How you get to your final destination is just as important as the final destination itself—because without proper attention towards the method of arrival, you’ll never get to where you want to be. Aligning your brand strategy with your business strategy is absolutely essential to your success. But how do we determine the best way? Well, that’s where brand strategy comes into play.
Remember your brand is essentially your company’s personality. It’s not what you think or feel about your business—it’s what your users think or feel about your business. Your brand is what makes your users choose your products or services over your competitors. So the way to determine the best means to get to your destination is to determine the best way to reach your customers. And that is demonstrated in how you brand.
There’s a lot that can be said, and already has been said, about business strategy. We’re not going to get into a lot of details in discussing business strategy - there are many who have gone before us and have written material that really can’t be surpassed. Instead we’re going to focus on your brand strategy — what it is, why it’s important, and how to define it effectively.
First we’re going to assign two simple definitions to your business strategy and your brand strategy. Quite simply your business strategy should focus on where you want to go. And your brand strategy should focus on how you’re going to get there.
Business Strategy: Where you want to go.
Brand Strategy: How to get there.
This blog is meant to be practical, and I’m including elements from my standard branding process that I’ve used with clients for several years. The next section contains a variety of questions and exercises that will help you craft a vision statement for your business or organization. I hope it proves fruitful and effective for you.
So we know that a carefully defined vision is important because it provides direction to our decisions, gives purpose to our actions, and influences our practice. Let’s get a little more practical and talk about 3 important elements that make up a properly defined vision:
A Vision Provides Direction
John walked into an architecture firm on an early Friday morning to meet with one of the partners of the firm. John and his wife Mary were finally ready to build their dream house, one they’ve always wanted to live in. After pleasantries were exchanged the architect asked John what his vision was for the project. John replied, “well it’s our dream house…it’s what we’ve always dreamed of”. “Okay”, the architect replied, “but what exactly do you want it to look like”? “We want it to be great, we want it to be everything we’ve always dreamed of”. “Right, but I’ll need a little more information than that”, replied the architect. “I can’t design your house based on your dream. I need some direction to go on”.
It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek but you get the point - no one in their right mind would walk into an architect’s office and demand a design without providing some sort of direction. Sadly, too many approach their businesses without a clearly defined vision, which results in a lack of clear direction. Zig Ziglar has said “You need a plan to build a house. To build a [business], it is even more important to have a plan or goal.” A proper vision provides direction for your business. Without a vision how do you know if the direction in which you’re currently heading is the right one? Without a vision, how do you know if the decisions you’re making are beneficial?
A Vision Gives Purpose
For the most part, the things we do in life are done for a purpose. Most of us don’t do things just for the sake of doing them - at least on an ongoing basis. Let’s revisit John in the architect’s office. The architect asks John why he wants to build his dream house, essentially inquiring about John’s purpose. John could respond in one of two ways - first he could say something like, “We’re building our dream house because we can…we have the means and now we can do what we’ve always wanted.” Okay, that’s all well and good, but the architect is going to find it difficult to build a purpose around building a house just because one can.
Alternatively, John could respond, “We’re building our dream house because we want to adopt several children from third-world countries and give them a home to live in”. Wow, now there’s a purpose you can get behind. All of a sudden every aspect of this project takes on a new identity. The architect can now wrap his mind around this clear purpose and vision, and as a result, his design of the home will be much more informed.
Now not every vision needs to be as humanitarian as John’s vision, but the principle still stands. Does your perspective change after hearing John’s second response compared with his first response? Which statement do you think will result in a better designed, more “successful” project?
A carefully defined vision is important because gives purpose to the actions that you take in your business.
Influences Practice
Let’s continue on that same thought. If John’s vision for his dream house is to construct a place where needy children can find a home, now the architect can begin to develop direction around the design of the house, and the entire project is surrounded by a sense of purpose. Additionally John’s vision influences the practice or elements the architect might use in designing. For instance, the architect may decide he needs more bedrooms than a standard house would, larger bathrooms to accommodate the growing family, an expanded yard and outdoor area so the kids can play, unique rooms such as a play room, media room, etc.
John’s vision affects how the architect designs the house - the practice - because of the specificity of John’s vision. John describes what he wants to do and where he wants to be - in a house with adopted children from needy areas - and as a result is able to better direct, give purpose to, and influence the practice of his vision.
You’re probably not building a house, but let’s say you’re trying to design a new product to bring to market. The same principles can apply. Without a vision of what you want to accomplish with your product, you will have a hard time providing direction to your decisions, giving purpose to the countless hours you’ll spend in development, and influencing the various practices to bring the product to market (i.e. a website or direct mail campaign? Sales team or video blog?).
Philip Knight, co-founder of Nike said of his vision for the company, “We wanted Nike to be the world’s best sports and fitness company. Once you say that, you have a focus. You don’t end up making wing tips or sponsoring the next Rolling Stones world tour.” Because Knight and others in Nike had a defined vision, they were able to clearly lead and grow the company.
Art Credit: Manet, Boating
In order to achieve lasting success, and to not end up as just a flash in the pan, your brand must be able to evolve. The first step is to create a unique brand idea. The second step is to define why consumers can’t live without your brand. The third is to develop a long-term strategy for growth that allows your brand to stay ahead of the curve, and evolve with the changing market trends and consumer demand.
We’re seeing this firsthand in the auto industry. With higher gas prices, economic challenges, and changes in consumer tastes, the SUVs are shifting from a product of high demand to a product of low demand. Most SUVs are very unique products. And most car companies have done a good job convincing the consumer why they should care about a particular brand of SUV. But how many of these companies will make the necessary changes for the brand to evolve? How will the changing market trends and consumer demands affect the long term success and failure of this industry - that will be determined by which brands successfully evolve.
In your small business or organization, you must think long term. You must employ strategies and initiatives that not only keep your brand in the forefront of your customers’ minds from a unique and relevant perspective - they must see you brand as one that is not affected by change, but rather as one that AFFECTS change. You’ve got to be a trend setter, a leader, not a follower. It may be different from business to business, from industry to industry, but if you don’t pay attention to the shifts in market demand, you’ll find yourself with yesterday’s news.
Here are some quick questions to ask about your brand evolution:
In order to achieve lasting success for your brand, especially for small businesses and organizations, you must do your due diligence to create a different, relevant, and evolutionary brand strategy. And you must have all three - it’s an all or nothing play. But if you work to create a brand strategy that effectively employs all three elements, you’ll go far in positioning your brand for success.
Art Credit: Michelangelo, The Sistine Chapel
Last week, we talked about the first key to branding, “You Must Be Different”. As important as it is though, you can’t just be different. It’s not enough to offer your potential customers more choices - you have to offer them a better choice. Your brand must be relevant. Your brand has to matter to the consumer - otherwise, you may have the most unique product on the market, but nobody will buy it because you haven’t done a good job convincing them WHY they should buy it.
Anyone remember Clear Pepsi? Pepsi came out with the product in the 1990s and it made a big splash initially because it was different. How could something taste like Pepsi but be clear? It’s a freak of nature, what is this sweet nectar!
It was clearly (no pun intended) a unique product. But Pepsi missed one important part of the puzzle, and as a result, the brand flopped a short time later. They didn’t make the product relevant. People didn’t care. They figured, if it tastes like Pepsi, why not just drink Pepsi? Or Sprite if you’re into that clear thing.
The bottom line is that Pepsi created a unique product that people just didn’t care about. And it wasn’t successful. In the same way, you have to position your brand in such a way so that people will care about it enough to shift their purchasing habits. It’s a challenge, but a necessary one in order to achieve success.
Here are some quick questions to ask about your brand relevance:
Art Credit: JMW Turner, Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps
If you’re a small business or organization and it’s been a while since you’ve looked at your brand strategy, or if you realize you’ve never given any thought to developing your brand, now is the time. Before you make one more sales call, print one more flyer, or invest in new office equipment, why not spend some time focusing on the most important aspect of your business?
You don’t have to do everything at once. Effective brand development takes time, and once a brand identity is created, it must be faithfully managed so it can successfully evolve. You need to craft a long-term brand strategy, where you set your prioritites, figure out what needs to happen and when, and work to harness the various brand touchpoints that will help grow your business.
Every small business owner wants one thing - to grow their business. I would submit to you that by participating in an effective process that discovers, defines, and deploys proven strategies to grow your brand, you will, in turn, make your business more successful. How do you accomplish this? Let’s start with the first of three keys to branding for small business.
When we think about brands and branding initiatives, more often than not we think on a large scale. Global brands come to mind, or Fortune 100 companies. Rarely, when we think about branding, do we think about small business. And if you’re a small business owner, chances are you haven’t given much thought to your branding strategy either.
Small businesses have a myriad of challenges to face and frequently have to face these challenges without the safety net that many large corporations have. As a result, businesses and and business owners tend to drop their branding efforts before anything else, usually because it’s easy to cut these efforts out. Unfortunately, by doing so, businesses cut off their lifeblood, the central line contributing to and driving their growth and success.
Here are some of the more prominent misconceptions that I’ve heard from small business owners over the years:
I’m a fan of studying history, and firmly believe that no matter the topic or industry, a study of history makes us better at what we do. We can learn from the ideas, failures, successes, and processes of others, and can find some incredible inspiration for our brands and businesses.
As we look at branding, and seek to define how to build a successful brand, it’s important to look back on where we’ve been. So here’s a quick look at the history of branding. I’ve pulled a lot of this from Marty Neumeier’s “The Brand Gap”, in my opinion one of the best books on branding from one of the top branding minds.
At the turn of the century, products (brands) were defined more by individual features, what the product “has”. Think about the automobile - the car was a relatively new invention, so each added feature was a key brand element. If Ford produced a car that would seat three individuals, Cadillac would produce a car that sat four - and the company’s advertising and branding messages would vary accordingly.