Nearly everyone who uses “brand strategy” gets it wrong. Here’s what you need to know.
Brand strategy is business strategy.
This isn’t a marketing activity, it’s a leadership one.
Meaning, brand strategy must help you articulate the company’s vision, both internally and externally. This doesn’t mean you write the copy for the ads and website, but it should mean you and the entire organization, which includes marketing, vendors, and partners, are clear on what you do, where you are going, and what they need to do to get you there. That part I call the “Optimization of Aspirations™.”
This is why considering brand strategy as a project, or something you outsource to your agency, is wrong. Strategy is not a project or a one-off that you do when you have a new idea or the business is struggling. It’s ongoing and has to be updated and adjusted outside the massive moonshot aspiration when the feedback, data, insights, and market tell you your theories are wrong or not quite right. Brand strategy must embrace the scientific method. If not, it is based on Whim, Ego, Emotion, or Opinion (WEEO™).
A strategy built on WEEO serves only one individual and makes it nearly impossible for the entire company to Optimize for Aspiration™, in other words, to do what is best for the brand and future customers. Which, my friends, is the number question we as business leaders must ask and answer, because it is the entire point of defining your brand strategy in the first place.
Brand strategy drives growth.
→ It clarifies your purpose: Why we do what we do…
→ So you can build your business strategy: What we’re trying to win at…
→ To create the IP to maximize your capabilities: What we need to be good at to win…
→ And build the tech and talent architecture: The tools and skills that make
us good…
→ And build the systems to deliver: How we deliver winning performance.
Illustrated, I hope it’s clear brand strategy is business strategy. Now find the right partner to own your brand strategy to unlock and lead you to your potential.
