How do I do brand strategy?

Transcript

First, know what brand strategy means.

Brand is what your business stands for. Brand strategy is the deliberate exercise of deciding what your business will stand for. How do you know what your business should stand for?

Sometimes, it’s less an act of creation than it is an act of making explicit what’s already implicitly known. So, you’re crystallizing it and then articulating it clearly and often.

Other times, businesses don’t know what their focus should be. They don’t know what they should stand for. In either case, there are multiple ways to approach brand strategy, and you should choose a route that feels right for your business and your style.

We created the Ironclad Method approach to brand strategy for leaders who otherwise may consider brand to be too squishy or too mystical.

It’s a step-by-step process that any leader can undertake. It starts by defining your sweet spot customer and the alternatives that your sweet spot customer is currently considering. You then define the differentiating value that your business brings to this sweet spot customer, and you articulate that value on a ladder of functional to emotional. And then you specify the human characteristics that your business embodies.

Other than the Ironclad Method, there are lots of approaches to do brand strategy, and you should find the shoe that fits you.

The point is to do it! The point is to take a stand and to unleash that stand to your most enduring competitive advantage.

Has Brand felt too mystical or too squishy for your style?

Remember, brand strategy is a highly underleveraged tool for growing your business. By using it, you harness a competitive advantage that allows you to grow true to your purpose.