We are bombarded with tens of thousands of messages every day – and most of them are extensions of brand strategies.
Instagram influencers tell us how to book a free first class flight, the city bus is plastered with an Apple ad, your favorite TV show has been interrupted by commercials since the streaming service increased its price.
Fighting for a spot among those thousands upon thousands of messages is a daunting task, but investing some time in strategic branding can help you stand out from the competition and strengthen customer loyalty.
In this article, you’ll learn all about the branding methods and essential elements of a branding strategy you need to build a brand that will stand the test of time. And then one day your Brand is wrapped on a city bus.
Table of contents
What is brand strategy?
Brand strategy is part of a business plan that outlines how the company will build good relationships and gain popularity in the market. The goal of a brand strategy is to remain memorable in the eyes of the consumer so that they decide to patronize your business over the competition.
A well-defined and implemented brand strategy impacts all aspects of a business and is directly related to consumer needs, emotions and the competitive environment.
First, let’s clear up one of the biggest misconceptions about branding strategies: your brand isn’t just your product, your logo, your website, or your name.
Your brand is all that and more – it’s the things that feel intangible, the elusive feelings that separate strong brands from forgotten brands.
To understand a subjective issue that many marketers consider more art than science, we’ve broken down seven essential components of a comprehensive brand strategy that will help keep your business relevant for decades to come.
Elements of a brand strategy
- Purpose
- consistency
- emotion
- flexibility
- Employee participation
- loyalty
- Competitive awareness
The elements of a brand strategy include:
- Purpose
- consistency
- emotion
- flexibility
- Employee participation
- loyalty
- Competitive awareness
1. Purpose
Although yours The brand promise is essential for positioning your brand Why It is also important that you get up and go to work every day.
In other words, your purpose is more specific because it serves as a differentiator between you and your competitors.
How can you define the purpose of your company? Accordingly Business Strategy InsiderThe purpose can be viewed in two ways:
- Functional: This concept focuses on evaluating success in terms of immediate and commercial reasons – that is, the purpose of the business is to make money.
- Intentionally: This concept focuses on success as it refers to the ability to make money and do good in the world.
While making money is part of almost every business, we admire brands that emphasize their willingness to achieve more than just profitability, like Patagonia:
Patagonia’s brand strategy is not just about profit, but also about sustainability and responsibility.
This approach appeals to potential customers who share these values.
Key to take away
Keep this example in mind as you define your company’s purpose. Even if making money is your top priority, operating on that basis alone will do little to differentiate your brand from others in your industry.
Our advice? Dig a little deeper. If you need inspiration, look at the brands you admire and see how they articulate their mission and vision.
Pro tips
In a 2022 interview with Cannabis drinks exhibitionMarketer Rachel Boykins said that brands can “go a little too high” in terms of the role they play in consumers’ lives. Boykins, who is now head of brand strategy at Pangea money transferjoined me on Zoom to talk about it in more detail.
“When people look for examples of good branding,” she tells me, they often cite big brands like Apple, Amazon, or Disney—“brands that you can name off the top of your head because they’re so groundbreaking.”
The problem is, “There’s really only one Apple.” That’s not something all brands should strive for or expect.”
Boykins’ advice: “Not every brand has to reach these heights to be successful. Collaborate with your internal teams to truly understand your Company goals. This is what your budgets and bonuses consist of. And they are available.”
2. Consistency
The key to consistency is to avoid talking about things that don’t relate to or reinforce your brand.
For example, when you add a photo to your business Facebook pageMake sure it aligns with your message. If you just share the latest meme that made you laugh, you risk confusing or alienating your audience.
To give your brand a platform to stand on, you need to make sure your messaging is coherent. Ultimately, consistency contributes to brand awareness, which strengthens customer loyalty. (No pressure, right?)
To see a great example of consistency, let’s look at Apple most famous brand in the world in 2024. Because of the commitment to consistency, all elements of brand marketing work together in harmony.
Although Apple’s Instagram account Not a product photo in sight, the photos taken by the iPhone tell the brand story.
Compare that to the Apple Watch and AirPods product photos on the website, both of which feature the same bold, mysterious and colorful photos.
Key to take away
To ensure that potential customers don’t have trouble piecing together the disjointed pieces of your business, consider the benefits of creating an internal style guide.
A style guide can include everything from the tone of voice you use to the color scheme you use to the way you position certain products or services.
Taking the time to define and agree on these considerations will benefit your overall brand.
3. Emotions
Emotions are a powerful branding tool.
Brand consultant Cornelis Jacobs tells me: “A brand is actually a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization. It’s really emotional – it’s what someone feels.”
Harley-Davidson, for example, uses emotional branding by building a community around the HD brand. The company founded HOG – Harley Owners Group – to connect its customers with the brand and with each other.
By making its customers feel like they are part of a larger group that is closer together than just a group of motorcyclists, Harley-Davidson is positioning itself as the obvious choice for anyone looking to buy a bike.
Anyone who buys a Harley also buys into a community.
Studies by psychologists Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary describe this need in their Affiliation hypothesisIt states: “Humans have a fundamental psychological need to feel closely connected to others, and that caring, loving bonds from close relationships are an essential part of human behavior.”
Not to mention, belonging—the need for love, affection, and group membership—falls squarely in the middle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Key to take away
Find a way to connect with your customers on a deeper, more emotional level. Do you give them peace of mind? Do you make them feel like they are part of the family? Do you make life easier? Use emotional triggers like these to strengthen your relationship and encourage loyalty.
4. Flexibility
In this rapidly changing world, marketers must remain flexible to stay relevant. The advantage is that you can be creative with your campaigns.
You may be thinking, “Wait a minute, how am I supposed to be consistent and flexible at the same time?”
Good question. While consistency aims to set the standard for your brand, flexibility allows you to make adjustments that generate interest and differentiate your approach from the competition.
A great example of this type of strategic balance comes from Old spice. Today, Old Spice is one of the best examples of successful marketing across the board.
Until recently, wearing Old Spice was an unspoken requirement for fathers everywhere. However, today it is one of the most popular brands for men of all ages.
The secret? Flexibility.
Aware that something had to be done to secure its place in the market, Old Spice has teamed up with Wieden+Kennedy to position its brand for a new customer base.
With new commercials, a new website, new packaging and new product names, Old Spice captured the attention of a younger generation through strategic evolutions of its already strong brand.
Key to take away
If your old tactics are no longer working, don’t be afraid to make a change. Just because it worked in the past doesn’t mean it will work now.
Take the opportunity to engage your followers in new, new ways. Are there some out-of-the-box partnerships your brand can pursue? Are there any features of your product that you have never highlighted? Use these to connect with new customers and remind your old customers why they love you.
5. Employee involvement
As mentioned earlier, consistency is crucial for brand awareness. And while a style guide can help you create a cohesive digital experience, it’s just as important that your employees are comfortable communicating with customers and representing the brand.
As Jacobs puts it, “Everyone should be a brand champion.”
If your brand appears playful and lively on social media, you’re sending mixed messages when a customer calls and is connected to a grumpy, monotone representative, right?
To avoid this type of inappropriate experience, consider Zappos’ approach.
If you’ve ever been on the phone with a Zappos customer service representative, you know what I’m talking about. Unless, Check out this SlideSharedetailing some of the most inspiring customer support stories.
Pro tips
Boykins advocates for more diversity in corporate spaces. She tells me that she has attended many meetings where she was “the only Black person, and maybe only 10% of the time it was another woman.”
“Consumers have high hopes and expectations” that diversity will be reflected in their favorite brands, she says. Every year it seems a different brand launches a marketing campaign “and everyone is shocked at how culturally or racially insensitive it is. People wonder how this can still happen.”
Addressing this problem requires more than just superficial diversity – employees must feel comfortable speaking up at all levels of the company. Boykins is blunt about what’s at stake: “If brands don’t care about diversity, they should care about cancel culture. You don’t get many opportunities.”
Key to take away
Your brand strategy should illustrate your core values, and potential employees should be able to easily see if their own values align. Every point of contact with stakeholders should be consistent and coherent.
6. Loyalty
If you already have customers who are deeply loyal to your brand, don’t sit back and take it for granted, but reward them.
These customers go out of their way to write about you, tell their friends about you, and act as your brand ambassadors.
If you encourage loyalty from these people early on, you’ll get more repeat customers – and more profit for your business.
Sometimes a thank you is enough. In other cases it is better to go beyond that. Write them a personalized letter. Send them a special gift. Ask them to write a review and place it prominently on your website. (Or all of the above!)
When we arrived 15,000 customers here at HubSpotWe wanted to say thank you in a big way while staying true to our brand… so we dropped 15,000 orange ping pong balls from our fourth floor balcony and said thank you in large metal balloons.
And while it may have seemed a little unusual to some, the gesture made perfect sense to those who know our brand.
Key to take away
Loyalty is critical to your brand strategy, especially in supporting sales organizations.
Highlighting a positive relationship between you and your existing customers sets the stage for what potential customers can expect if they choose to do business with you.
7. Competitive awareness
Take the competition as a challenge to improve your own strategy and create greater value for your brand as a whole. You’re in the same business and have the same customers, right? So look what they do.
Are some of their tactics successful? Do some fail? Adjust your brand positioning based on their experience to improve your business.
HubSpot makes it easy to keep an eye on your competitors’ social mentions Social media management software. Check out this article to learn more about setting up custom social streams.
Key to take away
While it’s important to keep up with your competitors’ strategies if you want to grow your brand, don’t let them dictate every move you make.
Sure, you probably sell a similar product or service to many other companies, but you’re in business because your brand is unique. By catering to your competitor’s every move, you lose that differentiation.
Branding methods
- Attitude branding
- Individual branding
- Product branding
- Co-branding
- Minimalist branding
- Brand extension. Branding
Let’s discuss each branding method.
1. Attitude branding
This form of branding refers to a feeling or attitude that customers associate with your brand.
Nike’s slogan “Just Do It” promotes a lifestyle that customers can enjoy by wearing products from this brand.
With such a slogan, Nike promotes the idea that all customers are athletes when they wear Nike products.
2. Individual branding
In this type of branding, a product or service is given a unique identity, perhaps under a different brand name, to attract new customers in the market.
Unilever is a great example of a brand using custom branding. The company consists of three divisions, each of which creates some of the most recognizable brands in its niche.
3. Product branding
Product branding is perhaps the most popular type of branding. The brand associates a logo, a name, a color and a design with a product to create a unique identity for the product.
It is one of the best branding methods because it breathes life into products and increases uniqueness.
A good example is Apple’s MacBook offerings. “Air”, “Pro” and “Mac” each convey a specific message that underlines the quality of the product offering.
4. Co-branding
With co-branding, also known as brand partnership, different brands contribute their identities to create a common brand.
The advantage of this method is that it combines market strength, customer base and perceived value.
One of the most popular co-branding examples is the collaboration between Nike and Michael Jordan. This collaboration has made Air Jordans one of the most sought-after and recognizable shoes around the world.
This type of branding is typically used by brands that prefer to let their products speak for themselves.
5. Minimalist branding
MasterCard is a great example of a brand using minimalist branding.
Even without the word “Mastercard,” the overlapping red and yellow circles are immediately recognizable.
Pro tip: Do you need a logo that your customers can recognize at first glance? Try it for free Logo maker and brand identity design tool.
6. Brand extension
In this unique branding method, a company uses one of its popular or established brand names for a new product. The idea behind this method is to use the brand equity you already have to boost the latest product.
Companies that use it hope that the brand extension will make customers more receptive to the new offer.
The importance of strategic branding
Managing a brand is hard work and more challenging when you are in an oversaturated market where every brand looks the same.
One of the crucial steps to growing in an oversaturated market is highlighting what makes your brand unique – and that’s what strategic branding is all about.
With strategic branding you future-proof your brand and develop it so that you stand out from others. By conveying uniqueness to your customers, you strengthen your sales power, your brand value and your customer loyalty.