Features of A Successful Brand Strategy

A brand is a perception of what people think about your product, service or your company as a whole. It is necessary in this competitive world to create a unique brand position and identity, and stand out in your marketplace. Here are some of the common features of successful brands:

Brand Uniqueness

It is important for brands to have a well articulated brand understanding for the owners, stakeholders, employees and partners. An unwavering core idea is central to savvy brands. The core brand idea should offer differentiation - a concept that is different than the competition and resonates with the target audience. Even if you are selling a commodity and differentiation cannot be easily built into the product or service, weave something unique into your brand story; a quirky personality, unexpected brand colour or visual identity.

Understand Your Audience

A successful brand has a thorough understanding of the target audience; demographics and psycho-graphics. Who are they? What do they like? What are their interests? How do they best like to communicate? Most businesses have a specific target audience unless they are a huge corporation like Amazon offering a variety of services. Understanding the audience is critical as it provides a direction for the marketing strategy along with the overall brand identity. Creating a “Customer Archetype” is a good tool for companies to stay focussed on their primary audience. Always fact check with your customer - conduct market research and ask your target audience. Be armed with this knowledge to make smart, informed decisions.

Relevance of Offering

It is important to have a unique brand strategy and product offering, but it is more important to offer relevance to your target audience. A unique offering is great but if it isn't meaningful or relevant to your customer, then you are wasting your time. The entire strategy should be relevant to the needs of your customer. World class brands conduct market research, and study global design and technology trends to make sure their product is maintaining relevance with the existing and prospective customers.

Perfect Execution

Many companies spend a lot of time developing strategies but not enough time in implementing the strategy right down to the important details. A common theme for some of the biggest brands is the quality of execution of their services and offerings. Successful brands focus on flawless execution of their strategies and ensuring that the brand strategy is driven with equal importance internally as it is externally. Employees are the greatest brand ambassadors a company can ask for, so it is important to engage them in the strategy.

Keeping it Simple

Many brand launches are trying to focus on sophistication and exuberance yet these companies are struggling to establish what the brand actually stands for. The world’s most successful brands have simple ideas that can be explained in a few words. Simplicity of the brand helps drive a clean concise message through a multitude of brand touch-points.

Keeping it Consistent

Customers have expectations once they have experienced a brand. Those who come back for repeat sales expect the same level of quality that they experienced earlier. With so many competitors in the business offering the same services, it is important to be consistent and congruent with your product and service, or the customers may go elsewhere. Keeping it simple and staying the course allows for increased employee understanding, partner and consumer and engagement.