Brand strategy
See also: brand platform
Brand strategy is the written decision about who a brand serves, what it stands for and how it differs from alternatives. It precedes naming and identity work, and supplies the criteria against which creative work is judged.
In practice
Strategy is what makes creative work judgeable. Without it, every candidate is a matter of taste and the loudest person wins. With it, the question becomes whether the name serves the stated position, and that question has evidence attached.
A widely used frame is David Aaker's brand identity model, which describes a brand through four perspectives: the brand as product, as organisation, as person and as symbol. It works less as a template to fill in than as a checklist of what has to be decided before anyone judges a name.
In a naming project the strategy is rarely missing outright. What is missing is a version short enough to judge names with. A strategy that runs to forty slides gets summarised from memory in the review meeting, and the summary is whatever the speaker remembers. A strategy that says "innovative, trustworthy, human" rules nothing out, so every candidate passes. The practical test is whether the document lets you reject a name you like.
Where this sits in the process
The studio treats this as part of a single run rather than a separate service: the category is read, the creative direction is chosen from what the research found, candidates are generated in volume and then cut against criteria that were written down first. See how the studio works for what that produces, or the naming module for the stages themselves.
Related concepts
- Positioning: The strategic statement a name has to carry: what positioning is, and why naming without it produces decoration.
- Differentiation: Sounding different and being different are separate problems.
- Naming brief: What belongs in a naming brief, and why the markets and languages have to be named before generation starts.
Further reading
- What is brand strategy? Why it starts with the name: Brand strategy is the decision about who a brand is for and how it differs. Why the name comes first, and how design, tonality and communication make it recognisable.
- Brand strategy for established companies, and the name: Why an established brand needs a strategy as much as a new one, how the name gets out of step with the business, and what to decide before keeping, extending or changing it.
- Brand hierarchy: branded house or house of brands?: How to structure the brands in a company: branded house, house of brands, endorsed brands and sub-brands. Real examples, and what each model asks of a new name.
Frequently asked questions
What is a brand strategy?
A brand strategy is the written decision about who a brand serves, what it stands for and how it differs from the alternatives. It is the standard against which name, design, tone and communication are judged, so it has to be short enough to use in a review.
What is the difference between brand strategy and positioning?
Brand strategy is the whole decision: audience, meaning, personality and difference. Positioning is its sharpest part, the statement of which category you compete in and why a customer should choose you. Positioning fits in a sentence, a strategy needs a document.
Does brand strategy come before the brand name?
Yes. The name is the first element every other part of the brand has to carry, and it is the hardest to change once customers know it. A name chosen without a strategy is chosen by taste, and taste is difficult to defend later.
What does a brand strategy contain?
At minimum: who the brand is for, which alternative it replaces, what it promises, how it should sound and what it will not do. Frameworks such as Aaker's brand identity model add structure, but the test is simpler: can the document make you say no to a good-looking option?
Sources
- [1]Aaker Brand Identity Model— Umbrex