In Conversation with Jo Reid: Unpacking Brand Strategy Like a Pro

Q: How do you define brand strategy?

A brand strategy is basically your brand’s game plan. It tells you what you need to do to hit your goals and make your brand as strong as possible. Think of it as a “catch-all” term for all the tools and actions you’ll need to make your brand shine.

Your brand’s goals might be to become the favourite in its category, be top-of-mind for shoppers, or be known for a unique attribute. To nail these ambitions, your brand needs a clear plan, the right skills, and a deep understanding of what truly matters.

Another way of looking at brand strategy is as careful information integration and curation. People/consumers combine different pieces of information to form an overall impression or judgement about a brand. A brand strategy is what you need to make sure that all the pieces of information visible to consumers are the right ones, the ones that you want them to use to form their impression and that that impression is clear and coherent.

Lastly, it’s important to define the key elements that make a brand strategy.

• Proposition

• Positioning

• Purpose

• Vision

• Values

• Personality
  

Q: How do you differentiate between brand strategy and marketing strategy?

These are very different things - the difference between a blueprint and a roadmap. Brand strategy is the blueprint, more permanent. It is the summation of who a brand is, how it behaves, what it wants to be and what it means to people. It’s constant and foundational.

A marketing strategy is more dynamic and constantly evolving to take account of new needs, new objectives and new obstacles. It is the routemate - being much more tactical. It’s about specific actions that need to be taken to promote the brand - how it should be priced, where it should be distributed, what promotional mechanics should be used, what media platforms should be selected and what messages should be targeted at certain audiences and where and when.

Q: What are common challenges brands face when developing a brand strategy?

• Lack of clarity and focus, trying to make the brand say, be and do too much. Refusing to edit and get rid of extraneous ‘nice to have’ information.

• Too many cooks spoiling the broth – creation by committee, blandness, leading to a lowest common denominator outcome.

• Losing singlemindedness, trying to be all things to all people

• Floppy, meaningless values that state the obvious, express things that any brand should want to be or deliver e.g. integrity, quality. If a brand has these as its values it could be trying MUCH harder and is wasting an opportunity to find more meaning in its existence!

• Making it a reflection purely of ambition, being too optimistic rather than a true reflection of what the brand is and does. A brand strategy can be aspirational but it has to be rooted in what the brand already is and does, be true to it now, otherwise, it might never be delivered.

• Rose-tinted glasses – painting an overly positive picture of the brand rather than acknowledging its weaknesses. Sometimes weaknesses can be the basis of strengths – how many times do you think the Marmite team tried to ignore the fact that some people hate the stuff, until someone thought of embracing its polarising nature and turning it into a strength?!

• Lack of understanding of what a brand strategy is and why it’s important. Unless you understand what brand strategy is, it’s very easy to write it off as ‘marketing speak’, to think of it as simply to do with logos and taglines and as something ‘fluffy’ rather than a crucial commercial tool. ‘Brand’ can be a very misleading word as many people still see it as being a visual entity and therefore brand strategy as being the process of creating one.

Q: How do you measure the effectiveness of a brand strategy?

There are various ways to determine whether a brand strategy is effective. It’s important to consider its effect both on users/consumers/audiences and the people who work with the brand every day.

Inside the organisation

• Does everyone within the organisation buy into it? Is everyone excited to be part of delivering and living it day to day? Do people within the organisation immediately see lots of things they can do better or differently as a result of having articulated it? Does it unite different voices and opinions, create more of a sense of unity? Do people understand it? Can everyone articulate it as something they believe in?

• Is it easy to apply? Has it led to the development of new, exciting and successful initiatives? Has it made decision-making easier? Is it a springboard for innovation and ideas?

Amongst consumers

• Is the brand achieving its objectives?

• If such things are tracked in regular research, is it scoring more highly on measures linked to the strategy/articulation?

• Is the brand seen as distinctive, unique?

• Do people like and respect the brand (things like Net Promoter Score can indicate this)?

• Are people talking about the brand (on social media in particular) in ways, tones and vocabulary that are reflective of the brand strategy?

Q: How can brands remain relevant in a constantly evolving world through brand strategy?

Brands shouldn’t constantly flex themselves to fit and accommodate changing trends in the consumer landscape and beyond. They need to be true to themselves and the core of what makes them unique and important. That said, they might modify their behaviour or adapt and evolve the things they say or how they express themselves in the products they make and services that they offer to be more relevant to evolving consumer needs and expectations. But having a solid brand strategy means less likelihood of adapting too much, of wafting around in the breeze and being inconsistent.

Brands need to observe what’s changing and use their brand strategy to work out what this means for them, how they respond to change in a way that works for them and makes best use of what they have and that doesn’t waste the emotional capital and credibility that they have built up over time.

An example of a brand that seems to have done this quite well is the Ford Capri which has recently been relaunched – it feels linked to the whole Capri brand from the 1970s but in a way that works for car buyers’ needs and wants today. In contrast, Jaguar feels as though it’s massively overcorrected, looking at the evolving world and shaping its brand to fit, rather than finding an interpretation of the changing world that works for everything that makes it unique and special.

In short, a strong brand with a strong brand strategy can and should see changes through the lens of the brand and make those changes work for the brand rather than see the brand through the lens of a changing world and change the brand to fit.

Q: How do you maintain brand consistency across various channels?

You have to maintain consistency across different channels and having a clear understanding of your brand strategy enables you to do this.

You can only achieve this by being absolutely clear about what your brand strategy is and by making sure that everyone who is involved in applying it to different channels has the same understanding of what it is.

Having tools and processes that ‘police’ every expression of the brand to check that it delivers the brand strategy can be helpful - it doesn’t need to be as draconian as that sounds…having a brand book/guidelines to follow can achieve this.

It is vital to make sure that everyone who is responsible for how the brand expresses itself in those channels follows brand guidelines and sees their role as being to keep all faces of the brand aligned

Q: How do you inject creativity into a process that requires a clear and consistent brand message?

Arguably it is easier to be creative when you know what you are trying to express and to achieve. The best and most effective creative is focused and clear – delivering a clear consistent brand message is both a challenge and an opportunity.

Brand strategy should be seen as a springboard not a stranglehold, inspiring and guiding the creative process.

Unpacking brand strategy like a pro

A strong brand strategy is your North Star. It keeps you focused, grounded and ready to tackle whatever comes your way. As Jo Reid puts it, it’s all about seeing changes through the brand’s lens and making those changes work for you.

Stay tuned for more insights and strategies from the brightest minds in the industry!