Brand strategy: a really really simple approach

What is a brand strategy?

Some consultants will tell you that there’s a proper way to write a brand strategy and it needs things like a vision, a mission statement and values. I am not one of those consultants.

What really matters is to have a single guiding principle.

Fundamentally a brand or brand strategy (confusingly these terms are used interchangeably, and also to mean many different things) is a tool to guide decisions so that consumers, customers or audiences have a consistent experience of a company or organisation.

Simplicity is the key.

Brand strategies are regularly presented as prisms and pyramids, houses and toolkits, wheels and DNA. These well intentioned frameworks are designed to simplify complex ideas. But are more often than not confusing and forgettable.

Brands must be memorable for the people that use them.

Creating a brand strategy

A good brand strategy should be like a guiding principle with four features:

• Responsive to customers and the market

• Motivating to team members

• Unique and distinctive

• Simple and memorable

My advice is always to start with a short statement. The best brand strategies, indeed the best strategies, tell you everything you need to know in a sentence or two. You can call this statement whatever you like. Frankly, the difference between “mission” and “vision” doesn’t matter much in spite of what the brand purists might tell you.

Once you’ve got this concise statement you can add other layers and elements to suit your team and organisation, but only if they’re useful.

Brands are about consistent action and experience which is why values and behaviours are common aspects of brand strategy. If you choose to include values make sure you read this excellent Harvard Business Review article first. It’s one of my most shared resources.

Less is more

Less is more when it comes to good brand strategies. If you take away one thing from this blog, it’s that.

You’re probably now wondering about examples of good brand strategies. Come back soon, I’ll share some in a follow up post.

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