Behind every successful brand lies a strong brand strategy. Not only does a solid brand strategy help inform the different choices you make as a business but also enables you to create a cohesive image and voice for your brand.

Your brand strategy is made up of several elements, including the voice you use to speak to your target audience and the values that drive you forward. Here are the different elements of a compelling brand strategy and why each is a contributing factor to building a strong brand. 

What is brand strategy?

A brand strategy is the holistic approach behind how a brand shows up to its customers (and potential customers). A brand strategy encompasses several different brand elements like voice, storytelling, brand identity, brand values, and overall vibe. 

If your brand is how you present your business to the world, your brand strategy is the foundation.

Why is developing a branding strategy important? 

To build meaning connections with customers, a business must have a strong brand. Successful brand strategies can help improve loyalty, drive brand awareness, build repeat business, and inspire word-of-mouth marketing and referrals. 

Brands without effective brand strategies can easily become diluted, weak, or forgettable. Without a knockout product experience (and even with one) it’s easy for customers to move on rather than commit to a repeat purchase.

Elements of a strong brand strategy

The key elements of a successful brand strategy include: brand voice, brand design, brand values, brand story, and brand vibe. 

Brand Story: Your brand story is the narrative you use to communicate essential moments in your business’s origin story, core beliefs and values, and the purpose of your business. 

Brand stories further spark connection between your business and customer base as they allow you to share why you exist, what you stand for, and what inspired you to get started and keep going. Essentially, by developing your brand story, you create an open environment where people can get to know your business on a deeper level. 

Brand Voice: Brand voice refers to the words and phrases a brand uses to communicate with current or new customers across different marketing channels and on its website. 

A brand’s voice informs the type of brand messaging a business uses, playing a critical role in forming connections with a customer base by fusing a brand’s personality with its core values. A strong brand voice sets the tone for the relationship that a customer will build with a brand over time and shows them what they can expect from it. A brand that doesn’t carve out a personality-filled voice risks losing that connection or sending a different message than it truly wants to. 

Brand Design: Brand design relates to how your business shows up visually on your products, website, and marketing platforms. From color palette to fonts to photography style, your brand design communicates to your potential customers what you’re all about. Additionally, brand design illustrates your point of view and taste level.

Brand Values: To help get at the heart of your brand’s values, or the beliefs and principles that guide your business, consider asking the following questions: Why does your company exist? What matters most to you? Are there causes that your business is actively working to solve? 

Brand values become the parameters that help you discern if a decision or partnership fits the goals of your business, help you build connections with your community, and find potential customers who share similar beliefs. They also help with your brand positioning, as a brand’s values can be a main differentiator for you. 

Brand Vibe: A brand’s vibe is the general sentiment it emits on its website, social media channels, product packaging, etc. The vibe could be anything from playful to sarcastic to serious to funny, and is an amalgamation of the ways a brand’s personality, values, and aesthetic line up. Creating a vibe contributes to the overall customer experience with your brand, and it can leave a more memorable, lasting impression. 

Successful brand strategies inspire a sense of connection through honest values, a brand voice that captures the essence of the brand, and design that reflects a business’s true personality. These connections, in turn, inspire repeat business and we all know your brand’s biggest fans often became your biggest evangelists, sharing your brand and products with others.