about. Visit my blog: Branding Elements to read it.
Later, I realized that I missed what was very important: no design would stand the test of time without the mission and vision behind it. Hence, the blog you are reading right now.
Remember: every time you build, create, or publish something without a defined brand design and behavior, you waste a chance to build your brand authority. So, STOP and spend some time creating your Brand Guidance Kit.
To help with this I began building in my Etsy store simple Brand Guidelines Templates.
The one already published and available for purchase: is the Community Garden Brand Guidelines. You can follow this outline even if you are NOT A GARDENER. It contains instructions and prompts that are suitable for any small business. It is created in a free Canva.
Marketing Assets Library
This is the last, but very important tip. In the past, when working on some design projects I wasted a ton of time searching for the so-called creative assets.
Designing brand elements takes time, so don’t forget to record them in one place. Create a Marketing Assets Library: an assembly of files that will contain:
- A document with all versions of your mission statement.
- All basic information that needs to show up on a regular basis in your publications (phone numbers, e-mails, hours of operation, and so on)
- Files with your logo and its versions in any format that can be useful.
- The files with your fonts and the style sheets.
- Names and numbers of your colors.
- Templates of your stationery: letterhead, envelopes, thank you notes, business cards, and so on.
- Other graphics and photography used by your brand: headshots, textures, symbols, icons, and mockups.
- Pictures library. If you take your own pictures catalog them. If you’re buying stock photos – document the purchase. If you are sharing free photos of others, remember to make a note, and give the due credit.
It may seem like a lot to do. Believe me, the time you spend on filing out all the assets when they are gathered or generated would be a fraction of the time wasted if you search for them when lost. Or even worse – creating or buying them again.
Share this library with all marketing services working on behalf of your company and make sure they know to stick to all the guidance. Otherwise, your branding will be diluted by the ideas and aesthetics of every new person helping you out in the future.
Remember: all your branding elements are called “assets” for a reason: like any other tangible component of your company, they do add to its value.
I hope you find my tips useful. If you think I missed something important on the topic of Brand Strategy again – please let me know in the comments.