Crafting a brand strategy brief is a pivotal step in any business venture, serving as a roadmap to differentiate your brand and guide its growth. It's a concise, yet comprehensive document that crystallizes your brand's identity, targeting, positioning, and the tactics you'll employ to connect with your audience and achieve your business goals.
Imagine your brand strategy brief as the captain's coordinates, plotting the course for your brand's ship in the vast ocean of the market. It's not just a piece of paper but a living, breathing guide that will influence every aspect of your brand, from logo design to how your employees answer the phone.
What a Brand Strategy Brief Entails
A robust brand strategy brief typically encompasses six key elements. Let's delve into each, understanding their significance and how to craft them effectively.
Failing to cover these elements adequately can result in a weak strategy that fails to resonate with your target audience, or worse, doesn't exist at all, leading to a disjointed brand that's hard to build upon.
Brand Purpose
At the core of your brand strategy lies its purpose. This is not just about making money; it's about the 'why' of your brand. What problem are you solving? What need are you fulfilling? Simon Sinek's "Golden Circle" emphasizes the importance of communicating 'why' first, then 'how', and finally 'what'
For example, Apple's purpose isn't to sell computers; it's to challenge the status quo and think differently. This 'why' permeates everything they do, from product design to advertising, making their brand stand out in the tech industry.
Target Audience
Knowing your target audience is crucial. It's not just about demographics; it's about understanding their behaviors, attitudes, values, and needs. This understanding will guide your communications, product development, and customer experience.
Consider LEGO. While their products are for kids, their target audience also includes adults who grew up playing with LEGO and now purchase sets for themselves or as gifts. They cater to both, creating products and content that appeal to a wide range of ages and interests.
The Building Blocks of Your Brand
Once you've established your brand's purpose and audience, you can start erecting the physical and conceptual structures that represent your brand to the world. These include your logo, brand name, tagline, color palette, and more.
Think of these as the bricks and mortar making your brand a reality. They need to be distinctive, memorable, and aligned with your brand's personality and purpose.
Logo and Brand Name
A strong logo and brand name are essential. They embody your brand's personality and become instantly recognizable to your audience. A poor logo and brand name can undo all your hard work, turning potential customers away.
Logos need to be distinctive, simple, and work across a range of formats. A strong brand name should be easy to pronounce, spell, and remember. It should also convey some essence of your brand, like Apple, Virgin, or Coca-Cola.
Tagline
A tagline is a concise, memorable phrase that captures the essence of your brand. It's a promise you make to your customers, and it should resonate with them and differentiate your brand from competitors.
Nike's "Just do it" is a prime example. It's inspiring, memorable, and encapsulates the philosophy behind their brand, encouraging customers to take action and embrace their inner athlete.
Communicating Your Brand
Your brand strategy brief should also outline how you'll communicate your brand's unique value proposition to your audience. This includes your brand voice, tone, and messaging.
Your brand voice is consistent across all touchpoints, the personality of your brand, how it would speak if it could. The tone might be friendly and approachable, or authoritative and expert. Your messaging should be clear, concise, and compelling, driving home your brand's unique value.
Brand Voice and Tone
Think of your brand voice as the 'who' in your brand communications. Are you authoritative like Oscar health insurance or fun and quirky like Virgin?
The tone is the 'how'. Are you speaking to customers in a formal, professional way, or are you friendly and casual? A good brand voice and tone guide will ensure consistency across your communications, creating a recognizable personality that resonates with your audience.
Brand Messaging
Your brand messaging is the 'what'. It communicates the primary benefits of your brand and differentiates it from competitors. Your messaging should be clear, concise, and compelling, focusing on customer benefits rather than product features.
Airbnb's messaging is a great example. Rather than focusing on rooms and beds, they communicate the benefits of their service: belonging, experiencing, and living like a local. This evokes emotion and distinctively sets them apart from traditional hotels.
The final paragraph in your brand strategy brief should lay out clear, actionable steps for executing your strategy. This includes roles, responsibilities, timelines, milestones, and metrics for success. It should also address potential roadblocks and challenges, and how you'll overcome them. This is not a time for clichés, but a practical roadmap to turn your strategy into reality.