Brand Strategy: 6 Important Elements of a Company Branding Plan!
Marketing is a complicated process essential for any brand to keep its breath lasting in this competitive landscape. However, without a branding strategy, marketing is nothing but random strokes that don’t lead anywhere.
Creating a brand strategy is a meticulous process that helps shape your brand’s purpose, identity, and market. However, there are so many factors in creating a brand strategy. Therefore, this article has the 6 most important elements used by the best branding companies. Furthermore, we have defined it, mentioned its types, and shown its benefits for any reader.
What is a Brand Strategy?
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Brand strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines every long-term goal, objective, and guideline. This intends to build, develop, and manage a brand to achieve specific business outcomes.
It involves defining the brand’s purpose, values, target audience, positioning, and unique selling proposition (USP). A well-defined brand strategy can help create a consistent and differentiated brand identity. This helps foster customer loyalty and influence people’s perception in the marketplace. It encompasses various elements such as:
- Brand Messaging
- Visual Identity
- Market Positioning
- Customer Experience
Types of Brand
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There are multiple types of brand strategies. Each of these branding strategies serves its purpose and helps achieve specific goals. Here are some types that are commonly used:
- Brand Positioning: This strategy focuses on how a brand wants to be perceived in the market. This involves identifying a unique value proposition that sets the brand apart.
- Brand Extension: This involves using existing brand names for new products and their categories. This leverages equity and recognition of the existing brand as the new product piggybacks on the existing brand’s identity.
- Brand Differentiation: This strategy highlights the unique features or attributes that help distinguish the brand from its competitors.
- Brand Expansion: This involves entering new markets, regions, and demographics to grow the brand’s reach. It requires adapting to the suit of preferences and needs of different audiences.
- Rebranding: This is done to revitalize the brand or change its image. This involves altering elements such as logo, messaging, and visual identity.
- Co-Branding: This involves the collaboration of two or more brands for mutual benefit. This combines each brand’s strengths and customer base to create a unique offering.
- Private Label: This is done by retailers to create their brands for products that they sell. This creates exclusivity and can easily be positioned as a more affordable alternative.
- Digital Branding: This creates a strong focus on establishing a strong online presence. It involves the usage of digital channels, social media, and online marketing.
- Crisis Branding: This was developed to manage a crisis or negative event that might affect the brand perception. It aims to sustain trust, reputation, and customer confidence.
- Luxury Branding: In this, the marketers target a niche market focusing on exclusivity, premium quality, and a high-end experience. This emphasizes the brand’s heritage, craftsmanship, and the product’s uniqueness.
- Personal Branding: This is applied to any individual who wants to establish and promote themselves as a brand. This helps create a consistent image and narrative across personal and professional platforms.
- Sustainable Branding: It focuses on environmentally friendly and sustainable practices that reduce the negative impact on Mother Earth. It appeals to consumers who prioritize environmentally friendly choices.
Benefits of having a Brand Strategy
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There are numerous benefits of having a well-defined brand strategy. Let’s check some of the most common ones:
- It clearly explains the brand’s purpose, values, and goals.
- It helps in making the brand stand out in a crowded market.
- This helps identify and specify the target audience for the brand.
- It makes your brand more memorable and recognizable.
- It positions your brand as a leader in the industry.
- It helps to provide a consistent and cohesive experience across all touchpoints.
- It helps in building an emotional connection between the brand and the customers.
- It helps create a guide for developing clear and compelling messaging.
- This provides a framework for adapting to the market changes.
- It increases the overall value of the brand
- It helps in building and strengthening the brand’s equity over time
- It helps guide the internal team towards the brand’s mission and values.
- This contributes to the long-term success and sustainability of the brand.
The 6 Element Company Branding Plan
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A branding plan usually includes multiple elements that ensure a strategic and cohesive approach. However, there are six important elements of a branding plan that we have listed below:
Brand Purpose and Mission
It means that you need to define the presence and mission of your brand. In this, the marketers must articulate values and principles that guide the brand’s actions and decisions. It aligns the brand with a higher cause or societal impact.
Target Audience Identification
In this element, we identify and understand the target audience’s specific demographics, psychographics, and behavior. This means developing a detailed buyer persona. A persona that can help tailor branding efforts per the target audience’s needs and preferences.
Brand Positioning
In this, we determine the unique value proposition that sets the brand apart from a competitor’s perspective. This establishes the brand’s market position, emphasizing key differentiators. This defines the desired perception of the brand in the minds of the consumers.
Brand Identity
It helps in creating a visual identity system for the brand. This involves the creation of logos, color palettes, typography, and imagery. It helps develop consistent brand elements that convey the brand’s personality and visual appeal. This ensures that the brand identity aligns with the overall brand positioning and resonates with the target audience.
Brand Messaging and Communication Strategy
This key element helps craft a compelling brand narrative and messaging framework. It helps define key messages that help communicate the brand’s story, values, and benefits. This is primarily used to develop a content strategy that aligns with the brand voice and resonates with the target audience through various channels.
Brand Experience and Touchpoints
This involves mapping out the customer journey and identifying key touchpoints. At these touchpoints, the customer interacts with the brand. This helps ensure a positive and consistent brand experience is developed across all touchpoints, including online and offline interactions. To enable this, you only have to think about how the brand will deliver its promises and meet customer expectations.
Bonus Element – Brand Monitoring and Evaluation
This may be added in the bonus section. However, it is also an essential element. This establishes the key metrics for performance, i.e., KPIs (key performance indicators). This helps in measuring brand success. Implementing a regular monitoring and evaluation process helps in assessing brand performance and consumer perceptions. Therefore, it is essential to gather feedback from the customers and stakeholders. This helps in data-driven adjustments.
Conclusion
A well-crafted brand strategy helps yield numerous benefits and create a distinct market presence. It helps with all the essential elements that keep your brand afloat. Having a brand strategy is a key requirement. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to provoke a sense of community, trust, credibility, etc., in the minds of consumers. A branding strategy is essential as it helps sustain success and long-term brand equity.
