Why Brand Strategy Is Important?

As a designer, you may wonder why you need strategy.

Let's distinguish two scenarios of approaching a new branding project — with and without strategy.

Meet Arek and John:

• Arek is a good designer, but he's also a strategist and his clients think he’s a genius.
• John is a good designer, but he struggles with his clients who often tell him what to do.

Clients usually come to us, graphics designers, asking for a logo, brand identity or other brand design work.

Strategist vs. Designer — A new project*

*Click to see the full infographic.

As you can see in my animation, projects often fall flat without proper strategy.

This is because you need to take a step back and lay the foundation for your creative work to come.

Follow my steps for creating brand strategy to align yourself and client on the same vision.

The goal of this workshop is to engage your client in the process and define key brand strategy elements.

So that you can turn these findings into insights that will help you design something that is "on brand".

Your clients will love you, because they'll feel like the ideas come from them.

And you will get clarity for the creative phase - designing brand identity.

How To Run a Strategy Workshop

Below you will find my branding strategy templates, so you can use them to develop your own process and worksheets.

So there are basically three ways in which you can run this workshop:

1. Run a whiteboard session
2. Fill out the worksheets with pen
3. Fill out the worksheets on computer

I'd strongly encourage you to run a whiteboard session — that's certainly the best option.

Who develops brand strategy? — You, the strategic designer, consultant, or facilitator.

It can be anyone, as long as you follow the framework.

How long does it take? — You should book at least 3 hours, which gives you about 20 minutes for each of the 9 exercises.

Who should be in the room? — You can have multiple stakeholders or just one CEO / Founder as participants.

Where to run the strategy session? — I usually rent a Breather office with at least 2 whiteboards and a TV to display the guide.

Hand out the worksheets to all participants so that they can take notes for themselves.

You can optionally meet your client in basically any quiet environment.

Brand Strategy Worksheets—Download the PDF with premium guide.

If meeting your client in person is not an option, then you can run this workshop online using Skype or Zoom.

I've also done a combination of both, where I run a whiteboard session over a video call, while my client fills out the worksheets with a pen.

And finally, you can just use my PDF templates (available only with premium guide) on fill them out on computer — either online, or in person.

So as you can see, the options are limitless and you can't really have any excuses.

Tips For Facilitator & Participants

First, get consensus from leadership — Brief the CEO or primary stakeholders on what's going to happen during the workshop.

Enroll them on being a “partner” in the process and explain what you are going to do and why it is important.

Give them a short overview of the brand strategy framework (see Intro) and what you're going to be able to accomplish together.

Here are the three principals that provide the foundation for what makes the workshop powerful.‍

• Live — Get all decisions makers in the room or on a video conference call
• Visual — Document everything in a visual way where everyone can see it.‍
• Fun — Make them feel comfortable to share ideas without reservation.

It's also important to ask participants to not veto, contradict or counter any suggestion a team member makes.

And as a facilitator, you need to:

• Control the agenda.
• Remain empathetic.
• Be encouraging.

Note: From now on, use this article as your script.

This is what you say as a facilitator — just repeat after me, memorize it, or at least try to remember key concepts.

So that you can run your strategy sessions with ease.

Let's get started.

Intro

So first, let me give you a quick overview of what we're going to accomplish today.

The brand strategy framework is divided into 3 sections:

1. Brand Core
2. Brand Positioning
3. Brand Persona

As you can see on the GIF below.

Brand Strategy Framework — sections.

Firstly, we’re going to clarify your brand internally.

So, we're going to start with your brand core, which includes your brand purpose, your brand vision, and your brand values.

Secondly, we’re going to position your brand in the market.

So then we're going to develop your brand positioning, which includes your target audience, your market analysis and your awareness goals.

And thirdly, we’re going to define your brand persona.

In the last section, we're going to create a human brand persona, which includes your brand personality, your brand voice and your brand tagline.

So to sum up, we’re going to run 9 branding exercises in 3 different section.

I’m going to draw each exercise on the whiteboard, but you can take notes for yourself by using the worksheets provided.

For some exercises I’ve included additional resources at the end that will help us complete these exercises.

But for other exercises we might want to quickly search the internet to help us fill in the gaps.

Brand Strategy Workshop — Research

However, you know your business well, and we're all creative people, so that we can complete this workshop with what we already know.

And later on, we can also expand on that by using actual data and performing deeper research.

Now, we’re going to set timer for each exercise, and it’s important to do it fast rather than being super accurate — speed is more important than accuracy.

Don’t worry about being perfect in your answers, because it’s also going to change and evolve.

Let’s jump right into the first section — defining the core of your brand.

Section 1: Brand Core

And this is the part of strategy that 99% skip over.

Now, it might not seem overly important early on, but having this foundation in place as the core of your brand, makes all the difference when you begin to grow and expand.

Let's start with your brand core, which includes your purpose, your vision, and your core values.

There are 3 elements in this section of our brand strategy and each plays an essential role in providing clarity for the internal brand.

Brand Core section.

Knowing these three elements and being crystal clear on each of them, builds confidence for the existence and direction your brand takes.

And this is because the expectations that consumers have of brands today are lot different than they had 20 years ago.

Now customers want to engage with genuine and authentic brands.

So in order to build a genuine and authentic brand, you need to know what you stand for, and then you communicate that well to the outside world.

You see, customers want the brands they do business with to have a strong core, so that they’re about something more than just selling them stuff.

Marty Neumeier — The Brand Gap

So building up the brand from the inside out, one that has a strong core, is really important.

Brand building strategy always starts with defining the internal brand first.

And when your brand knows who it is, knows where it’s going and knows why it’s here, customers can feel that authenticity and will stick around because of it.

And not only customers, but it will also unite your team internally and will help you make meaningful decisions that are “on brand”.

Now, I’m going to draw each exercise on the whiteboard, but you can take notes for yourself by using the worksheets provided.

Ok, so without further ado let’s jump right into the first exercise — which is finding the purpose behind what you do.

Exercise 1: Brand Purpose‍

Firstly, we're going to find the purpose behind what you do.

What’s the greater good behind your work?

Here you need to know why you’re in business and talk about it to rally your team and foster connection with your audience.

Brand Purpose exercise.

Let's start off by quickly explaining what brand purpose actually is and why you need it.

Brand purpose is a higher order reason for a brand to exist, other than just making a profit.

But why do we need to do that?

Because once we align your brand with some cause, you will have an uncanny ability to attract a cultlike following.

Our goal is to give people a purpose, a cause to champion, or a reason to believe so that they feel inspired to come to work or to buy from us.

So it will both: unite your team internally and also externally foster a deeper connection with your audience.

Brands that have committed to purposeful endeavors report:

• Increased market share
• Higher ROI
• Faster growth
• Higher sales

In fact, more and more customers are now happy to pay a premium for ethical and purpose driven brands.

Let me give you an example here: Tesla believes in clean, sustainable energy and saving our planet.

Brand Purpose Example — Tesla

So here, we need to identify that greater good and there are different causes that help either people, animals or the planet.

Ok so how do we find your brand purpose?

Here, we’re going to use the Golden Circle concept developed by Simon Sinek, the author of the bestselling book “Start with WHY”

Draw three concentric circles and label the outside circle “what”, the middle circle “how”, and the inner circle “why”.

First, In the outer circle (which is your WHATs

WHAT — List all the products you sell, the services you offer, or the jobs you perform.

Next, in the middle circle, let’s list your HOWs

HOW — all the values, actions and guiding principles that make you stand out.

Whether you call it differentiating value proposition, propriety services or unique selling proposition.

Basically anything that explains how you’re different or better.

And finally, let’s state your WHY, so here we need to define what your brand stands for.

Simon Sinek — Start With Why

Why you do what you do, and when I say WHY I don’t mean to make money—that’s a result.

By WHY I mean:

WHY — Why does your company exist? What's your purpose, cause or belief?

And here, you can basically link what you do to one of the causes that help people, animals or the planet.

Check out the list of common causes to support and select one that makes the most sense for your brand.

Brand Purpose — Causes To Support

Now once we’ve done that, we need to list a few examples of contribution and impact.

So first:

CONTRIBUTION — Think about specific stories of when you've felt most proud to do your work.

Again, this is not about money or other metrics, but it’s about what you have given, not what you’ve received.

So here, we’re looking for specific contribution you made to the lives of others.

At the contribution starts with an action verb, because our ultimate aim is to make your purpose actionable.

Look at the list of action verbs and pick at least 3 that capture the essence of your contribution best.

Brand Purpose — Action Verbs.

And finally let’s talk about the impact, which is the result of that contribution.

IMPACT — What did the contributions of your organization allow others to do or to be?

So think about how people’s lives were different after they interacted with your brand.

What were those individuals able to do or become as a result of your contribution?

Let’s come up with 3 impact statements.

And once we’ve done that, now let’s draft your purpose statement.

Purpose Statement Template.

Spend a few minutes combining your contribution with your impact to draft your purpose statement.

You may actually need to try a few times to find something that ultimately feels right.

Now, let’s put your Purpose statement in the main Strategy Worksheet‍

We’re going to do the same with there outcome of each exercise — put it into the main strategy worksheet.

So that we're going to end up with 1 page strategy sheet, which makes it easy to share with your team and start acting upon it.

Ok, so once we’ve found your brand purpose, now let’s look into the future and define your vision.

Exercise 2: Brand Vision‍

Secondly, you need have a vision of where you’re going.

Where is your brand heading?

Here we want to Influence long-term business decisions to ensure that your brand is navigated towards the right direction.

So if your purpose was WHY, then your vision is WHERE — Where you’re going.

So here, we need to create a rough map of where your brand is heading, and this is an opportunity for you to dream big.

Remember that the vision needs to be big enough that both the challenge and possibility of achieving it are audacious and intimidating.

Although the vision should be bold, achieving it needs to be a possibility, so that the team believes and buys into that vision.

So having some clarity on where you’re going will help you make more meaningful decisions and think more strategically.

This is because if a certain action points you towards your future brand, then you’re much more likely to stay "on brand" and on track.

Draw a timeline on the whiteboard, label it with 5, 10, 15, and 15 years into the future.

‍Now, let’s write a short description of the current state of your business.

So where are you now? In terms of business metrics — what’s you company size, customer base, market share, lifetime value and so on.

Of course if you’re a startup, you just just write down overall things like: we invested X amount in this project, burn X amount each month, have a website etc.

Think about what you do in 5 years — what do you want to achieve?

Where do you see your brand in 5 years in terms of growth?

This is a destination of what you want the brand or business to be in the future.

So let’s talk about your ambition, about some day in the future.

Of course you can’t predict everything, but just by writing down your ambitions, it will guide you and your team in the right direction.

If you achieve all your goals in 5 years, then

What will your brand look like in 10 years?

How big will it be? What market share will you have?

And what other products and services could you possibly offer?

Will you expand to other locations or to other categories?

You see, most brands never get where they want to go, because they’re not clear about where it is they’re going.

So let’s dream big and write everything down.

What impact will you have on your industry in 15 years?

How will your brand expand?

15 years is a lot of time and things change so rapidly that it might be hard to predict, but this is not about being accurate.

This is more about avoiding potential mistakes by spreading yourself thin and just rather staying on track and having a bigger vision.

And now, let’s talk about your ultimate aspiration.

ASPIRATION — If it all goes right, how will you impact the category you’re in?

Here you can use superlatives like “The world’s best”.

For example: McDonalds’ would say “The world’s best quick-service restaurant” .

Brand Vision Example — McDonalds*

*Check out my other article for more examples of vision statements.

For Tesla it would be “The world’s best electric car company”.

And finally, let’s define the ideal future state — your final destination or desired end state.

What would the world look like if this problem was solved?

And If you were completely successful in what you do, how will your brand change the world?

Remember here to be simple and concrete, and avoid any buzzwords or jargon.

For example, for Tesla it'd be “A world without fossil fuels”.

Ok, once you’ve done that, then let’s put it together and draft your Vision Statement.

Vision Statement template

And again, it might take a few tries to get it right.

So, spend a few minutes here trying to combine aspiration with your category to draft your vision statement.

Or simply use your ideal as your vision statement.

And remember — its needs to be short and to the point.

Ok, so once you’ve created your vision statement, now let’s define your core values and philosophies.

Exercise 3: Brand Values

And thirdly, let's determine your core values and philosophies.

What are your guiding principles?

Define your brand values and create a culture and driving force for what to stand for in the world.

And this is the last exercise in the core section of the strategy framework.

What are core values? — They’re basically the compass that points to the true North of your business success.

You values stand at the very core of your brand.

Here we want to figure out how you want your brand to be perceived in the market.

This is about how you DO things, so it’s more about the experience that your customers, suppliers and the wider public will have with your brand.

Let me give you an example here: Coca-Cola's core values are: Leadership, Collaboration, Integrity, Accountability, Passion, Diversity.

Brand Values Example — Coca Cola*

*Check out my other article to see more examples of core values.

Here we want to be clear on how we want to be perceived, and then we will put a solid guide in place, so that you can achieve that perception.

And being clear on your values, just like the other elements of your brand core, will guide communication and decision-making so that your brand remains consistent.

So how to define your brand values? — I see often people choose random values that just sound “nice” or “noble”.

But choosing standard values like “honest” or “timely” or “reliable” won’t help you stand out from the crowd in any significant way.

And this is because it’s not rally actionable, your team won’t know how to put it in practice and communicate it to the world.

So there’s no real feeling or emotion behind these words other than they just sound “nice" and as Richard Branson said:

Richard Branson quote

So how can you can dig deeper?

Draw 2 x 2 grid and label the columns negative and positive, and then label the rows: Experiences and Feelings.

So first of all, forget about idealized perfections—let’s start actually with things you don’t like, so first:

Describe negative experiences you had with brands in your or similar category

Or figure out what could go wrong.

And here you can even check negative reviews on the internet to see what customers don’t like about your competitors.

Or simply think about those experience you hated — maybe the customer service was terrible or maybe the project wasn’t done on time.

Or maybe it was finished on time, but it was done in a sloppy way.

So in the first cell let’s list at least 3 negative experiences.

And then, in the next one, let’s focus on feelings that this negative experience left you with.

How did that bad experience make you feel internally?

So here, list at least 3 negative feelings.

Now, let’s turn things around — what’d be the opposite,

What'd be desirable experience that you wish you had instead?

Here, turn negative into positive.

And finally, let’s think about positive feelings that those good experiences left you with.

How would that positive experience make you feel internally?

What’d be the desirable positive feeling?

Lastly, find values that you would like to adapt to ensure designing those positive experiences and feelings.

Find a list of common brand values and pick 3 to 5 that fit best.

And then describe them shortly — what they stand for, what they mean to you.

At this point, whatever values you’ve chosen, there’s a meaning behind them.

Brand Values Template.

Once you’ve found your 3 to 5 core values, then let's put them into the main Strategy Worksheet — as you did with other outcomes.

That’s it when it comes to the first section of our brand strategy toolkit.

And here we can take a 5-10 min break to grab a coffee or use the bathroom.

Ok so now, let’s move onto the 2nd part of our brand strategy, which is positioning.

PS. Also check my other article where I feature core values of famous brands.

Section 2: Brand Positioning

Since you’ve defined your brand internally, now let’s position your brand externally—in the marketplace.

In the 2nd section, we're going to develop your positioning strategy, which includes your target audience, your market analysis and your awareness goals.

And the importance of each element of positioning can’t be underestimated, because each one give us a clear understanding of your competitive edge.

Brand Strategy — Brand Positioning section

Equipped with this knowledge, we can shine a light on potential opportunities that your brand can take advantage of.

So when you have a clear understanding of your audience, their problems and needs, but also the players in your space, then you can just

adjust whatever you’re doing to be more appealing.

And these adjustments don’t necessarily need to impact business operations.

It might simply be in the way you present what your brand does.

Because look, positioning is all about perception.

So the way we present your brand makes all the difference in how your brand will be remembered.

Now, you don’t have to be pioneer, or have some original products.

Yes, positioning starts with a product or service, but positioning it’s not what you do to a product.

Positioning is what you do to the mind of the customer, so positioning happens in the minds of the target audience.

Al Ries — Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

So we need to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of your customer.

Even if you deliver similar product or service, you can still position yourself differently.

And just to give you and example — Let's think of 3 luxury car brands.

Perhaps you think of brands like Mercedes, BMW and Volvo.

Now let's do the opposite — Let's think of affordable car brands.

Perhaps you think of Hyundai, Ford and Toyota?

Whichever brand comes to your mind, this brand was able to take a specific position in your mind.

And this is basically the simples way of how positioning work.

However, different customers can position brands differently, based on their lifestyle and experiences.

Certain audience could say e.g. that Lexus Is an affordable car and wouldn’t even consider buying a Ford or Toyota.

That’s why we need to start with getting to know your audience first, so that we can understand and resonate with them.

So let’s jump right into the first exercise in the positioning section of our strategy, or the 4th exercise overall — which is your Target Audience.

Exercise 4: Target Audience

Now, we need to get to know your target audience in order to resonate with them.

So, what’s your primary customer?

And we have to understand your audience well, so that you can address their problems and needs with relevant solutions.

So we need to uncover the details about their lives and explore the personal side of their lives and what makes them tick.

We also have to understand the challenges they face, when those challenges come about and the state of mind they’re in as they face them.

And we do this to uncover the emotions they go through, so that we can connect with them on a human level through those emotions.

Donald Miller —Building A StoryBrand

Ok, so the first exercise in this section is creating your general customer profile.

Here, we need to understand the circumstances of their lives — from their day-to-day activities to lifestyle, preferences, and behavioral patterns.

Essentially what we need to do here is to get to know them better, and on many levels.

Draw 2 by 2 grid and label the cells as following: Goals, Problems, Feelings and Desires. Next draw a circle in the middle.

Here's the thing: speed is more important than accuracy — and this will change and we will adjust it later and dig deeper..

Don't worry too much about whether it's right exactly, because it's also going to change.

So who are the most common customers, man or women?

The first thing we're going to do is to pick a name for the most common customer.

And then let’s come up with some basic demographics. Let’s just give him or her a simple label e.g. “Stay at home mom in her early 30’s”.

First, let’s talk about their Goals.

What objectives and goals they have as it relates to your offering?

What kind of strategic aspirations or hopes they might have?

List here as many goals as you can in 5 minutes.

And we’re going for quantity over quality, because later we can eliminate those less important facts and focus on what actually matters.

So secondly, let’s talk about their problems.

What are the problems your customers face before they can get what they want?

What are their pain-points and core challenges?

And thirdly, let’s talk about how these problems impact your customer emotionally.

What do they fear because of those problems?

What emotions & feelings that they go through?

And finally, let’s talk about their desires.

What’d be the desirable experience?

Imagine what would be the best case scenario.

What would be the opposite of these problems and fears?

Once we’ve done that, now let’s circle the most important findings in order to describe our target audience in 1 or 2 short sentences.

And then we put this outcome in the main Strategy Worksheet.

Now, since we’ve created the overall target audience profile, now let’s analyze your marketplace to find your differentiator and write your positioning statement.

Exercise 5: Market Research

In the fifth exercise we're going to analyze your competitors to find opportunities.

Who are your direct competitors?

Here we’re going to look for gaps in the market to find your differentiator — how you can stand out and stand for something.

The basic approach to positioning is not to create something new or totally different, but to manipulate what’s already up there in the minds of customers.

I see many entrepreneurs look at their competitors for inspiration for what to do, and they look at their brand identity, the website, their offering, their communication and their social posts.

Then they try to emulate what competition is doing because it’s working for them.

When you look at your competitors, your goal is to set yourself apart, not to copy.

So you must look at them from the point of view of your shared audience and see what options they already have in the market and where the market is under served.

In a world of choice, where we have too little time and too many options — how do we choose?

Seth Godin — This Is Marketing

Well, as strategists we must choose to stand for something instead of just saying “You can choose anyone, and we’re anyone.”

So let’s go to the extremes and find that edge — Let’s stand for something, not everything.

Draw a simple XY grid and ask participants to pick 2 extremes. One for X and another for Y axis.

So now, for each axis let’s choose something that people care about.

And It could be something like convenience, price, speed, skill level and so on.

You can find a list of sample positioning extremes in the book "This is Marketing" by Seth Godin.