What is brand strategy?

Brand strategy definition

A brand strategy is the long-term plan for developing and positioning a brand in order to establish clear values, a distinctive identity and a strong emotional connection with target groups.

It involves aligning the brand with the company’s goals, differentiating it from the competition and creating a consistent brand experience across all touchpoints.

Brand strategy is crucial for the development of branding. In theory, the design possibilities are almost unlimited, but the question is: which design is right for a particular company? Which design helps the brand to present itself in the right light, inspire people and sell its products or services better?

Developing a brand strategy

To help you create a brand that makes a difference, Helder translates your company’s USP into a brand strategy, brand design and brand story. 20 years of brand experience have enabled us to develop a process that has proven itself regardless of industry, company size and business model: the Frame your Brand® method.

Why is a brand strategy important?

A clear brand strategy helps to make the right decisions in the countless decisions that have to be made every day in a company, and it should be possible to apply the brand strategy in every situation.

It is therefore important to simplify and reduce the strategy communicatively without trivializing it: with the Helder Brand Frame® brand model.

Brand strategy process

A clear brand strategy brings consistency to brand management and brand presence. It helps to decide what the brand stands for, what it offers, how it speaks to whom and how it behaves – and what and how it doesn’t.

This makes the brand recognizable, comprehensible and credible for customers. When people know what they can expect from a brand, it creates trust.

As a result, they are more likely to remain loyal to the brand, which generates economic added value for the company.

The individual brand strategy depends on external and internal factors that are different for every company.

However, for every brand there are certain aspects that are essential in the process of developing a brand strategy and which we work on as part of our brand workshops.

1. Competence – defining the brand’s value proposition

This is about how you define your brand’s core competencies to differentiate it from the competition and create real value for your target audience, with the aim of creating a clear and focused competency description that highlights strengths and benefits and differentiates your brand in the market. It is the answer to the question: “Why you and not the others?”

• Unique selling proposition (USP)
• SWOT Analysis Template

2. target group – define for whom the brand offers solutions

A precise target group analysis is essential for successful branding. Target groups consist of people or companies with similar demographic, socio-economic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics.

Understand the challenges of your target group in order to offer tailor-made solutions and real added value. This will optimize your brand strategy and strengthen your position.

• Buyer Persona

3. Ambition – formulate the goal the brand is pursuing

A strong vision or ambition is essential for the long-term success of a brand. It defines the future ideal state, provides orientation, inspires teams and creates emotional loyalty.it is important that the ambition is inspiring, concrete and authentic in order to serve as a strategic centerpiece.we show creative and projective methods that support the development of clear and future-oriented goals.

• Vision Statement Template

4. Mission – formulate what added value the brand generates

An effective mission statement is crucial for strengthening the brand and convincing customers and employees.

We explain three core components that invite you into a story and how to successfully communicate the mission statement so that it creates clarity, arouses interest and benefits the brand.

• Mission Statement Template

5. Brand values – define what the brand stands for

Brand values are crucial for strengthening companies in competition, talent acquisition and customer loyalty. Authentic values promote commitment, loyalty and differentiation from the competition, and successful brand values should be clear, memorable and authentic and lived within the company. We show you the dos and don’ts.

• Brand values
• Brand values card set

6. Brand essence – define what the brand is all about at its core

Defining a clear brand essence is crucial for strong positioning and consistent brand perception.

The brand essence represents the essence of the brand and a strong brand essence simplifies messages, creates emotional connections and makes the brand stand out. We explain how to develop and implement the brand essence.

• The ‘Brand Core’ episode will be available on our YouTube channel from February 26. Subscribe now!

7. Brand purpose – formulating why the brand is in the world

The brand purpose is the intrinsic motivation for the existence of the brand. It defines the why – the brand’s raison d’être.

The question of purpose is becoming increasingly relevant for brand strategy and it is no longer enough to differentiate oneself through product features.

Brands with purpose strengthen trust, promote loyalty and increase their success in the long term.

Using examples such as Dove, Nike and Patagonia, we explain how an authentic purpose enables growth and relevance and explain how to define a purpose using the Golden Circle.

• Brand Purpose
• Brand Purpose Board Template
• The episode ‘Brand Purpose’ will be available on our YouTube channel from March 5. Subscribe now!

Brand Activation & Brand Design

The Brand Frame® is a tool that strengthens brand identity by clearly defining mission, values and core messages. consistent implementation is crucial for a successful brand strategy; this is where the real work begins. we provide impulses for internal and external implementation, e.g. through the targeted involvement of the team through brand ambassadors, making the Brand Frame® visible and integrating it into everyday working life and translating it into a strategic brand design.

The episode ‘Brand Activation’ will be available on our YouTube channel from March 12. Subscribe now!

Transferring the content into a brand strategy model

In order to establish a causal relationship between the elements of the brand strategy and thus create a consistent brand identity, it helps to transfer the aspects mentioned into a brand strategy model.

These models help to compare whether the individual elements are related in a meaningful way. A brand strategy model clearly shows the hierarchies and synergies between the elements.

It should be easy to read and understand so that it provides support in day-to-day business and for company management. We have developed the Helder Brand Frame® for this purpose.

Helder Brand Frame® brand model

The Helder Brand Frame® forms the content framework for brand management from brand core and brand values, ambition and mission as well as competence.

The Brand Frame shows at a glance what the brand stands for and within which framework you have to move in order to remain true to the brand.

With the help of the Brand Frame you can check whether brand design, brand communication, storytelling, brand experience and tonality, but also processes and measures, products, services or partnerships are on brand.

What brand strategies are there?

House of Brands – multi-brand strategy or single brand strategy

The logic here is that one product group corresponds to one brand. An example is Unilever with brands such as Dove or Knorr, as well as Henkel with Persil, Weißer Riese, Pril and Pritt. The single brand strategy makes sense if a company offers many heterogeneous products that appeal to different target groups with different requirements.

Branded house or umbrella brand strategy

All of a company’s services are managed under a uniform brand. The umbrella brand strategy is suitable for companies with a very broad focus, such as Sparkasse or Siemens.

Family brand strategy

New products are related, are oriented towards and benefit from the already established brand image and expand the positioning with new attributes – in the case of Nivea, for example, Nivea Men or Nivea Sun.

Blended house

In blended strategies, corporate brands appear together with other brands, whereby either the corporate brand can dominate or it appears on an equal footing with the other brand, e.g. Google.

Endorsed brands

In an endorsed brand strategy, the umbrella brand supports the individual sub-brands. The brands have individual appearances and brand messages, but are enhanced by the “signature” of the umbrella brand in order to create positive associations of the parent brand with the new products.

Family brand strategy

New products are related, are oriented towards and benefit from the already established brand image and expand the positioning with new attributes – in the case of Nivea, for example, Nivea Men or Nivea Sun.

Blended house

In blended strategies, corporate brands appear together with other brands, whereby either the corporate brand can dominate or it appears on an equal footing with the other brand, e.g. Google.

Endorsed brands

In an endorsed brand strategy, the umbrella brand supports the individual sub-brands. The brands have individual appearances and brand messages, but are extended by the “signature” of the umbrella brand in order to transfer positive associations of the parent brand to the new products.

The corporate brand: one brand for everything

The simplest type of brand architecture is the corporate brand. Every service and every product is given the same brand name.

Templates for creating a brand identity

Methods, templates and resources to support the branding process.

Brand strategy agency

While companies continue to develop, this often does not apply to the brand to the same extent.

Don’t leave your brand to grow organically, but take the lead: as a brand agency and design agency, we support you with brand consulting.

With our brand workshop, you will develop the foundations for consistent, strategic brand design and messaging – for a brand that makes a difference.