What is brand strategy and why is it so important in today’s world?
Cutting through the noise and chaos to genuinely connect with customers is the holy grail for most businesses. Yet, many mistake brand strategy for a buzzword-laden exercise in differentiation. The truth? It’s not about standing out for the sake of it - it’s about standing out for something that matters.
Adam Arnold, Founder and Chief Brand Consultant of Brandality, slices through the fluff surrounding brand strategy to reveal what it really means - and why it’s the key to long-term business success.
The Purpose of Business and the Role of Brand Strategy
In The Practice of Management (1954), Peter Drucker wrote: “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” He believed that achieving this would naturally lead to optimum profitability. That still holds true 70 years later. Too many companies focus on making money, when they should be focusing on making customers - the latter takes care of the former.
In today’s multi-channel world of clutter and noise, making customers is more complex than ever. It’s no longer about shouting the loudest or adding more features; that just adds to the noise. A brand needs to not only stand out but stand out for something - something aligned with the needs and aspirations of its customers.
The Role of Brand Strategy
One of the simplest definitions of strategy I’ve heard is ‘designing a way to deal with a challenge.’ If we adapt this to business, we get ‘designing a way to deliver value.’ For brand strategy, it’s about ‘designing a way to shape positive perceptions.’ But if we want to add some muscle to that definition, we need to dig deeper.
At its core, brand strategy defines and shapes the DNA of a business - it answers why a company exists and why customers should care. It injects meaning and direction into a company, sparking awareness, affinity, and recognition among target audiences.
Above all, brand strategy should provide clarity and guide action. Just as a compass assists a ship in navigating its course, brand strategy helps companies chart a path toward becoming the brand of choice.
Become the Chosen, the Sought-After, the Desired
A brand strategy should not be mistaken for:
A structured framework
A set of goals and targets
A plan or list of plans
A document filled with aspirational statements
A commitment to just being different
Unactionable, pie-in-the-sky visions and missions
In the Harvard Business Review article ‘Many Strategies Fail Because They’re Not Actually Strategies,’ Freek Vermeulen explains: “A real strategy involves a clear set of choices that define what the firm is going to do and what it’s not going to do. Many strategies fail to get implemented, despite the ample efforts of hard-working people, because they do not represent a set of clear choices. Many so-called strategies are in fact goals.”
What Brand Strategy Should Be
A good brand strategy delivers:
Clarity – Who are we, and who do we need to become?
Focus – What should we prioritise, and what should we ignore?
Direction – How do we take meaningful steps toward our long-term vision?
Actionability – How do we implement our choices effectively?
When we’ve successfully facilitated brand strategy within an organisation, we feel the shift. The feedback we receive is always along similar lines “You’ve given us direction,” or “This has helped us focus and understand who we need to be.” That’s the real power of strategy - it provides clarity.
The Emotional Element of Brand Strategy
The neuroscientist António R. Damásio famously said, “We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think.” Consumer buying decisions are rarely purely logical. If they were, luxury brands wouldn’t exist, restaurants would be empty, and nobody would go on holiday. A £12 digital Casio watch tells better time than a £20,000 Rolex, yet in 2023, the Rolex brand was valued at approximately £9 billion.
People make choices based on how brands make them feel. That’s why a strong brand strategy aligns with customer emotions and aspirations.
What Good Brand Strategy Typically Entails
Understanding the Current State - Conducting a brand audit and research to assess how the company is currently perceived and where it sits in the marketplace. [More on brand audits here >>]
Understanding the Target Audience – Designing the customer profile to understand their needs, aspirations, and pain points. Brands that fail to do this are just guessing - I call this ‘pinning the tail on the donkey.’
Defining Challenges & Outcomes - Establishing clear, realistic business goals based on challenges that need to be addressed.
Brand Definition - Clarifying why the brand exists, how it’s different, what it wants to be known for, its proposition and value, and its visual and verbal identity.
Coherent Actions - Identifying the key steps required to bring the brand strategy to life.
Activation & Engagement - Communicating the brand strategy effectively across the business. Keeping it hidden at the top of an organisation is a missed opportunity - employees should be engaged, empowered, and aligned with the vision.
Review & Optimise - Brand strategy isn’t a ‘set it and forget it’ exercise. Markets shift, customer needs evolve, and businesses must regularly check in, adjust, and course-correct to stay relevant.
In conclusion
Fatigued consumers yearn for authentic connections. They’re willing to pay more and go out of their way for brands that resonate with them. When grounded in the right insights and focused on customers, brand strategy becomes an indispensable tool for business growth. It’s not about picking colours or writing aspirational statements - it’s about shaping perceptions and ensuring your business becomes the brand of choice. Most importantly, it gives you clarity on who you need to become to thrive. Don’t get caught in the fluff - keep it simple and make sure everyone in your organisation understands it. Do you have a brand strategy challenge you’d like to discuss? Get in touch.
