Brand strategy. How to build a brand qualitatively?

Since 2016, we have been successfully launching new products on the market and doing advertising campaigns. And during this time, we realized absolutely for sure: every brand should have a brand strategy.
If you are thinking about what a brand strategy is and why it is needed, it means that your company is already ready to stand out from competitors, become recognizable, increase employee loyalty, and attract the persistent attention of the target audience to its products or services.

Start by reading this material, and then we can hold a briefing with you to further make a strategy.

WHAT IS A BRAND?

The modern media environment offers countless definitions of the concept of the brand. We will explain to you in simple language, without resorting to obscure terms: a brand is not only a trademark, it is the image of your company in the eyes of people. These are the feelings, thoughts, emotions, associations, and memories that you evoke from current and potential customers, investors, and even competitors.

Some brands are born and live independently, without any control. And, unfortunately, they also enter a state of crisis or die — for various reasons. Company owners can trust the will of chance or take the job into their own hands and guarantee themselves a positive result. And for this, a brand strategy is simply necessary.

WHAT IS A BRAND STRATEGY AND WHY IS IT NEEDED?

In a broad sense, a brand strategy is a development plan. It will let you understand who you are and why you exist, and will also help you find the perfect means to tell as many people about it as possible.

If you have a brand strategy, you can:

• increase audience reach and increase brand awareness
• distinguish yourself from the competition
• increase audience loyalty
• and loyalty to your team (without inflating salaries)
• increase the importance of the company’s goods/services in the eyes of consumers and naturally raise prices (sounds great, right?)

If you don’t have a brand strategy, you risk:

• incur reputational costs
• spend money on advertising and not get the desired result
• lose the trust of the audience

BRAND STRATEGY – IMPORTANT STAGES IN ITS COMPILATION

We have considerable experience in drawing up brand strategies, and therefore we can safely recommend the following action plan. Please note: for each described stage to bring a positive result, it is important to maintain the specified sequence. Otherwise, no one can guarantee your success.

1. Market research

This is an untimely stage of any brand strategy. It is necessary to constantly study your consumers and competitors using focus groups, as well as conducting surveys and interviews. Monitor the dynamics of the market. Pay attention to the strengths and weaknesses of competitors and even market leaders. Learn from other people’s mistakes, not your own. Ideally, market research will be conducted by an experienced marketer who is on your team. It is even better if it is a team of specialists: a creative strategist, a marketer, and creative copywriters. And these people are already in our state.

Important: we conduct this and subsequent stages under the supervision of the creative director.

The time required to conduct qualitative market research depends on the depth, volume, and complexity of the task. We recommend not rushing and counting on a period of 20 working days.

2. Positioning development

It is necessary to find and highlight the competitive advantages of the brand to make them the key idea of your brand strategy. Simply put, explain to a potential consumer what benefits he will receive by buying a product or service from you. In Moloko, the same people are working on this stage as on market research. The bigger the team, the more fruitful the brainstorming sessions.

Corporate identity and positioning for Freeza Group

3. Development of a communication strategy

A communication strategy is a brand message wrapped in creativity. At this stage, analytical work will have to be carried out to formulate such a message honestly and as accurately as possible. This is necessary to remain relevant to your target audience, as well as to stand out from the competition.

It is important to carry out this stage only after in-depth market research. Brand development is not a fantasy, it should be based on proven and up-to-date information. The Moloko team will develop a communication strategy within 20 working days.

4. Formation of the brand platform (brand book)

At this stage, it is necessary to carefully consider and document the brand platform. Describe the essence, positioning, philosophy, and mission. Tell an interesting story of the emergence of the brand or interesting facts from practice, if they cause deep positive emotions. Also, describe the target audience, and collect a list of keywords that the consumer can associate with the brand. Describe the communication strategy and describe in detail each of its stages. A well—developed platform is the key to turning an ordinary product into a recognizable brand.

Why do you need a brand platform? The finished document will help:

  • train new employees quickly and efficiently (even in conditions of staff turnover);
  • communicate brand information as accurately as possible to freelancers or contractors;
  • systematize information about the brand and bring it to a single sample on the company’s website and in the media.

Brandbook for the logistics company WTL Logistics

The latter is especially important! For your brand’s message to be consistent and logical, so that the information about you on different resources is not contradictory, make sure that you have your own brand book.

We can create a high-quality brand platform. At the development stage, we involve a creative copywriter in the work, and the result is controlled by the creative director.

5. Naming

A creative and memorable name is fervent, fun, and wonderful. But is it relevant? Won’t hurt anyone’s feelings? What will it be associated with by the target audience? And if it’s just a failure?

We strongly recommend starting the naming stage after market research, positioning development, and brand platform creation. Otherwise, the invented name may limit or even discredit you.

We will come up with a sonorous name for your brand within 10 working days. There is an important advantage of working with us: we already know about the possible pitfalls of naming, and we will definitely take them into account, which in the future will save the customer time, nerves, and money. If necessary, we will involve narrow specialists (mythologists, historians, linguists
and others) in the work.

6. Identity (corporate identity) as part of a brand strategy

As a rule, corporate identity is the first thing customers see. Therefore, it is very important to make a good first impression. Corporate identity can include a wide range of elements depending on the customer’s needs: business cards, letterheads, the type of pages in social networks, corporate clothing, and accessories, stylization of transport, etc. The most important thing is that the identity is scaled to any medium without losing the idea.

Tourist brand of the Miorsky district

Strategy and corporate identity for Freeza Group

Corporate identity of the charity organization

You need a corporate identity if you want:

  • become visible against the background of competitors;
  • enter a new market or launch a new product;
  • «refresh» an existing brand;
  • increase brand integrity.

When developing an identity for you, we use the author’s methodology — evidence-based design. It allows us to design a corporate identity based on facts, not emotions or assumptions.

Our methodology is based on design research, during which we collect information about competitors, assess the situation in the market, including foreign, find out which colors/fonts/forms are used in this segment most often, and what meanings and emotions are laid out. Yes, design research is a long time. But always effective.

Based on the data obtained, our designers can work on a logo or identity, completely eliminating subjectivity, to emphasize the idea that your brand strategy follows and make it understandable to consumers. Simply put, we can use real figures and facts to explain why certain colors, fonts, shapes, and symbols were used.

Corporate identity for the iFly Minsk air tube

When the necessary information is collected, a briefing is held with the client. The more precise and detailed the brief is filled out, the better the team will understand exactly what the client wants to get from the corporate identity. And the better the result will be!

Then the terms of reference are drawn up and the main work begins. An idea is built and approved, and a concept is developed, according to which the necessary elements of corporate identity are created.

Identity development is a team effort. In Moloko, designers, account managers, and creative and art directors are working on this. At the research stage, a strategist can get involved. As a rule, this stage takes from 4 to 8 weeks. After this period, the client receives a ready-made corporate identity. But if you want to get the most out of this stage, do not forget to order a guideline.

What is a guideline?

In simple terms, the guideline is the rules for using the corporate identity. This is a kind of instruction, using which the designer will understand how the logo should look on a sweatshirt, leaflet, mug, etc., what colors are acceptable and unacceptable to use, and why.

The presence of a guideline greatly simplifies the work, because it helps:

  • quickly train new employees
  • effectively convey the necessary information to printing houses, designers, and contractors

We know that such a document is used by both experienced designers and people who are as far from it as possible, and therefore we do everything to make our guidelines clear and structured for everyone who works with them.

And more…

The above-mentioned terms of the stages may vary in both directions depending on the volume and complexity of the tasks. Also, some stages can be worked out in parallel, which saves time. But not always.

What else is important to know about creating a brand strategy?

You can’t stop working, even if you already have an ideal brand strategy. Long-term solutions when drawing up a strategy will not always be relevant, even if they have already proven their effectiveness. The market is volatile and with it consumer demand. At the same time, new means of communication are constantly emerging, new opportunities to creatively communicate about your product. Therefore, we recommend adjusting the brand strategy at least once every 1-3 years.

It is difficult, long, and almost impossible to make an ideal strategy alone.

We know that not every business owner has the resources, knowledge, and skills to keep and control an entire team of specialists to develop a brand strategy.

It doesn’t matter, call us! We will start working on the project immediately after the briefing, and soon your product or service will become more noticeable and interesting to consumers.


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