What are the most common brand strategy pitfalls?

Lindsay Says

Brand strategy work is deceptively simple — which is precisely why so many companies get it wrong.

Here are the pitfalls I see most often.

1) Confuse brand strategy with marketing execution.

Brand strategy lies upstream from marketing — it articulates what position your business will own. This North Star should govern everything customers experience across all four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. A tagline or visual identity is merely an expression of that strategy — it is not the strategy itself.

2) Create a brand strategy without the explicit co-authorship of the CEO.

Without CEO co-authorship, you might have a clever marketing campaign, but you do not have a brand strategy.

3) Seek consensus.

If you do the brand strategy well, not everyone will love it. It should be brave, and the enemy of brave is a lot of people weighing in. Brave choices require small rooms. If you show me a brand strategy, I can tell you how many people were in the room.

4) Hide behind the illusion that more research equals more certainty.

You'll never reach 100% confidence anyway, so don't let lack of research paralyze you. Brand strategy requires leadership courage — no amount of customer research can replace that.

5) Write a brand promise that is vague.

Your business’ brand promise is only as useful as it is precise. Fuzzy language leads to fuzzy execution. Sharp language enables sharp execution.

6) Write a brand promise that is not ownable or distinctive to your business.

This may be the most common error I see: a brand promise that's resonant but is actually just a category benefit. Pinpoint what you alone can deliver.

7) Insist the brand strategy must be all science, or all art.

Powerful brand strategy incorporates both intuition and analysis, both heart and mind. It is grounded in fact but also leaves space for aspiration.

8) Finally, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

The B+ brand strategy is almost always preferable to no brand strategy. Don't wait until you have all the resources you wish you had. Do the brand strategy with what you have and do it now. Action creates clarity that planning never will.