BRAND
STRATEGY

Brand strategies are essential for driving business sales as they build brand recognition, trust, and loyalty. A well-defined brand strategy differentiates a business from its competitors, creating a unique identity and value proposition. Consistent branding across various touchpoints, such as logos, taglines, and messaging, enhances brand recognition and recall. A strong brand presence instills confidence in customers, increasing their trust and likelihood of making a purchase.

Brand loyalty encourages repeat business and customer advocacy, amplifying sales through word-of-mouth referrals. Effective brand strategies also align marketing efforts, improving targeting, messaging, and customer experience, ultimately driving sales by attracting, converting, and retaining customers

Some of the topics covered within a Brand Strategy may seem rather abstract and you could end up feeling like your trying to catch a ball while blindfolded. Most Small to Medium Enterprise business owners are hard-coded to only focusing on the inner workings of their products and services. They dump a list of features onto the reader but never clearly show value or uniqueness. If their product looks like everyone else’s, then the market would only compare them on a cost basis, eventually ending in a price war. A Brand Strategy involves discovering the intangible, the feeling that your market should experience when thinking of you.

Businesses deal with people and emotion is a key aspect in their buying decisions. These clients may or may not understand the technical side of what you offer, but they trust their gut. Make sure to address their concerns, their needs and the final outcome that they desire. The products and services that you offer are only tools to the greater outcome that they desire. A Brand Strategy allows you to understand the value that you offer and allows you to communicate it clearly to those that matter.

We will send you the Brand Strategy document which includes a few specific questions about your company. The questions also include examples of answers so that you know what we expect. It gives you time to share the document with colleagues, mull it over and get to grips with the terminology. You then send a completed version of that document to us and then we will add our comments and questions. It’s a conversational document, so don’t overthink your answers.

During this exploration phase the document may change hands two to five times until we have a good understanding of your marketing situation. We may call you or set up an online meeting to go through the document to finalise it.

You will then receive the final version of the Brand Strategy. We will also share that document with our team since it would affect the corporate identity and copywriting for content during marketing.

It is advisable to review your brand strategy regularly, especially when there are significant market changes or shifts in business objectives. As your company evolves, revisiting the brand strategy ensures it remains relevant and aligned with your current goals and target audience.

It is always great to meet our clients, but if you are based elsewhere in South Africa or on another continent then we can always run through the process using MSTeams, Skype, Email and standard telephone calls. Distance is not an issue in the era of the Internet.

The most important people to involve in feedback would be senior management. One to three people would be perfect. Too many would actually slow down the process.

You can also ask other personnel what they think about the company as they might have insights that you are not aware of.

It is important to combine the feedback from everyone into the document. Just remember to focus it on the marketing itself and not internal operational processes. It is all about external perception of the company that we are trying to shape.

This is an internal document only and shouldn’t be made public. You may answer the questions in conversational English. It is a brainstorming process. Throw in any relevant thought that you might have. There’s no real wrong answer.

We will then clean the document up once we have enough information. Examples of common answers are included so that you can understand the context a bit better. If you do get stuck then you could just give us a call for more information.

Our Marketing Strategy and Brand Strategy works together for a more comprehensive strategy. We include dates and milestones in our Marketing Strategy to plan where and how to put certain items in place. Depending on what information we have at hand while creating the Marketing Strategy, actual deliverable dates may only be discussed later.

The Brand Strategy would then assist with the overall messaging when rolling those out. The Brand Strategy itself won’t include any dates as it works within the pace of the Marketing Strategy implementation.

No, a brand strategy is relevant to businesses of all sizes. Whether a small startup or a multinational corporation, a brand strategy helps create a clear brand identity, establishes trust with customers, and influences purchase decisions, regardless of the company’s scale.

Yes, a robust brand strategy is instrumental during a crisis. It provides a solid foundation for communication, guiding companies to respond with transparency and authenticity. A well-established brand strategy helps maintain brand reputation and fosters customer loyalty during challenging times.

Yes, a well-communicated brand strategy instills a sense of purpose among employees. When employees understand and align with the brand’s values, they become brand advocates, resulting in higher job satisfaction, increased productivity, and improved overall company culture.