What Is a Brand Strategy? And How to Create One

A brand strategy is a type of marketing strategy that focuses on how a business will present their brand to consumers and position themselves within the marketplace. An effective brand strategy has the potential to confidently establish your business, attract your target market, and effectively articulate how your business differs from competitors.

In this article, you’ll learn more about what a brand strategy is, explore your brand’s foundation, and begin the process of building a brand strategy. At the end, you'll find suggested cost-effective courses that can equip you with the insights you need to pull-off an effective brand strategy yourself.

What is a brand strategy?

A brand strategy is a framework that determines how businesses present themselves to customers and stand out among competitors. Your business’s brand is more than just its name, logo, fonts, and colors. Think of your brand as the sum of your business’s look and feel, personality, philosophy, values, and customer experiences.  

Consistent and values-driven brand efforts inspire trust in consumers, who are increasingly purchasing from brands that offer quality while contributing to a better world, according to reports by Lucidpress and Edleman [1, 2]. With a clear brand strategy, you can: 

• Build your business

• Reach your ideal customers or target market

• Market your products more effectively

• Increase brand awareness in the marketplace

3 key steps to exploring your brand’s foundation

Complete the steps below to establish a strong brand foundation, and develop a strategy to present your brand to the world. 

Build business plan elements. 

A business plan is a formal document that describes a business’s goals and the strategies it will follow to meet those goals. Think of it as a roadmap you can use alongside a brand strategy to develop a thriving business. Follow the prompts below to compose a basic business plan, or refer to your existing business plan and explore ideas that will be fundamental to your brand.  

• What is your business’s mission statement?

• What value does the business offer your target customer?

• How would you describe your business model: the products and services you offer and their price points?  

• When you explore these details, what possibilities do you see for identifying a tone, mood, or set of concepts you could use to define your eventual brand? 

Read more: Business Plan: What It Is + How to Write One

Refine your buyer personas.

It’s important to know who your business serves so that you can design a brand and deliver an experience that resonates with them. A full market analysis can offer a thorough look at a specific market, but for this brand exercise, consider the following: 

• What are your target customers’ values and beliefs?

• What other brands do they admire, buy from, and stay loyal to?

• What are their typical objections when considering whether or not to purchase a product?

• How do they find out about new products? 

• How do their typical purchasing habits reflect their personalities, pain points, values, beliefs, goals, and needs?

Explore brand archetypes.

In your branding research, you might come across the idea of brand archetypes, which marketers and businesses have developed from psychologist Carl Jung’s concept of archetypes to describe the human psyche. Examples of brand archetypes include:

• The creator, to refer to brands that encourage self-expression, innovation, and creativity to solve problems

• The outlaw, to refer to brands that disrupt the status quo and inspire revolutionary attitudes

• The sage, to refer to brands that position themselves as thought leaders and experts in their industry

Exploring brand archetypes and identifying one or several that align with your business goals can be a great way to generate fresh ideas for your brand’s potential. To gain these insights, take an online brand archetype quiz, such as the ones offered by MasterBrand or Lucidpress.

How to build a brand strategy

It’s time to use the brand foundation exercises to build a strategy. Each of the following components of your brand strategy will require you to be creative and systematic, appeal to customers’ emotions and reason, and reflect deeply on your business objectives. 

1. Define your brand’s mission.

Your brand’s mission statement should communicate the purpose and philosophy behind the customer experiences you’re creating. Use the prompts below to help define your brand’s mission. 

• What inspires you to develop this brand for your business?

• What impact do you want your brand to make?

• What experiences do you want to enable for customers, including emotions, sensations, new thoughts, and possibilities? 

• What practical role do you want your brand to play in customers’ lives? What outcomes can your brand drive? 

2. Define your brand’s vision.

Your brand’s vision statement is a long-term, future-oriented goal for what your brand will become, the presence it will have in the world, and what it will accomplish. To describe your brand vision, think about what could be possible for your brand. Write it as though there were no barriers or limitations keeping you from making this possible.

Use these three examples as models for how you can phrase your vision statement: 

• To provide all children access to education

• To create a more connected world

• To become a leading provider of entertaining experiences 

3. Identify your brand values.

With your brand’s mission and vision clearly outlined, your next step is to identify the values. What does your brand stand for? What is the fundamental belief system behind every aspect of the brand? Answering these questions will determine how your brand behaves in the marketplace and the customers you attract.

To complete this part of your brand strategy, name and define the values you share with your ideal customers. Here are a few examples:

• Empathy and compassion

• Passion and enthusiasm 

• Tenacity and stamina 

• Trustworthiness and integrity 

4. Determine your brand positioning.

Careful brand positioning can help you distinguish your brand from others in your industry and capture your target audience’s attention. 

• What makes your brand and its products and services unique in your industry? 

• What are the specific differentiators, and how do they compare to competitors’ offerings? 

• How will consumers who fit your buyer persona perceive and respond to these differentiators? 

• What will they believe about your brand and its products and services?

Use answers to the above questions to craft a brand positioning statement: [audience] will choose [product] to experience [benefits and outcomes], because [audience’s beliefs].

5. Develop your brand voice.

Your brand voice will determine how you use language to communicate your mission, values, and personality to the world. The brand voice will keep your messaging consistent, from paid ads and organic social media content to emails, product descriptions, and customer service portals. It will also help you foster relationships with customers and gain their trust. 

Here are some questions to get you started:

• What do you want your brand to be known for?

• What adjectives would you want customers to use to describe your brand?

• How would you describe your brand’s personality?

• If your brand were a person, what tone, words, and phrases would they use? How would they come across? 

6. Design your brand’s identity.

Gather everything you’ve put together so far to design your brand’s identity. The identity will include all sensory experiences associated with your brand, such as the visual design of the logo, fonts, and colors; the taste, feel, or smell of your physical products; voices, music, and images that appear on videos; and the brand name and tagline.  

Subtle choices in font style, size, layout, shades of color, scents, sounds, and other design elements can influence how the world perceives your brand. Brainstorm ideas about how different design elements can do the following:

• Represent your brand’s mission, vision, and values

• Correspond to your brand voice

• Evoke the emotions you want customers to experience

As you generate the look and feel of your brand, it’s a good idea to work closely with members of your creative team, including graphic designers and product designers, to finalize your brand’s identity. 

Swoosh: a brief history of Nike's iconic logo

A strong logo is instantly recognizable and has the power to convey a company's values and personal identity to consumers in an instant. In the world of marketing, then, one of the most lauded logo's is Nike's iconic swoosh, which was created by graphic designer Carolyn Davidson in 1971 while she was still a student at Portland State University.

Reviewing the logo, Nike co-founder Phil Knight reportedly told Davidson, "Well, I don't love it, but maybe it will grow on me."

For her services, Davidson charged only $35 for the design, which has gone on to become one of the most iconic logos in the world. When the company later went public, though, Knight gifted 500 Nike shares to Davidson for her stellar work.

7. Create your brand guidelines. 

One of the most important tools for your business will be the brand guidelines—the definitive instructions, parameters, and standards that determine how you present your brand and everything it stands for to the world. Without clear guidelines, a brand can quickly become disjointed and thus dilute your message and weaken your business efforts. 

According to LucidPress’s 2021 Brand Consistency report, 68 percent of survey respondents said that brand consistency has contributed to 10 percent or more of their revenue growth [1].

Besides listing the physical aspects of your brand’s identity, the brand guidelines might specify some of the following practices: 

• The instances in which you’ll use your logo, as well as the maximum and minimum sizes it should appear 

• Messaging guidance, including keywords, phrases, tone, and voice, as well as language to avoid

• Editorial guidelines 

• Social media and website layout options 

• Paid ad display options

You might find it useful to compile the brand guidelines in a single document, slide deck, or booklet and distribute to everyone throughout your business. That way, marketers, sales staff, product developers, and the creative team can ensure that you’re providing a cohesive brand experience at every customer touchpoint.    

Read more: Brand Marketing: What It Is + How to Create your Brand Marketing Strategy

Build your brand strategy with Coursera

Taking an online course is a great way to gain experience with brand development and explore your business’s potential.

In Google's Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate, meanwhile, you'll learn to manage digital marketing campaigns, attract and engage customers, and measure performance through analytics. In the IE Business School's Branding: The Creative Journey Specialization, you'll begin your career as a branding specialist by mastering branding strategies, branded content generation, image creation, and customer experience.