Many brands are misguided by so many notions around and about brand strategy. Here's a brief checklist for you to know if you are approaching your brand strategy right.

1. BY SAKSHI SINGH
Howtobuildabasic
brandstrategy?
YOUR
BRAND
STRATEGY

2. Here's a simple
framework to
creating a
"brand strategy"
Understand
Plan
Structure
Activate
Evaluate

3. A brand can be something very simple or
soemthing very complex to understand
depending on a person's point-of-view. Yes, you
read it right. The meaning of this word is
subjective. It could mean different things to
different people. Like:
- Brand name
- Brand logo
- Brand advertisement
- Brand's social media
However, all of the above are just the
components of a brand.
WHATISABRAND?

4. What is a
brand
strategy?
A brand strategy helps you
use all of these
components in a focused
thoughtful way to define
your business and its goals.
THETRUEMEANING

5. Why create a
brand
strategy?SO YOUR BRAND STANDS OUT
Your business objectives
Relationship between your business
and its audience
Result of everything you do
To make your brand powerful and
different, you must know what it
stands for:

6. The position where your
brand fits in customer's
world
The position you seek to
own in your customer's
mind
Your brand strategy defines
the optimal position of your
brand in the market. This is:
There's a common phrase in
the world of marketing,
"position or be positioned".
Your brand strategy is
everything that defines
where you stand in your
associated endevour.

7. How to frame a brand
strategy?
Identify what your audience has in common.
Explore who benefits from your business the
most.
Determine which audience segment brings
most value to the table.
Consider your mission: who are the people
you created this business for? Pro tip:
When trying to find all of the above about
your audience, apart from the regular focus
groups and interviews you can try "empathy
interviews". These have proven to be of
extreme help to the marketers. Empathy
interviews hit right at the sweet spot of
your audience and generate the best
results. You start general and narrow it
down to your brand offering.

8. BRAND POSITIONING
Beginner's Mindset: be open to what emerges without being
attached to a certain results
Listening Mindset: be open, genuine, non-judgemental and
curious
Brand positioning is simply making it easier for your customer to
buy.
There are two mindsets that one can begin with to position their
brand in the market:
WHAT NEXT? YOU COMPILE YOUR RESULTS
Customer profiling (demographics, psychographics, behaviours
and beliefs)
Tap into their values
Use this information in your marketing initiatives

9. Craft your
brand promise
SYNTHESIZE ABOUT YOUR:
Customers
Competitors
Strengths
PRO TIP:
Use the uncommon denominator
framework here to craft your
brand's promise. Promise what you
are good at and your competitor
isn't.

10. You
25%
Your Teams
25%
Your Partners
25%
Your Offering
25%Brand
Positioning
Statement
THE ONE THAT WILL BE USED
FOR ALL YOUR FUTURE
COMMUNICATION WITH
YOUR CUSTOMERS AND
PARTNERS.

11. YOUR
BRAND'S
CHARACTER
IS A WAY FOR YOUR
CUSTOMER TO BOND WITH
YOUR BRAND
How do you define it? One easy way
is to refer to Jungian's Archetypes.
Every brand is like one of his story
characters. You just have to know
which one are you.
Pro tip: go with your gut.
Reference:UnderstandingPersonality:
The12JungianArchetypes

12. BRAND
TONALITY
DESCRIBES THE
CHARACTER OF YOUR
BRAND
How?
By guiding your brand
interactions
By developing a single voice,
easier to be heard and to be
remembered

13. YOUR
CREATIVE
BRIEF
ASK THE FOLLOWING
Who is your target audience?
What is your desired customer
action?
What is the net takeaway?
What is your brand personality
and tonality?
Are there any executional
mandatories?

14. FOLLOW THE HOPE FRAMEWORK
does it express your creative brief?
does it deliver on the net takeway?
does it match your tone and personality?
does it solve the directive?
Heart - your immediate gut reaction
On-point: your analytical reaction,
Execute: imagine this creative in a
marketplace and think how it will perform.
EVALUATE
YOUR
CREATIVE

15. START
Start with your best
practices after carefully
researching your
audience, competition
and strengths.
ZOOM OUT
CREATING AND EVALUATING
YOUR BRAND STRATEGY IS A
CONTINUOUS PROCESS
STOP
Stop the practices that
seem to be going
negative or have no
impact on your
business or marketing
activites.
CONTINUE
Continue the strategies
that have proven to be
working for you.