Brand Strategy
A useful definition of brand is “the sum of everything you do to be recognized for something”. A brand is made up of things like logos, names, and campaigns, but also elements as diverse as the Mac's Command key, the store design of Costco, or We Co.’s insistence on referring to their CEO as “Adam”. Each of these things aims to change the way that company is recognized: as different from Microsoft, as exclusive-yet-inexpensive, or as casually disruptive.
A strategy is a set of goals and a set of plans to meet those goals. A strategy might be for a game (control the center of the board by moving as many pieces there as possible), for war (defeat the larger force by engaging it in many small parts, where you have superior numbers in each individual engagement), for business (make money by developing a computer that is simple and beautiful), and even for branding.
A brand strategy is a set of goals and plans related to how you’re recognized. What’s your goal—what do you want to be recognized for? What’s your plan—what do you need to do to be recognized that way? Anything that answers those two questions can be considered a brand strategy, and all brand strategies fundamentally help answer these questions.
Key inputs to answer this question include:
What is my organization’s purpose (or mission, or vision)?
Who are my audiences? What do they care about? How do they see us?
What do my competitors claim? How are they perceived?
With these questions answered, you can determine what’s true, relevant, and unique about your organization, and therefore what it would be profitable to be recognized for.
If you end up with more ideas than you can feasibly cram into a single brand, it’s time to embark on brand architecture. Otherwise, it’s time to move on to something like tone of voice or naming strategy.
Do you have an idea of what might be true, relevant, and unique, but want a second opinion? Don’t have any idea, and want a first opinion? Maybe I can help.