Sometimes it's hard to take those fab ideas that our rolling around in our noggins and organize them in a way that makes them actionable and, when you're developing a brand, that can spell trouble.

That's where a brand strategy comes in!

What is a brand strategy you ask?

Think of your brand strategy like a mini business plan: it’s a process (and ultimately a document) that will map out the personality of your brand and why it exists. It delves into things like your ideal clients, your brand personality, your brand values, and more!

Defining what your business is really here to do, and understanding why that matters is one of the most crucial aspects of launching a business and informs all the visuals of your brand. Plus, the biggest benefit of a brand strategy, is that you’ll be clearer and more confident on so many aspects of your business and brand, meaning you can more easily and effectively make decisions that impact the growth of your business!

Here’s a breakdown of each main item included in a brand strategy:

1. BRAND PERSONALITY

i.e The vibe, atmosphere, and language used by and for your business. What words do you or don’t you use? What atmosphere are you creating? When your business talks, you need to think of it as a person in order to see and create a personality you can use for it. The brand personality includes the brand voice and language guidelines. While not as thorough as they might be when working with a copywriter, the language guidelines can help you in starting to craft messaging and copy for your social media and website.

2. IDEAL CLIENTS/ CUSTOMERS

The people you want to buy from you or book with you, or just want to be part of your community. Getting specific about these people is a really good thing and even if you end up focusing on a very niche person, it’ll only make your life easier. Why? Because until you know who you’re talking to, you have no idea how to talk to them (or where to talk to them either!)

Read this post to get clear on who your ideal customers or clients are →

3. BRAND VALUES

There are things you care about as a business, and they matter. They’re part of what makes you special, part of what you can add to your brand personality, and they will help to attract those ideal clients of yours. And they don’t need to be big, high-level concepts either - they can be as simple as talking with kindness! Whatever your business holds dear, someone else will too and that’s what matters. We suggest sticking to no more than 5 core values for your business though and considering how your business will uphold them on a daily basis.

Read this post to learn more about brand values →

4. BRAND MESSAGES

What is it that you want to say to your people? What do you care about? What makes you, as a business, unique? Those things can become your core messages; the foundational pieces of your business that you want to make sure a visitor can read, feel, and know about you through your brand.

Read this post to start defining your own brand messages →

5. COMPETITOR REVIEW

A look at your competition (both direct and indirect) to see what they’re doing and how you can be different, or better, than them. When writing a business plan you may do a full SWOT analysis, but in a brand strategy you want to take the time to look at a few competitors to get the lay of the land and see how your brand identity (the visuals of your brand) can stand out.

5. STYLE DIRECTION

The final piece (that we add into brand strategies when working with our clients) is taking all of the above to curate a visual style for the brand. This is the launch pad for a brand identity and it all starts by defining items 1-4 first and then making sure it’s reflected in the imagery chosen for your business.

When your brand is cohesive, it means your customers can get to know it, build relationships with it, and know what to expect from it. You're giving people stability and, hey, we could all use some of that in our lives.

Spending the time, upfront, to figure out all the ins, outs, and eccentricities of your brand will give you a roadmap for where you're headed. It’s part of every brand identity project we work on, and for a very good reason!

Without one we wouldn’t know what direction to take the visual identity of a business in, or why it would matter. Each and every design decision we make goes back to the strategy, helping to effectively grow and support the businesses we work with.

If you’re interested in working with us to develop your brand (and business!) check out our core brand identity package here or send an email to hello@saltdesignco.studio

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