People often confuse brand strategy with design and communications. They start with logos and taglines and work backwards, as if creating logos and taglines are the goal.
But brand strategy is not a creative act or a creative asset. When we think of it that way—and when we focus too much on execution—we run the risk of jeopardizing the value of the brands we’re trying to build.
Brand strategy is the ongoing discipline of navigating high-risk, high-reward decisions that grow brand value.
- FOCUS: It’s as much about deciding what not to do. Focusing on some priority outcomes and staring down tough topics that blur brand and business like–where can our brand drive market share?
- EXPERIMENTATION: It’s about experimenting with the art of science of qual and quant methods and anticipating trends to shape a forward path.
- INTEGRATION: It’s about integrating an acquired brand into your company to transfer equity AND make the new employees feel welcomed.
- MEASUREMENT: It’s about determining how to measure progress of the brand over months, not just this week’s demand gen results.
- SIMPLICITY: It’s about sorting through the complexity of an endless layer of products you offer and simplifying how you go to market.
- HONESTY: It’s about being radically honest about what your company is good at–and about what you’re not.
- NURTURE: It’s about constantly nurturing the direction of the brand–day in and day out–vigilantly looking out for shifts in the marketplace.
- MINDSET: It’s about knowing the mindset of all stakeholders, not just customers, but employees, investors, regulators and the general public.
In the end, brand strategy isn’t always easy or simple, but its impact can be huge. To do it right, you need left-brained thinkers who have the skills and the drive to help you make the high-risk, high-reward decisions day in and day out. CMOs who take brand strategy seriously will no doubt put themselves in a much better position to protect and grow their brand, elevate their role in the company and outshine the competition.
