In a competitive business landscape, are you losing out to competitors or struggling to reach your target customers? Here’s how a strong brand strategy solves the top five challenges businesses face.
What do brands like CommBank, Woolworths, Telstra and Bunnings have in common? Aside from big budgets, in-house marketing teams and market share, they all have clearly defined unique selling propositions (USPs) and clear brand positioning driving their business forward to nail their business goals.
They have a strong understanding of who their customers are, what they like, and how to engage and delight them.
It’s your brand that positions you as an industry leader, encompasses your vision for the future, and allows you to diversify your offering and access new markets to capitalise on untapped opportunities. You may have defined your business strategy: your vision, mission and long-term objectives, with firm plans on how to achieve them. Your brand strategy, on the other hand, underpins it and allows you to bring it to life.
What is a brand strategy?
Your brand strategy consistently communicates the characteristics and values that your business stands for, its difference from your competitors and clear customer benefits. It encompasses your story, values, personality and tone of voice. If you have multiple brands, it may encompass a brand architecture framework and portfolio strategy.
A clear brand strategy allows you to benchmark against competitors, identify strengths and weaknesses, articulate your unique selling proposition (USP), and define your customer journey and buyer personas.
Brand strategy is an important tool to establish a strong and unique identity in the marketplace. It can help you to overcome a number of common business challenges. Here are the top 5 businesses challenges that can be solved with a solid brand strategy:
1. Lack of direction or vision
Companies without a long-term vision are easily threatened by those with clear agendas. Even successful multinational organisations aren’t immune.
While your business may be clear on your product and service offering, it’s your brand strategy that defines your brand promise, succinctly stating your most compelling unique selling proposition (USP). The language you use should align with your brand personality to maintain consistency. Brand strategy and brand design services, therefore, give your business the clarity and direction you need to achieve your goals and KPIs.
2. Increased competition
Understanding your market competitors is critical to improving your strategy and creating greater value in your overall brand. Support from an experienced brand design agency brisbane or brand audit agency can help you assess your market competitors and understand where their tactics succeed and fail, and how you can position your brand to gain a competitive edge.
With a strong brand strategy you can differentiate your business from competitors by clearly defining your unique value proposition, which can then attract and retain customers who are seeking a specific product or service.
3. Lack of customer loyalty
Your customers can make or break your business. To create great relationships with them, you first need to capture their attention, engage them and retain them.
Engaging a brand design agency can help you define your customer journey and personas. It can help you understand who they are, how to reach them, and what’s important to them. As an experienced brand audit agency, we’ve helped countless businesses gain better clarity and attract higher-quality leads through a brand strategy that defines their customer personas and journey. Different target markets can require different messaging. A brand strategy helps you build trust and loyalty with customers through a consistent and memorable customer experience across all touchpoints including tone of voice, visual identity and customer service – all which can create an emotional connection with customers.
4. Problems with attracting and retaining top talent
A strong brand strategy helps your business to attract and retain top talent by creating a compelling employer brand that aligns with the organisation’s values and culture.
While it’s important for your people to understand your business promise, knowing why you come to work each day – your brand promise and purpose – is more specific and carries more weight. It differentiates you from your competitors and unifies the direction of your team. Brand strategy (including brand guidelines, brand architecture and brand design services) is vital to the reputation, growth and internal engagement in your business.
5. Limited marketing budget
Brand strategy ensures you are able to maximise your marketing efforts by ensuring that all communication and marketing materials are cohesive, consistent and contributes to brand recognition. This helps to effectively communicate your value proposition and build customer loyalty, even with a limited marketing budget.
A well-defined brand strategy can also help you to successfully and more cost-effectively launch new products and services by leveraging the existing brand equity and built reputation. Support from an experienced brand audit agency with brand design services can provide you with a brand archetype to define your personality, communication style and tone of voice.
At Viabrand we are experts in brand strategy, rebrands and brand refresh agency. Feel free to book a free, no-obligation 15-minute call to learn more.