Brand Strategy: What It Is and How to Start

Ask ten people what a brand is and you will hear ten answers. In practice, your brand is what customers think and feel about your business, built from every interaction they have with it. Brand strategy is the deliberate work of shaping that, so it is a choice rather than an accident.

This guide explains what brand strategy is and is not, the parts it is made of, a step-by-step way to develop one, and how to turn it into something your whole team can use.

What brand strategy is, and is not

Brand strategy is the plan that defines who you serve, how you are different and how you want to be perceived. It is not a logo, a colour palette or a tagline. Those are expressions of a strategy. Without one, design becomes decoration, and decisions about messaging, pricing and marketing are made inconsistently.

The building blocks

• Purpose: why your business exists beyond making money.
• Vision: where you want the business to be in the future.
• Values: the principles that guide how you behave.
• Audience: who you serve best, described specifically.
• Positioning: how you are different and better for that audience.
• Messaging: the few things you always say, and the proof behind them.
• Voice and personality: how you sound and behave.

A step-by-step way to start

1. Talk to customers. Interview five to ten of your best customers about why they chose you, what they value and what nearly stopped them.
2. Study the market. List your main competitors, what they say about themselves and where they overlap.
3. Find your difference. Identify what only you can honestly claim: an approach, an experience, a specialisation.
4. Write a positioning statement: “We help [audience] achieve [outcome] through [difference].”
5. Choose three words that describe your personality, and three that you are not.
6. Test it. Read it to customers and staff and see whether it rings true.
7. Document it in brand guidelines.

An example of positioning

A flooring company might say: “We help homeowners in West Vancouver get a beautiful floor installed on time by licensed, insured installers who explain every step.” That single sentence tells you who the audience is, what the promise is and what makes the company different. Everything from the website headline to the way the phone is answered can then follow it.

Common mistakes

• Trying to appeal to everyone, which makes the message bland.
• Copying competitors’ language.
• Describing what you do instead of what the customer gets.
• Skipping customer research and relying on opinions inside the company.
• Doing the strategy once and never using it.

How long does it take?

A focused project usually takes three to six weeks, depending on how much research is needed and how available your team is. The value comes from the decisions, not the length of the document.

From strategy to identity

Once the strategy is clear, the visual identity follows: logo, colours, typography, imagery. Read our guide to what makes a good logo and to brand guidelines so everything stays consistent as your team grows.

Getting it working

Share the strategy with everyone who represents you, and use it as a test for decisions: does this fit who we are for and what we promise? Review it yearly, and update it when the business or market changes.

Get help

Cloud9 Web Developments guides clients through research, positioning and messaging, then carries the strategy into identity, website and marketing. Explore our brand strategy, logo design and brand guidelines services, or request a quote.