What exactly, is a ‘brand’? Is it the wonderfully designed logo of any company? Is it the product they sell? Let’s discuss, Why is Brand Strategy Important as Part of Your Brand Positioning and Brand Design?
What comes to your mind when you see this logo?
Your mind thinks of play and exercise, with great sporting comfort.
You might even remember top athletes. After all, former Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho, and former American NBA legend Michael Jordan have not only proved their career mettle, but even helped Nike connect the world with the concepts of efforts and tremendous sporting skill.
With over 50 years in the Sporting industry, Nike has managed to hold it’s top rank in the world as the most loved sports brand, with up to US$110.3 billion in revenue as of June 2018. (according to Forbes.com)
Nike became successful in connecting emotionally with aspiring sports-people globally.
With the brand named after the Greek Goddess of Victory and a slogan which pushes every individual to ‘Just Do It.’, Nike hit heartstrings in the world of Sports.
But is that all Nike did? Or was there, so much more to the spread of the brand’s idea across the world like a hard-hitting contagious virus?
This is where Brand Strategy comes in.
A strategy is a well defined long-term plan for the development of a successful brand.
It considers everything from a consumer’s needs, their emotions and the competitive level of the environment the company is in.
If Nike needs to strategize its branding, it means the image and idea of Nike should be the way Nike wants it in the minds of every potential customer. As a result, if just the logo or name of the company is mentioned, people should know the caliber without an ounce of further questioning.
So enough of Nike now.
Let us have a quick glance at few of the other top companies.
What keeps them at the top?
What makes them tick?
What is their Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
Coca-Cola -> Brand consistency
Apple -> Creating a movement
Colgate -> Create trust
Starbucks: Social strategy
How does Coca-cola become probably the 1st drink in your mind, when you need to feel great and refreshing on a sunny day?
How does Apple become the epitome of an elitist technology brand?
How did Colgate initially plant the idea of ‘Thank God for Hygiene’, since its years of inception?
How did Starbucks remind you of your much-needed dose of
caffeine and a tasty bite with your work out of home?
The above is what we call the strategic tactics of a company to position its brand well enough in the market, and the customers’ minds.
What the ‘word-of-mouth’ becomes amongst citizens, depends on how the company strategizes the marketing of their idea.
It is much more than the logo, the design, and the color palette.
“Good Marketing and good strategy are both about making choices that build and maintain a particular set of capabilities,
that enable the company to outperform its competitors.”
– says Roger Martin, in the Harvard Business Review
6 Steps to a Great Brand Strategy
#1 Identify your target clients. Research clearly shows that high growth & high-profit firms are focussed on having clearly defined target clients.
#2 Develop brand positioning. How is your firm different from others and why should potential clients within your target audience choose to work with you?
#3 Ensure consistency in your branding efforts, to make your name, logo, and tagline, stand out.
#4 Involve social media in your marketing, to develop a strong presence online.
#5 Sell out the actual story of your brand, rather than just the technical specifications.
#6 Implement, track and adjust. Implement your strategy, follow the process and results, and make the right adjustments after a thorough analysis.
Positioning Your Brand
A 2-3 sentence declaration, which expresses your brand’s uniqueness to your customers, concerning your main competitors
4 Golden Elements of a Positioning Statement:
- Target customer
crisp description of the target customers your brand is trying to attract - Market definition
category of brand competition and brand’s context with customers - Brand promise
the most compelling benefit to your customers, about other brands - Reason to believe
a form of evidence that your brand delivers on its promise
“ For World Wide Web users who enjoy books, Amazon.com is a retail bookseller that provides instant access to over 1.1 million books.
Unlike traditional book retailers, Amazon.com provides a combination of extraordinary convenience, low prices, and comprehensive selection.”(Amazon’s positioning statement, back in 2001)
The Beauty of Innovation
If the world is rapidly evolving with state of the art technology, shouldn’t the brands also become great friends with technology, which could revolutionize the way they impact every customers’ lives?
For instance, the range of the latest products by Nike, fully integrated with technology, to ensure the collection of consumer data, so that Nike can leverage their campaigns and produce highly focused campaigns.
To conclude
Every process from the idea’s inception, to the boom of the company and it’s consistency at the top ranks, involves an immense amount of thinking and strategy. A company could embed its concept in your mind, by either attempting to fulfill your needs better than others or else creating a demand you never knew you had.
In the end, any company runs for and by its customers globally. So it needs to maintain to produce exactly what it promised in the beginning.
