This year Sodablog is going through the key critical steps to prepare for before you brief your designer on a brand refresh.

Our last blog looked at Step 1. Identifying the signs and to start planning. This post, we are going to look at Step 2. which is mapping out the basic strategy for your brand.

For some of you, you may have an old brand strategy you can use to refresh and others of you may need to build a brand strategy from scratch. Either way we hope this assists you in starting to map out the process.

Step 2. Start mapping out the brand strategy

The key areas you need to map out in your brand strategy are the following;

Business Vision - The vision is the guiding prime goal for what the business wants to achieve in the coming 5-10 years.
Business Values - These should be part of your business strategy and culture and never changing.
Target Audience - Defining your audience is critical for success, this needs to be specific, the more specific you can be the better the strategy.
Consumer Insights - Insights on how your audience interacts with your product or service.
Brand Personality - The 5 or so personality traits that your consumer experiences by interacting with your brand.
Brand Essence - The 'heart beat' of your business. This is a phrase that describes your businesses core, that is inspiring and timeless. It's 1-3 words max.

If you have these components mapped out you are well on your way to writing a great creative brief for your designer to refresh your brand, to not just look amazing and trendy but also have solid foundations for your business to grow from and share with the wider community.

To assist further below are some tips to note before you map out your brand strategy.

Do

Find out and know your business mission and or vision and values - even better your business strategy, if you have one.
Book in a workshop with the key business decision makers to help you define your strategy together.
Understand your competitive landscape.

Don’t

Just make up a vision for the sake of the exercise and defintely not one that you are not passionate about, as it will make it very hard to actually achieve it.
Map out a brand strategy and not communicate the final with your employees or key stakeholders.
Copy another business’s brand intelligence, as consumers are savvy and can smell a copy cat a mile away.

If you have mapped out these components listed above and can’t wait till our next blog post. Email us at hello@sodablue.com.au and we are happy to share with you in advance Step 3.

However if you are getting a bit stuck and finding it difficult to map out, then feel free to contact us for no obligation chat with our Marketing Consultants. We would love to help you.

Till then, ciao

Karin

Blog written by | Karin Forster, Freelance Brand and Marketing Consultant - Melbourne