Branding 101: Brand Strategy

Get Results: hope is not strategy
Get Results: hope is not strategy

Pursuing a brand strategy gives your business a clear purpose for why you are engaging customers and provides a sense of direction for how you should be doing so more effectively.

Branding often involves engaging emotion and imagination but it must be combined with rationality and analysis if you’re going to be truly successful.

Strategy is about leadership.

Strategy is a friend in the good times and bad times. It helps avoid distractions, wasting time chasing after new shiny things and helps you avoid making rash decisions.

Often strategy and tactics get mixed up, so just to clarify…

  • Strategy is where you’re heading/going. Destination and desirability.
  • Tactics are details about how you get there. What you’re actually going to do (the actions)

I came across this explanation about the difference between Goals, strategy and tactics that I found very useful, so I’ll share it here as an additional resource.

Goal

  • Win the war

Strategy

  • Divide and conquer

Tactics

  • CIA spies gather intelligence
  • Navy seals knock out enemy communications
  • Paratroopers secure airports
  • Armoured division race in an divide the opposing army’s forces
  • Drone attacks take out the enemy leadership
  • An overwhelming force of infantry invade
  • Hand to and combat

Examples of STRATEGY

  • Increase sales
  • Bring in new customers
  • Get existing customers to buy more
  • Introduce a new product or service
  • Better establish your brand
  • Improve customer loyalty
  • Launch an advertising campaign
  • Launch a PR campaign
  • Encourage word of mouth
  • Retain existing profitable customers
  • Make customers feel more valued
  • Offer existing customers exclusive offers
  • Ensure business stays fresh and new
  • Grow into new markets

Morphological analysis was designed for multi-dimensional, non-quantifiable problems where causal modeling and simulation do not function well or at all. Fritz Zwicky developed this approach to seemingly non-reducible complexity (Zwicky, 1966, 1969). Using the technique of cross consistency assessment (CCA) (Ritchey, 2002), the system however does allow for reduction, not by reducing the number of variables involved, but by reducing the number of possible solutions through the elimination of the illogical solution combinations in a grid box.

Morphologic analysis is the basis of a brand strategy gives you 4096 business ideas.   Additional columns (aspects) and additional rows (variables) can be added to increase options from 4096 (8x8x8x8) to whatever you like. Link any one variable from each aspect to any others variable on the next aspect to provide a new business model variation.

Get Results: Morphological box example
Get Results: Morphological box example

Examples of TACTICS

Use…

  • Paid media
  • Social media content
  • Live video
  • Records video
  • Influencer marketing
  • Blog
  • Email marketing
  • Webinars
  • Podcasts
  • Video tutorials
  • Python /javascriot apps
  • Seminars

On social channels such as ..

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Google search results -SEO, PPC

Make use of…

  • Video
  • Graphics
  • Text
  • Audio
  • Info graphics
  • Mind maps
  • Clickable html images

Make sure you only use tools/channels that are going to help you achieve your strategy.

  • Talk about importance of [strategy] and offer a webinar or a worksheet to help audience do it
  • Talk about past achievements to illustrate a point. i.e. Strategy is often mistaken for tactics I’ve worked with many businesses large and small and many have this same difficulty.

Branding 101