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A brief overviews explaining why SMEs need a brand strategy more than Big Business and how you go about creating and rolling out a brand strategy .
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Brand Strategy
Why have a Brand Strategy?
• Your customers believe certain things about your business whether you like it or not – so you have a brand!
• Customers see so many commercial messages every day that they subconsciously filter them out
• Inconsistency in communication will bury your message deeper into “the background noise”
So what do you do about it ?• Brand everything with your logo• Consistently communicate the same messages• Deliver to the brand promises
How To define a Brand Strategy
• Understanding the ‘As-Is’• Creating your Brand Strategy• Rolling out your Brand Strategy• Monitoring your Brand Strategy
Understanding the ‘As-Is’
Many things influence your brand, including• Marketing
– Materials – stationary, promotion, press kit, etc– Plans and Policies – Brand Policy, Business / Marketing Plans, Budgets– Distribution Channels– Brand Creative Brief
• Products and their Packaging• Organisation Structure• Business Processes and Financial Controls• Performance Objectives• Customer Feedback (good and bad)
•Are they consistent ?•Saying one thing and doing another won’t work either•Does you packaging say ‘Value for Money’ or ‘cheap and nasty’?•Do you advertise and distribute in the right places ?•Do you and your staff walk the talk?
Creating your Brand Strategy
• Offline– New marketing material– Changes to organisation – are you organised by product or customer or
functions ? - does this work for the brand?– Changes to Process and business controls – eg unless an agent is authorised
to issue a refund, can he deliver good service?– Employee Training – Do the team understand the brand values?– Brand Policy - Are there any “no-nos”?
• Online– Visual Consistency of website and social media, (and offline) etc– ‘About Us’ listings include brand messages– Business listings – descriptions includes brand messages– Collect positive reviews preferably referring to brand values– Show search engines where you fit in the business landscape
Rolling out your Brand Strategy
• Don’t underestimate the effort needed to rebrand• Start with customer facing people – sales, service and field
agents• Educate line managers and hold them responsible for their
report’s actions• Before going public
– Tell existing customers – sales people can pitch them again if nothing else
– Rebrand all marketing material (cards, letterheads, brochures)– Rebrand online - website, social media sites, business listings, etc
Monitoring your Brand Strategy
• One brand audit is usually enough for one lifetime, but keep an eye on trends
• A ‘Voice of the Customer’ workshop can get you some qualitative feedback
• Online Analytics will show you what is going on too. Track:– Visits and views– Conversions (comments, ‘likes’, Shares, optins, sales, phone /email
enquiries)– Reviews– Complaints
