Brand Strategy is Really Simple (Maps Rule)
When you hear “brand strategy”, maybe you think of a bunch of business dudes gathered in a grey conference room. The white board is covered in flow charts and arrows with words like “positioning” circled in red. There’s another board covered in sticky notes. Participants have a folder full of important looking documents in front of them. Everyone is nodding and taking furious notes. There are charts and spreadsheets. They are drinking from fancy water bottles and wearing Apple watches and it’s all very serious.
I’m here to tell you, it’s not that serious. And it’s not that boring. Or complicated. Or startupy.
This image is in your head because of marketing. Brand strategy is marketed as a highly specialized service that’s full of secret information and tools only strategists and designers understand. You’ll see a lot of listicles and big ideas online about the many benefits of brand strategy. Yes, of course there are game-changing benefits, but it’s not as complex as it sounds. This inflated image is a sales tool.
I call bullshit on this tactic.
The real reason why you can benefit from brand strategy is (drumroll)…
Brand strategy helps you make better decisions.
Yep. That’s it.
I’ve just saved you several hours of research. You’re welcome.
When I first started in design, brand strategy wasn’t talked about in such clear terms. While it was inherently part of the design process, it was rarely treated as a practice in itself outside of the industry. “Brand strategy” is a hot buzzword these days. The popularization of the term and the mainstreaming of these ideas is actually a huge asset to both designers and business owners. As with all things, the more precise language we have to talk about a topic, the more accessible the ideas are.
That being said, the way it’s discussed can leave people feeling mystified. It’s an abstract concept that’s difficult define in brief. Strategy is not as tangible as visual design, and the language can be… well, to be honest, it’s made up. Which is fine, except if you don’t know what things mean, you’ll get confused. When you see words like “positioning” and “segmentation” and “value proposition” it’s like reading a textbook for a class you haven’t taken. But a lot of this language is just a repackaging of the simple, universal ideas. It’s designed to make it sound sexy and innovative. Even the word “strategy” makes it sound like a bigger deal than it is.
In reality, brand strategy is really, really simple. You don’t have to be a designer to understand it.
Cue the sirens as the Branding Police pull up to my home.
The point of brand strategy is to cultivate empowered, intentional decision making. That being the case, it’s logical to me that ditching the corporate-inspired language gets us further, faster. Also, it’s less of a snooze-fest. I’ve got a better way to explain it, and it involves maps.
Building your brand is a journey (ugh, sorry, it’s so corny, but so true). The destination is a sustainable businesses and an effective brand.
Brand strategy is your map.
The map of Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
I’m about to use a gaming metaphor, so hold onto your butts.
If you’ve played RPG/adventure video games, you’ve seen many a map. When you first begin your quest, only a small section of the map is visible. Only by exploring new places or accomplishing feats can you begin to reveal the rest of it. As you get deeper into the story, you’re given tasks and side quests that take you back to places you’ve discovered. The more you play, the more of the map you can see. The more you can see, the easier it becomes to decide what your next move is.
This is what brand strategy does.
When you work with a brand strategist, you’re revealing the map. You’re choosing what route makes the most sense, what side quests you’ll take on, who you’ll ally with. Unlike a video game, however, in brand strategy you build your own map. And, instead of collecting items for a magic spell or defeating baddies in dungeons, you’re laying the groundwork for making business decisions.
Let’s imagine you didn’t have a map. Each decision—which way to go at a fork in the road, whether to fight an oncoming baddie or slip into the shadows—happens in the fly without any information about what’s ahead. You might spend an hour walking in the wrong direction, or make five attempts a boss battle that you’re not leveled up enough to win. Doesn’t sound fun. The same is true for building a brand: no map = frustration, start-and-stop, confusion.
Like a map, a brand strategy guides your next move. Instead of making decisions on the fly, each choice you make for your brand is based on the map you’ve laid out.
Let’s take brand colors as an example.
Say we are eavesdropping on a client who’s starting a skincare brand. Without a strategy in place, the decision might look something like this:
A. “I’ve always liked yellow and blue, so I’ll use those as my brand colors.”
Not that yellow and blue are “bad” colors, but there’s something missing.
Instead, with a strategy in place before design choices are discussed, the decision looks more like this:
B. “My brand is all about relaxation, self-love, and finding comfort in a fast-paced world. I’ve chosen rose, brown, and green as my brand palette. Together, these colors evoke a feeling of softness, warmth, and ease.”
What’s the difference between A and B?
A is based on personal preference, without a deeper connection to what the brand is about or what they’re trying to achieve. It’s not tied to a larger idea, a desired emotional impact, or to an the needs of the target audience. In short, it doesn’t have purpose. It’s like they’re at a fork in the road and choose to go left just because they feel like it.
B is based on a larger idea about the purpose of the brand. The client has done the work to build their brand map. This gives them a goal, which gives the decision purpose. Instead of “I like these colors”, the client can clearly articulate what the brand stands for and choose colors to reinforce that. They’ve arrived at a fork in the road and are using a map to find out which path leads to their destination.
The hardest part about branding is not the design.
It’s is achieving the clarity that enables you to make informed, aligned choices.
Brand strategy is the simple and effective solution to this problem. And it’s not rocket science (good thing too, cuz I’m bad with math).