Brand strategy is an essential plan that will help to ensure that you make the right decision when it comes to how you would like your company to be perceived by your target audience. An effective brand strategy does more than to help create a name that sells products, it will help you to create a multifaceted character who has values, emotions and a personality that your target audience can relate to. When it comes to formulating an effective strategy, there are several core elements that every effective plan needs. In this post we take a look at 9 key components of a winning brand strategy.

1) Seamless Customer Experience Across All Venues

You can’t develop an effective brand strategy without considering the type of experience your customers will have from the point where they make first contact, to their first purchase. You should create a seamless journey throughout each portion of the customer cycle to ensure that your brand leaves a lasting impression. Most experts would agree that customer experience is the most critical component of any brand strategy. Because, regardless of how efficient other components are, with a lack of quality customer experience, said customer will not return.

2) Brand Personality

Said in simple terms, your brand personality is a group of human characteristics which are attributed to your brand name. It’s a personality of which your customers can relate to. These human characteristics are crafted to guide other elements of your strategy such as tone, value and promise. To create a brand personality, you have to think about characteristics that are relatable to your target audience. In essence, your target audience should see themselves in your brand personality. This encourages them to purchase products and services from your brand. Your personality should be consistent with company values and purpose. Check out https://www.nextthursday.com.au/services/brand/ to help you develop a new branding for your company.

3) Consistency

One of the most important elements of the process is consistency. Consistency is something your brand should demonstrate thorough every aspect of your business from the messages you send, the website you create, people you hire and your social media accounts. Consistency leads to familiarity and subsequently, loyalty. Therefore, when it comes to maintaining consistency you should consider how business decisions would reflect the message, humor and tone of your brand. For instance, if releasing a particular promotional video isn’t in line with your company’s brand personality, you shouldn’t, as it could damage the image of your brand and confuse your target audience.

4) Core Values And Beliefs

The core beliefs and values of your brand, should be considered when it comes to making any decision. Your brand’s values should serve as a guide on how to handle partnerships, conflicts and other day to day activities. They operate like a compass which help to guide behaviors, decision making processes, actions and your brand story. As is the case with any business, there are times when a company has to make difficult decisions. In situations like these, a brand’s values and beliefs constantly remind you about what’s important for the target audience and the company itself. Once core values and beliefs are established, business owners can rest easy knowing that when it comes to handling difficult situations, they are handled under guidance of values and beliefs that are in line with the brand’s overall mission and vision.

5) Brand Promise

Brands are able to create a strong community of loyal customers and followers because of their brand promise. Brand promise is essentially a commitment a brand makes to its target audience.

6) Employees

As mentioned, consistency itself is a key component of an effective strategy. Consistency should also be seen in your employees. Your employees should do more than what they are assigned to do on a daily basis. They should operate as an ambassador for your brand. A key example of this would be the friendly, happy values that McDonalds demonstrate throughout its brand. Through their employees, this message can be seen as employees are encouraged to be friendly and to smile when interacting with a customer. It’s also worth highlighting that oftentimes, employees end up having deeper relationships with consumers. Your employees are the ones who will bring your brand to life and they should demonstrate what your core values and beliefs are with their actions towards customers.

7) Brand Vision

Having a brand vision is important when it comes to long term growth. Brand vision helps to influence action in the present, to ensure that the brand is headed in the right direction. Most experts agree that your brand vision should be bold and challenging enough to motivate you and your employees.

8) Target Audience

When it comes to formulating an effective strategy you need to determine who your target audience is and you need to dig deeper into the details of their lives so that you can identify and address their problems with effective solutions. You can determine who your target audience is by starting with a profile of your average customer. This profile should include data such as underlying problems, sex, education level and behavioral patterns. In addition to that you’ll need to learn what your target audiences’ hopes, goals, objectives and aspirations are. By doing this, you will be able to position your brand as something that they need and can relate to.

9) Brand Voice

Once you have determined what kind of personality would work best with your target audience, you have to give it an appropriate tone of voice. Your tone of voice is essential when it comes to delivering the right kind of brand message or in another world, the way in which you want to speak to your customers. For instance, financial institutions will use a professional and formal tone of voice, while a startup company which caters to millennials will speak in a more casual and funny tone of voice.

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