What is Brand Strategy Development?
Brand strategy development is the process of defining a business’s core identity, its competitive position and its communication framework deliberately, rather than allowing them to emerge from whatever the business happens to do.
Key Takeaways
- It is a sequence, and the sequence is the method: gather evidence, settle the internal identity, claim a position, then codify the messaging and the identity that express it.
- Identity work comes before expression. A logo and a palette designed before the position is settled will have to be redone or defended.
- It starts with evidence rather than preference, because a position is a claim about a market and has to be available to claim.
- Its output is a document the organisation can brief from, not a presentation it agrees with once.
Understanding Brand Strategy Development
A brand that is not developed deliberately still forms. It forms out of the product, the first customers and whatever the founders happened to say, which is why ventures often find some way in that they are known for something they did not choose and cannot easily change.
Developing it deliberately means taking the steps in order. Evidence first, so the position is grounded in what the market actually contains. Then the internal identity, because a position without one is a slogan. Then the position itself, stated narrowly enough to be ownable. Then the messaging framework and the visual identity, which express a decision already made.
That order is what makes the later work cheap. Each stage constrains the next, so the messaging has a position to express and the identity has messaging to carry, instead of each being settled on taste.
Related Terms
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How is this different from brand strategy?
Brand strategy is the plan. This entry describes the process of arriving at it, and the order the stages have to run in.
Can a business do this after launch?
Yes, and most do. It is harder, because there are existing perceptions to account for, which is the point at which an audit becomes the first step.
Where does visual identity fit?
Late. It expresses a position, so the position has to exist first. Designing it earlier means designing without a brief.
This term is treated at length in How to Create a Brand Strategy from Scratch.