Brand strategy is business strategy.
Talk to most people in business, and it can be found that branding is something they begin to consider only after they’ve developed their product/service and business plan. For many, branding is the final step, the paint or decorations on a completed structure.
If only it were that simple. In reality, branding is something that needs to be considered as early as possible in the business development process. Within this article we’ll investigate the two key reasons why brand strategy is so essential to business development.
Without the details of the vision, the practical facts of a plan are overly ambiguous.
Think about what it takes to make a structure designed with a vision to meet a specific criteria.
Let’s take a look at Jane. Jane wants to build a monumental Spanish-style waterfront villa (see below) to enjoy the decadent tranquility of a coastal escape. On a practical, purely technical level, she wants a two-story building with ample square footage and abundant outdoor living space near the water. However, she’ll find it's in the details where her vision truly comes to life rather than in the basic elements of the structure itself.
What might some of the details be that are necessary to achieve Jane’s vision?
Her architectural plan might include vaulted ceilings to capture the grandeur of the villa style or a curving staircase to draw one’s eye to the upper level and emphasize the elegance of the space. It would have an expansive courtyard to take advantage of the waterfront views. These are all “details”, yes, but we’ll need to dig even further into those details to get to the root of the plan and how it can be achieved.
For example, she’s going to have to consider the material she wants to use for those vaulted ceilings, not to mention the cost and procurement of said material along with the hiring of skilled craftspeople for the installation. What about that curving staircase? That’s something that would need to be designed into the architectural and engineering plans from the get-go. And the courtyard? Well, that needs to be mapped, tiled, landscaped, and lit perfectly to achieve the desired ambiance. Still all of this is moot if she hasn’t considered the core component - the location itself, which would need to be scouted and planned to ensure the building is precisely oriented to achieve optimal light, privacy, and viewpoints for that dream courtyard and open living spaces.
In other words, if she wants to build a dream home for peaceful seclusion and outdoor bliss, Jane needs to have a strategy for how to achieve the vision beyond the most basic facts of creating a large two-story structure with lots of outdoor space. Her vision is built directly into the blueprint, budget, and staffing plan from the beginning of the development process through to the finishing touches of decoration and furnishing.
In essence, that’s what brand strategy does for a business plan. It takes the practical facts of what’s being created and defines all the specific criteria to ensure the plan captures the ideal vision.
To do this effectively, brand strategy needs to be included in the plans from the start. A mansion by the sea is the generic plan. A boxy modernist ode to simplicity or an elegant throwback to classic Mediterranean architecture could both fit the bill of the generic plan but each requires a radically different approach. It’s the specific strategy that determines which direction to take. And since it’s so fundamental to the overall plan, everyone needs to be on the same detailed page from day one.
Brand strategy helps determine what choices make the most sense for a business.
Now, let’s apply what we’ve just learned. Say Jane’s now developing an app to teach coding. She might start by asking herself a basic question like, should my brand be professional or playful? Even a decision as simple as that will have serious implications on how she develops everything going forward. Take into consideration:
The product - is it a game or an academic course?
The interface - is it character-driven with fun animations and sounds, or is it clean and technical with images of aspirational startup offices?
The marketing - is it about accessibility and ease of learning, or is it about being a professional solution to propel the user’s career?
These simple details will have weighty repercussions on how the business is built, who will be hired, and the opportunities that will be capitalize on as the business grows. Yet how does Jane know which direction to choose? This is where a brand strategy becomes a truly actionable tool.
As one has hopefully gathered from Jane’s dream home analogy, good brand strategy is founded on a deep understanding of a project’s vision. And just as with Jane’s dream home, every great business has an ever-present North Star helping guide the direction of their actions. It’s the “Big Idea” or vision that grounds them no matter what circumstances are thrown their way.
What a brand strategy does best is identify, crystallize, and create a roadmap to make this vision operational. This then allows founders to make decisions consistent with the true intent and motivating drivers of the business.
Going back to our dream home analogy, let’s think about the choice of picking a location. It wouldn’t make much sense to build a sprawling Spanish-style villa that emphasizes outdoor relaxation and quiet seclusion in the middle of a cold and densely populated metropolis simply because the land is cheaper. Just as with Jane’s dream home, her app business also needs to make contextually appropriate choices to meet its vision.
Why does context matter so much? Because the strategy should always serve to find the appropriate action to match the vision. It’s not enough to have a strategy if it’s not then applied to lived reality.
That means understanding the core competencies, goals, and resources of the business. It’s about uncovering the most important needs and wants of the customer and developing a deep familiarity with who they are and what makes them tick. In addition, one must understand the nature of the market, who else is out there, and how the business can stand apart from the competition.
With the context in hand, one can find the best product-market fit - that sweet spot where the business vision meets a strong market opportunity. The brand strategy allows one to evaluate the contextual details against the business’s unwavering vision by serving as a filtering mechanism to determine the best course of action - city or seaside, playful or professional. This gives a clear guidepost to determine what is to be built, how it’s to be built, and why it’s built in that particular way, fully backed by the facts of the context and the guiding principles of the vision.
That’s why at Outsiders, everything we do starts with the brand strategy. We strongly urge founders to begin this process early in their development so that their vision is integrated into the blueprint of their business plan as seamlessly as possible.
Final word.
Perhaps you’ve already fully developed your product/service and locked in the business strategy without integrating or defining a brand strategy. All is not lost. There’s a good chance, whether you realized it or not, that you’ve based your business solutions on some fundamental criteria that can and should play a significant role in the vision behind the brand strategy. The key is to identify those criteria and integrate them into a fully fleshed-out brand strategy as soon as possible so that all future actions are in alignment with the vision you’ve created.
Regardless of where you are in your business development process, we’re here to help crystalize your brand strategy and use it to create an epic launch that truly fits the needs of your business and audience.
