Does your brand reflect and convey your organization’s beliefs, values, and promise? Does it accurately communicate the experience your customers have with your company, products, and service? If not, it might be time to rethink your brand strategy.
The elements of a brand strategy (unique value proposition, brand story, brand promise, tagline, and elevator pitch) work together to help your organization deliver consistent and meaningful impressions. Before we go any further, let’s define each element:
Unique value proposition (UVP): a clear statement that describes the benefit of your product, how you solve your customers’ needs, and what distinguishes you from the competition. This is a statement that describes what makes you different from your competitors and what you can provide customers that no one else can.
Brand Story: a one-page (or shorter) narrative that tells your story, describing who you are and what you’re all about.
Brand Promise: sometimes called a mission, this short paragraph explains what customers can expect when working with you.
Tagline: a short but sweet representation of your business that is immediately identifiable by your customers.
Elevator pitch: a very brief description of who you are and what you do. Everyone in the company can use this if they are asked about your business in an elevator, a party, a bathroom – you get the picture.
‘Start with Why’
Before you can begin developing a brand strategy, follow the advice Simon Sinek shared in his best-selling book Start with Why. (You can get the gist of his message by watching his TED talk, the third most-watched of all time.)
‘Why’ is your purpose, cause, or passion. It’s the reason your company exists. And defining why your organization exists is at the heart of your brand. Once you discover your Why you can give customers and prospects a reason to believe in your organization, buy your products, and in the case of your employees, dedicate their careers to fulfilling your company mission.
What Makes You So Special?
Next, use your Why to help determine what is unique about your organization and its offerings. Bear in mind that just because a particular product, service, or way of doing business is unique, it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily of value to your audience. To find out which of your ‘uniques’ is relevant to your market, conduct a customer survey. Then, use your survey insights to create buyer personas (AKA ideal customer profiles).
Buyer personas help you gain an understanding of who your customers are, what their pain points are, and how they go about purchasing products and services. Employing survey results and buyer personas will help ensure your brand strategy will answer your audience’s questions and solve their problems.
The Payoff: Developing Your Brand Strategy
Now that you’ve done your homework to determine why your organization exists, what makes it unique, who is in your audience, and what’s most relevant to them, you can confidently develop an effective brand strategy — one that makes authentic claims that can be demonstrated with evidence. Ideally, the brand you create will also be creative, recognizable, and memorable.
And that’s where an experienced marketing communication firm comes in. Most marketers turn to the pros when developing a brand. Revel has helped countless organizations determine their ‘why,’ hone their UVP(s), and develop a solid brand strategy that gets results. Find out how we can help you with yours.
Looking for help? Give us a call at 231.727.9778 or drop us a line.
