As Greg Hoffman, former Chief Marketing Officer at Nike once said, “Your brand is your story. It’s how you choose to express your product, your ideas, your services to the world. But there isn’t one way to tell this story, because your brand isn’t just one idea or characteristic. Like any good story, it’s comprised of multiple elements and subplots, tangents, and twists. Unlike any good story, your brand’s story never ends. You are always telling it. Every time you put something out into the world, you are telling your brand’s story”.
When it comes to B2B branding, this idea is particularly relevant. Your brand strategy should be an ongoing narrative that captures the essence of your company and what sets it apart in the market.
In this article we’ll explore brand strategy, share tips, and establish best practices you need to build a strong, memorable brand strategy that sets you apart from the competition and connects with your target audience. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to revamp your existing strategy, our team of experts has the knowledge and experience to help you succeed. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and let’s get started!
What is Brand Strategy
Brand strategy is a long-term plan for the development of a successful brand in order to achieve specific objectives and goals. It includes the development of a unique brand identity, a clear understanding of target customers and end users (consumers), and a strategy for messaging and communication. The goal of a brand strategy is to differentiate a company and its products or services from competitors, and to build customer loyalty and preference for the brand over time.
The Difference Between Brand Strategy and Marketing Strategy
Often, brand strategy is confused with marketing strategy, but there is a clear distinction between them. A brand strategy is a plan for developing and maintaining a company’s brand while a marketing strategy is a plan for promoting and selling a product or service. Let’s explore each one in more detail.
A brand strategy focuses on the development of a unique and consistent brand identity, which encompasses a company’s personality, culture, values, tone of voice and most importantly, positioning. It focuses on creating and maintaining an emotional connection with customers and establishing brand recognition and loyalty. The objective of a brand strategy is to build a strong and recognisable brand over time.
Marketing strategy, on the other hand, is concerned with developing tactics for attracting and retaining customers, such as distribution channels, advertising campaigns, and promotions. It also deals with pricing, product positioning and messaging. The objective of a marketing strategy is to increase sales and revenue.
Overall, having a strategy in place for both brand and marketing can lead to a more cohesive and effective sales and marketing effort, which can result in increased brand recognition, customer loyalty, sales, and revenue.
Exploring Brand Positioning
At Progression Digital we define brand positioning as a concise statement that includes a company’s brand identity, target audience, and the benefits it offers relative to competitors. It serves as a roadmap for the company’s brand, sales and marketing efforts and helps to ensure that all company initiatives are aligned.
A company positioning statement typically includes the following elements:
- Company name: The name of the company being positioned.
- Target audience: The specific group of customers being targeted by the brand.
- Unique value proposition: The unique benefits the brand offers to its target audience.
- Differentiator: The most important factor/s which differentiate the company from its closest competitors.
- Promise: A statement of the brand’s promise to its target audience, such as quality, reliability, or value.
A company positioning statement is not meant to be a public-facing document, but rather an internal tool that helps to guide the company’s brand and marketing efforts. It is important that all stakeholders, including employees, understand and are aligned with the company’s positioning statement in order to ensure consistent and effective brand messaging.
Whenever we meet with a new or current client wanting to begin a brand identity project, website design project or develop a new marketing campaign, our first point of discussion is to understand and help define a clear brand positioning, so that our effort and focus is aligned with the objectives of the business. Without a clear starting point, it becomes more difficult to make decisions about the brand identity, tone of voice in communication, and overall objectives of a specific project or campaign. This in turn leads to poor briefing, project scope creep, longer timelines for execution, the potential to waste budget and less effective results.
How is Brand Strategy Relevant to a B2B Business
Brand strategy is just as relevant to B2B (business-to-business) companies as it is to B2C (business-to-consumer) companies. In fact, a well-defined brand strategy can be even more important for B2B companies, as B2B purchases are often higher value and involve more complex decision-making processes than B2C purchases.
The benefits of a strong brand strategy for a B2B business include:
- Increased credibility: A well-defined brand strategy helps to establish a B2B company as a credible and trustworthy supplier in the minds of its target audience.
- Differentiation from competitors: A strong brand strategy can help a B2B company differentiate itself from competitors and stand out in a crowded marketplace.
- Improved customer loyalty: A well-defined brand strategy can help to build emotional connections with customers, leading to increased customer loyalty and reducing the risk of customers switching to competitors.
- Better targeting and messaging: A strong brand strategy can help a B2B company better understand its target audience, which can lead to more effective and efficient marketing efforts.
- Increased sales and revenue: A strong brand strategy can lead to increased sales and revenue by attracting new customers and retaining existing ones.
In summary, a strong brand strategy can help B2B companies establish credibility, differentiate themselves from competitors, build customer loyalty, improve targeting and messaging, and ultimately increase sales and revenue.
