The ultimate cheat sheet to brand strategy

Hello, brand strategy. Where do you start? So you’ve got a great product. Congrats! And now you want to bring a whole brand to life. Let me help. There are a few boxes to check on your way to a solid

1. Brand name.
   Think big here. Think about all of the products your brand could offer (not just your first product), and how each brand name might feel in a “big world” of those products. Will it still make sense? When GIR (my first CG company) pivoted to making straws (and later masks), the shift was seamless because we were still making products that got it right. Once you have a few options, sit with each of them. Say the name out loud as you practice your elevator pitch or pretend you’re telling a new friend what you do for a living. How does it sound? Do you love it? Is it awkward? Is it easy?
   

2. Competitive analysis.
   This step is critical. It’s important to understand who your competitors are going to be and what their weaknesses are. Collect some information around their price points, how they’re marketing their brand, and where they’re selling their products. Let this information collection exercise be as research-based or anecdotal as is comfortable for you right now. You don’t have to turn this in like a homework assignment; you’re just looking to educate yourself. Maybe you want to drop it in a spreadsheet; maybe you just need to create a mental map. (Though spreadsheets will help—eventually.)
   
   These days, Amazon is a great place to start. Enter the search terms that best describe your product and see what pops up. Pay close attention to reviews! What glitters is not always gold; just because a product is cheap and looks good, doesn’t mean it is great quality. So if something shows up in the search but has poor reviews–that’s your sandbox. Play there. Your competition’s weaknesses can become your strengths.

3. Target audience and price point.
   Who is your ideal customer? How old are they? Where do they live? How do they spend their free time? Homing in on your target audience will help you craft your messaging. Again, I think this exercise can be research-driven or anecdotal. You can write it down, or just put your thinking cap on. I always bias toward action, and if structure gets in the way of that for you early on, then take the structure away and just let your brain do some thinking. Then again, if an organized and written structure helps you form the thoughts, do that.

   
   Now, match that customer picture up against your product price. Is your product an essential, or a splurge? Is it a one-time or occasional purchase, or more of a repeat consumable? Do you think people will give it as a gift? If you don’t come up with specific answers to everything, don’t worry. Just think about all this as the general neighborhood of customer and price targets. You’ll get down to street addresses as you go, but in the early stages you’re thinking at “zip code” level first.

   
   What’s the point of all this? Well, if you resonate with your potential buyer, they’re more likely to take action. Plus, you avoid wasting time speaking to people who aren’t interested. Make sure that these “stories” around your customer and their buying behavior (and budget) make sense in your head. At GIR, our customers were people who wanted the best. A superlative buyer, in marketing-speak. It wasn’t all about price point; it was about quality and exceptional performance, so that’s who we spoke to!
   

4. Brand statement.
   This one is important, but it’s not as scary to tackle as it might sound. Your brand statement is a sentence or two that describes your brand’s core identity. It’s what you stand for and how you operate. If you say it out loud, it’s your 30 second elevator pitch. It’s what you would want to tell new customers visiting your website for the first time. This blurb doesn’t literally have to end up on your home page, but writing as though it will can be a helpful angle for brainstorming. The finished product will be a touchstone that you should revisit periodically, as a gut check to determine whether your next product idea or new partnership is on-brand. Write it out, circulate it to your team, and keep it handy.

5. Tagline or guarantee. Is there a description or guarantee that you want to share with the world? At GIR, we decided to offer a lifetime guarantee—and that said everything about who we were. We stood by our products, because they were that good. We believed that if we made this promise to our customers, they would trust in us and our brand. And it worked.

Okay. Pausing here. There’s so much more that can go into branding, but this is a good place to begin. If you find yourself needing a hand, reply to this email, or drop us a comment here. My branding crew at Mvnifest can help with putting pen to paper, or just be there to noodle with you on the possibilities. This is work we’re passionate about, and we’d love to help you in whatever way we can.