Everyone would love to have a step-by-step brand strategy framework that makes the task easier. But before going into that discussion, it will be helpful to review a couple of concepts that set the foundation for it: what is strategy & what is brand
Strategy is defined as a broad course of action that when you adopt will put you in the best position with your environment helping you achieve your strategic objective. A brand, on the other hand, is a cohesive sum of associations in the mind of a consumer with a name, logo, or any other element of identity -it is neither found on the shelves, nor in the showrooms/ e-commerce stores or anywhere else
A brand strategy then would be identifying the best set of associations to be liked with a name, logo or whatever you are working with. This set of associations is built around a theme. A theme is necessary because a brand is always a cohesive whole not just the sum total of disparate parts
A strategy starts with a big objective and what is standing in the way i.e. preventing you from achieving this. It means identifying the real problem not just the symptoms of the problem, by analyzing the “context” and then developing a broad policy guideline or approach that will best solve the problem. This sets the beginning of developing a brand strategy framework:
Current brand image
If it’s a new brand, then this step won't be necessary. If it’s an established one, you’ll need to assess its current image or how consumers rate it on different attributes that were originally intended for it to be associated with it. Research can help hereContextual Analysis
The next step involves conducting a through contextual analysis in 5 key directions, also called 6 C's of brand strategy! One should be careful to explore these landscapes keeping in view the long term trends and dealing with more intangible assets or liabilities than tangible ones. This is how it works:Cultural landscape: Try to find out what’s happening in the consumers' culture. What’s changing and why is it changing? What is the pace of change? What’s stagnant? All these in some sense relevant to our brand
Consumer landscape: What are the consumers needs and wants? Are they being met by current offerings? What are their fears and desires? Life goals? Their values? Their relationships with brands, etc.
Category landscape: What are consumer expectations? What role does the category play in their lives? Their key motivations for purchase decisions? Are substitutes products or services available? What are the key usage occasions? What key trends can you spot? What is the market structure?
Competitor’s landscape: Who are the main players? What are their competitive advantages? What are their growth strategies? Who is winning? Who is losing? Why? What are their vulnerabilities?
Communications landscapes: What is the level of buzz in the category? What is the role of communications? Who are quiet and who are saying and what are the saying?
Company landscape: What are the company's ambitions? What is their overall approach to business? What's the leadership's posturing? What is the company culture, key values?
The Brand Ambition
The purpose of this analysis is to identify the key brand problem and state it as a daring challenge. If you have identified it correctly, your half the job is done
Next is to identify the broad strategic approach to meet the challenge. This is the most critical stage. There is a risk that you may either try to kill a sparrow with a cannon or hit an elephant with a pebble. The response needs to be appropriate with the challenge at hand.
The challenge and the broad strategic approach together may be called the "Brand's ambition statement" and is usually written as "(challenge) In order to be e.g. perceived as the most effective brand of anti dandruff shampoo, (strategic approach) Clear has to become a clear authority in the anti dandruff shampoo's category.
The challenge and the broad strategic approach together may be called the "Brand's ambition statement" and is usually written as "(challenge) In order to be e.g. perceived as the most effective brand of anti dandruff shampoo, (strategic approach) Clear has to become a clear authority in the anti dandruff shampoo's category.
Brand Identity System
Now look for the insight: what does being an authority in the context of anti dandruff shampoos mean to them? It could be - one who succeeds when all others fail or one who's an unquestioned champion or the one whom no one dares to challenge.
Pick the most compelling one and craft a brand essence from it. This would be the central theme around which other reinforcing associations like personality traits, values, functional benefit, emotional benefit, discriminator, etc. are built. This last piece of the brand strategy framework which summarizes the key output of brand strategy is called The Brand Identity System
Clear brings its strategy to life through featuring their Brand Ambassador Cristiano Ronaldo in action. He embodies many associations Clear team would like their Brand to link with such as: always performing, dependable, considered an authority figure in his field, consistent, billions of followers, a role model, authentic, self assured, etc.
Most companies prefer to have their own proprietary tools to describe the brand Identity systems depending on the broad similarities in challenges they face while developing brand strategies for majority of their products e.g. Unilever has Brand Key, Ogilvy's proprietary tool is called The big ideaL, Coca Cola Company uses Brand Vision Architecture, British American Tobacco uses their own Brand Authorship, etc.
