What is brand strategy? (Including brand strategy examples)

Updated 6 June 2023

A company's brand can have a powerful impact on its target audience and influence how successful the business is. Brands affect the way the audience perceives and relates to a product or company, and by developing a brand strategy, you set out a plan to shape perceptions through imagery and wording. Understanding brand strategy can help you with developing a plan for your own brand. In this article, we explore brand strategy in more detail and provide some brand strategy examples.

What are some brand strategy examples?

There are various effective brand strategy examples that can inspire you as you develop your own strategy. Each of these examples encompasses one of the key elements of a strong brand strategy. You can define brands in a wide variety of different ways, and every brand has its own unique identity. Your brand strategy is an opportunity to be creative, but a successful brand strategy usually has these elements. Here are different examples of brand strategies:

Brand purpose

The brand purpose defines the wider positive contribution that the company's work does. A strong sense of brand purpose is motivational for staff members and also helps the brand to better connect with its target audience. The brand purpose shows potential customers why they might engage with the brand. It briefly describes the reason for the company's work and you can express this through a purpose statement.

Dove is a powerful example of brand purpose. The brand's purpose statement, 'To encourage all women and girls to develop a positive relationship with beauty, helping to raise their self-esteem and enabling them to realise their full potential', concisely explains its commitment to encouraging women to embrace their natural bodies and be kinder to themselves.

Brand vision

Brand vision is a broad view of what the brand aims to achieve. This is the ultimate goal that the business is working towards and helps to ensure that all business activities and behaviours are contributing to achieving this. The brand vision is clearly and concisely expressed in a vision statement. The vision statement can motivate and inspire staff and can influence business decisions and strategic thinking.

An example of a strong brand vision is the one from Ikea. The brand's vision statement, 'To create a better everyday life for the many people', clearly conveys its ambition to be the world's leading homeware supplier. The statement is brief, but its intentions are clear.

Brand values

The core values of a brand help to create a company culture. Brand values are actionable points that communicate what the brand's principles are. Strong brand values can attract new customers and improve the company's image, and help to attract and retain staff members. An example of strong brand values is Innocent. Its core values are 'Natural, Entepreneurial, Responsible, Commercial and Generous'. These values guide the decisions and products that the company makes and shape its public image.

Brand positioning

Brand positioning intends to set a brand apart from its competitors. A brand wants to stand out to have an advantage over other companies. A brief positioning statement describes the core idea that makes the brand different from others. Hubspot is an example of clear brand positioning. Coining the term 'Inbound Marketing', Hubspot created its platform around the concept of providing helpful content that brings people to a website. Since their formation, they've grown to meet their customers' needs, embracing the customer-focused approach that they preach.

Brand tagline

The brand tagline communicates the spirit of the brand in a brief and memorable way. The brand's positioning normally influences the tagline. Taglines are customer facing and they help explain the brand in an engaging way using just a few words. A memorable tagline can help customers to recognise the brand and this can influence their purchasing decisions. Ford's tagline 'Everything We Do is Driven By You' is a strong example of a brand tagline. It inspires customers and helps them to connect to the brand. The tagline has become one of the core elements of Ford's brand and helps customers to remember its purpose.

Brand personality

Brand personality makes the brand more relatable by building a persona. An effective brand personality helps to develop long-term customer relationships because customers feel connected to the brand. Customers often look for brands as a way to express themselves and the brand personality helps customers to identify with specific brands. Harley Davidson is an example of a clearly defined brand personality, describing itself as 'a macho, rebellious, America loving and freedom seeking personality'. This helps the brand to connect to customers and influences all of its marketing material.

Brand voice

The brand voice defines how you want the brand to sound to other people. It expresses your brand personality through the use of language. You use this voice for all public communications. A clear brand voice helps to communicate messages consistently and convey the brand's personality. Tiffany is a brand with a strong brand voice, defined as 'witty, elegant and classic'. Its consistent branding and communication helps it to connect to customers. By using a consistent tone of voice throughout all of its communications, the brand is clear and reliable.

What is brand strategy?

Brand strategy is the development of a brand to help meet its business objectives. It defines the various components of your branding to create the character of the business. A clearly defined brand strategy can have an influence on almost every area of the business, from the internal company culture to how the business interacts with its customers. Brand strategy is now used by businesses of all sizes. Every business has its own unique branding, but almost every brand strategy incorporates a few key elements. For a successful brand strategy, these distinct elements align with each other.

Why is brand strategy important?

A strong brand strategy is important to a business because it can create longevity and help it grow. It helps you to develop a powerful brand that customers remember and prefer over other options. Clearly defining the brand also guides the business in its decision making and increases focus on the business's long-term goals. The brand strategy can help you to understand if this business is making desirable progress or if changes are necessary to realign with the brand.

Tips for building a brand strategy

There's a lot to think about when you're building a brand strategy, but there are some useful tips for getting started. These suggestions can help you develop a strategy that's clear and sets you apart from your competitors. They also help you make sure that the different components of your brand strategy are consistent with each other.

Define what makes you unique

Defining your brand positioning and thinking about what makes the business unique is a helpful way to develop your brand strategy. You can think about why your most satisfied or loyal customers choose your business. It's helpful to think about what makes your business unique, whether that's its overarching purpose, the brand's origins or the experience of your team members.

Develop consistent messaging

A helpful tip for building your brand strategy is to decide what your brand voice is and then ensure that all of your communication is consistent. Your brand's voice needs to be present and clear whether you're communicating via website copy, social media or an email marketing campaign. This helps more customers to connect with your brand.

Build a visual identity

Successful branding also requires a powerful visual identity. Visuals are consistent across all channels and the colours, logos and imagery you choose typically require a clear connection to the brand overall. Imagery and colour can be valuable tools for conveying a certain theme or concept and can connect to your messaging and brand voice. A great visual identity encapsulates the brand but also appeals to your target market.

Understand your audience

By understanding your audience, you're able to tailor your brand strategy to appeal to them and fit into their lives. By focusing on how to reach this audience, for example, through specific social media platforms, you can decide on the type of content that works best for your brand. You can use insights to understand your audience's demographics, interests and activity online.

Keep engaging with your audience

Finding as many opportunities as possible to engage with your audience gives you more opportunities to express the brand. You could offer online customer support, run competitions or offer interactive experiences. Customers are more likely to remember powerful brands that actively engage with them. Engagement also helps you to keep reiterating your brand to customers through interactions with them.

Please note that none of the companies mentioned in this article are affiliated with Indeed.

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