Are there tons of growth opportunities you've not yet tasted as an entrepreneur? Well, you should go back and start ticking the boxes from the list of basic elements of a brand strategy. And this blog post today is entirely about that.
You see, It's no easy feat to build a strong brand that connects the right people in the right manner. So, different people will list these elements in different ways. But we tried to sum them up and provide the most essential ones. Let’s get rolling-
First Thing First, What is A Brand Strategy?
Brand strategy is a plan and prediction of how a business can reach its business goals (both short and long-term). When it comes to defining a well-planned brand strategy, there should be elements to affect all aspects of a business. It should be everything starting from what your consumers want, what their emotional view is(towards your brand), and what the competitive environment is.
However, there is a major misconception that a brand strategy is all about the product, marketing, and growth. Well, these may be listed as some of the fundamental elements, but the brand strategy is way more than that.
6 Elements of A Brand Strategy
This is the section of the article that we've been waiting for, and it's about the list of 6 elements of a strong brand strategy and their roles. We'll talk through them and make them easy to understand for even a first-time entrepreneur-
Element 1 of 6: The Purpose and Perception
At first, it's compulsory that you should have a clearly visible purpose and vision of the brand. It should be clear and concise about what you're doing right now, what's the big dream, and what's the course to the dream-come-true day. The perception, on the other hand, is about what your customer or potential customers think of your brand. An easy way to figure that out is to run a quick survey on your existing customer base.
Get to know what they think of your business and what their expectation is of them in the future. Afterward, compare it with your brand purpose and check whether there is any gap in between or not. If the perception and purpose of your brand are on the same page, you’ve ticked this first element of brand strategy.
Element 2 of 6: Your Brand’s Identity
When your brand is needed to be spread out among your potential customers, there should be some identity materials and creative elements. Usually, they are done by creating a unique and expressive logo, palettes, imagery, typography, verbal expression, etc.
Throughout those elements, your brand should convey messages to your customers, and this is called brand voice. So, the next question is- how does that voice ‘sound’? Us but serious, buttoned-down? Or it’s simply funny and playful?
No matter whichever type of voice and personality you build up for your brand, those visual elements are the media through which you're doing it. Starting from your logo and tagline, even a single ad copy in the local newspaper matter.
Element 3 of 6: Emotional Attachment to Customers
Customers are rational; they always have been. And as a brand, you’ve to take that for granted. And addressing your customer from an emotional point of view might be the key to marketing and branding. Take the branding strategy of Apple or Harley Davidson bikes as an example.
Harley Davidson, they've created such an emotional voice everywhere that whispers "Buy a Harley" in the ears of any potential customers, and how is that? Well, Harley Davidson brand uses emotional branding as one of its key marketing strategies. And they've created a Harley Owners Group(HOG) where they connect with their customers. The emotional appeal of being a part of such a privileged and large-in-size group is what drives potential customers to buy a Harley.
Element 4 of 6: Reputation Management
Once you've kickstarted your journey towards the business, you get to learn how to manage the public reputation and image. As it's one of the core assets and key elements of branding strategy, this is what would define your future journey.
The elements of a good reputation management plan include the following-
Read Also: 7 Key Principles To Make Interactive User Interface Design
Element 5 of 6: Digital Marketing
From 2019 onwards, there is no way that you can continue to buildup a customer-based business brand without any attempt at digital marketing. People are likely to communicate, research, analyze and make buying decisions through digital media. And if you're not making your position there yet, it's high time you do.
The elements of digital marketing are many in number. Here is a quick look at the basic ones of them-
Digital marketing is all about connecting with your customer support as often as possible. No matter wherever they are actively in, you should create your business's presence as well. And that's not only through advertisements. You can try creating a blog full of lucrative content; you can try organizing quizzes, surprise rewards for participants, referral marketing, giveaways, sweepstakes, and so on. All of these are part of digital marketing and are proven to help you build a strong brand.
Element 6 of 6: Your Interaction with Your Customers
Customers always love to hear from a human for whatever information they are looking for. But with the expansion of technology, we've almost forgotten that and engaged different automated systems to talk to our customers. But being as humane as you can, always let your prospects feel privileged, real, and interested to proceed more with your business.
So, creating a human-friendly interaction system consisting of real persons on your business front is brand growth strategy 101. Starting from your reception desk, customer support center, retail shop, email support, and even social media communication, employ a real human to be with your clients.
Bottom Line
These six elements of brand strategy are some of the many more elements of a brand strategy. Hopefully, we'll be coming up with another list some other day.
