Brand Strategy 101
What is a brand? It’s not the logo, or the latest ad, or just the product itself. A brand is EVERYTHING; it’s the sum total of hundreds (or more) touch points. All of these things add up to something that a customer, or employee, or partner, or retailer thinks of when your organization is mentioned or seen. So yes, it is the logo, and the product, and the website, and the videos, and the social media, and the employees. It’s all of those things.
That said, how do you intentionally create a positive brand? How do you guide your brand in the right direction? What if you’re a tiny startup? What if you’re a large and established business? What if you’re trying to reboot an existing brand that has lost its mojo?
All good questions, and I attempted to answer these in this brand strategy workshop. I wanted to share my decades of experience in marketing for the benefit of whomever was interested. So I put the idea out on LinkedIn and Instagram. We had over 50 participants from six different countries. Whether you were on the zoom and want to share the video with colleagues, or if you’re just hearing about it now for the first time, here’s a video of the session:
Importantly, I was joined by longtime colleagues and close friends Neal Foard and Meirav Sakalowsky. They both contributed their experience and smart thinking to the conversation.
Meirav is a former Nike brand manager for running and women’s fitness. And veteran of many successful freelance assignments in both consumer and B2B categories. She and I have collaborated on many assignments, and she brings tremendous experience and discipline to everything she does. And my work is always better because of her partnership
Neal is a creative director extraordinaire, presentation sensei, and veteran of automotive, tech and experiential marketing. He’s also: TikTok star with a huge number of followers who love his simple, inspiring stories that are full of wisdom. He and I met working on Toyota advertising together over 20 years ago.
During the session, we covered three basic pillars of brand strategy:
- Building a foundation for your brand
- How and why to understand your customer
- Aligning your organization and leadership team around the work
I hope you get value out of this workshop, and that it helps you decode and simplify the branding process.
