How to use brand strategy to build an effective brand
TL;DR
Brand strategy is a set of guidelines used to build intentional and consistent brand experiences. Crafting the brand strategy takes part in the discovery phase of Cheltenham’s brand development process. In our 2-hr brand clarity workshop we complete a brand audit, taking a look at your brand’s past, present, and future. Next, we complete market research, noticing your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, competition, and ideal audience to align messaging and art direction. Then, it’s time to craft your brand’s visual identity, including logos, colors, fonts, and other visual elements. Finally, we put it together and build a website that draws your audience in and articulates your value. Interested in building a comprehensive strategy? Get in touch.
What is a brand strategy?
Brand strategy is a set of guidelines that helps businesses articulate their core values and determines how they present themselves to customers to stand out amongst the competition. The brand strategy involves aligning business goals, your unique brand personality, and your ideal audience. Brand strategy creates the guardrails for designing every experience of your brand.
Does your business need a brand strategy?
An effective brand strategy helps you make intentional choices, saving you time, energy, and money. It brings clarity to the allotment of your resources and attracts qualified leads who are ready to make a decision. Your brand will look like it was made for them but you're just being yourself 😏. Every brand could benefit from clarity and having a brand strategy. An effective brand strategy doesn’t just build a better brand, it builds your brand.
Cheltenham's Brand Strategy Approach
Cheltenham’s brand development strategy is rooted in human-centered design. It combines research, intuition, empathy, and the recognition of tension. You’ll be guided by a brand strategist (that's me!) intent on designing solutions to help you reach authentic expression and optimal flow toward your brand goals. Our brand development journey starts with research and ends with expertly crafted branding that clearly articulates your value.
Our discovery phase includes:
Brand Audit
Market Research
Messaging clarity
Brand Strategy Report
Phase one: Research & Discovery
The first step in our brand clarity workshop is a brand audit where we take a look at your brand’s past, present, and future to better understand your story and goals. We recognize any tension in your brand experience and come to understand your audience’s pain points. If you're on the hunt for a brand strategy, most likely, you are aware that there needs to be a change somewhere but can you pinpoint the issues?
Answering questions like these can be the first step in drafting a successful brand strategy:
What problem will your brand solve?
Who benefits from your brand?
Who are your competitors or rivals?
What is the personality and voice of your brand?
To craft your brand we first need to understand who you are and the tensions or misalignment between the brand, its audience, and their engagement. We like to ask questions that get our clients to think differently, allowing for richer conversations during the brand development process.
Here’s a sample from Cheltenham’s brand clarity questionnaire:
Describe your brand as if it were a candle scent 🕯️
Why do we ask this question?
We experience life through our senses, what we hear, smell, touch, taste, and see as humans. Knowing the fragrance you associate with your brand helps us empathize with your ideal brand experience.
A skilled designer makes associations based on the answers provided, and designs brands that feel, light, airy, woody, or fresh using colors, shapes, and other principles of design, translating your verbal concepts into visual ones.
Answers we’ve received from our clients:
Crisp & clean pine
White and green tea
After the brand audit is finished, we will complete market research by taking a look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and competition. Once we complete the research stage of our brand development process we analyze the information, provide strategic recommendations for brand alignment, and present our findings in an easy-to-access digital kit and brand guideline pdf. Your complete strategy will include your brand's purpose, philosophy, vision, mission, values, audience, and messaging. All are articulated to attract your ideal client.
Is your business stuck chasing goals instead of hitting them? Struggling to attract new clients? Or ready to update to a modern aesthetic? Our brand development package aligns your business objectives, the ideal user experience, and expert design.
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
Phase Two: Design
Crafting your brand’s identity
The characteristics of your brand directly contribute to the audience you attract. It's best to be intentional about who you are and the value you provide. Our brand identity process includes discovering and articulating your:
Ethos - Your band’s guiding principles.
Aesthetics - How your brand likes to look, smell, sound, etc. This includes your logo designs, brand colors, fonts, patterns, and other design elements.
Culture - What do you and your community value most?
Personality - Your brand archetype or inner personality. Plus, how your audience aligns with it. It’s how you see yourself and how others perceive you.
Voice & Tone - It’s how you come across when you communicate.
“The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know the world will tell you ”
We wrap everything into a final brand standards kit so you and your team stay consistent in your communications. Together, brand strategy and brand identity move your business forward with intention by aligning your business objectives, the ideal user experience, and expert design.
Phase Three: Development
It’s now time to take everything we’ve learned about your brand from its goals to how it likes to walk and talk. We use this information to craft a digital space in the form of a website that embodies your brand’s values, messaging, and aesthetics. Now there goes a brand to brag about 😍.
Gabriel Carter wants to encourage growth. He is the Founder and Brand Strategist at Cheltenham. He is currently residing in Baltimore, helping small brands unlock their potential to thrive while discussing his personal growth and identity through poetry and design.
