Here is a high-level overview of what makes up a strategic brand.
Because all of those badass brands that we all admire – spent a lot of time developing each of these components.
The internal brand (the innermost circle) sets the stage for everything. That circle holds your why, values, vision, and mission. She’s the glue that keeps everything together when shit gets real tough.
With your internal brand holding you down, you can start thinking about your people. You gotta know your target audience (their demographics and psychographics) and what they’re truly struggling with. Then you have to figure out what your competitors AREN’T doing to ease those struggles. If you’re able to position yourself inside of that gap and do it well, you’re golden. That’s the positioning piece.
Next, you gotta figure out how your brand is gonna spread your message. At this stage, you’ll shape its personality, voice, and vocabulary. This is the character piece. With the Character established, you can start to develop your messaging aka your verbal expression. This phase is when you start to take everything you’ve built and shape it into your core message and brand story.
No visuals, logos, icons, etc. have been created or developed yet. Any visual expression, no matter how attractive, will miss the mark with your audience every single damn time if all of the building blocks before it aren’t built with intention.
This is a super rough rundown, but I hope you’re able to see that every brand that you adore, no matter the industry, has gone through each of these steps in great detail to become the brand you see today.
Let’s discuss further in the comments!
