Branding Strategy: Top Tips to Creating Effective Brand Collateral

Your brand is the face of your company and your products or services. More than that, it's the personality that your company shares with the world. It represents your business to your target audience, making an unspoken promise to consumers.

You can't afford to get your branding wrong. That's why using the right branding strategy is so crucial. It ensures that you attract the consumers who are most likely to purchase your product. And it delivers a consistent message that appeals to your audience, fostering brand loyalty.

But building an effective branding strategy is not achieved overnight, and it's a lot easier with the right guidance. In this guide to branding strategy, you'll find our top tips for creating an effective brand strategy, with the right collateral to promote your brand.

What Is a Branding Strategy?

A branding strategy is the process you follow to market your brand to attract your target audience. A branding strategy is not one single thing, but rather an approach that incorporates all distinguishing brand elements.

These elements include your brand's unique identity, mission, values, story, and more. An effective brand marketing strategy will use multiple processes to achieve awareness, recognition, and engagement.

Why Is Building a Branding Strategy Important?

Your brand strategy helps you to appeal to and attract customers. But when done correctly, it does so much more than this. With the right branding strategy, you position yourself prominently in your market, differentiate yourself from competitors, and establish high brand equity.

Niche brands may find this slightly easier, as they have less competition to worry about. However, if your brand produces products or offers more general services, the pressure is on to win over the hearts and minds of consumers. Your brand strategy will help you to achieve this.

7 Key Elements of a Great Branding Strategy

A brand strategy consists of various elements that together, make your brand what it is. Every one of these is important, and each deserves your thorough attention. These are the seven key elements to crafting a winning branding strategy from the ground up.

1. Brand Purpose

One of the most important elements of any great brand strategy is a clearly defined brand purpose. Why does your brand exist? What is its raison d'être, its reason for being? Before you say, "To make profits," think a bit deeper about the question.

You might have built your brand to offer tech innovation at budget-friendly prices. Or you might have been driven by even more altruistic motives, like being kinder to the environment or instilling confidence in consumers (see our examples section below).

Once you have established what your true purpose is, you can build a strategy around that, to communicate this purpose to your audience.

2. Brand Positioning

What position does your brand hold in the minds of consumers? They may see your brand as the most trustworthy, the most innovative, or even the most affordable. This is what separates you from other brands in their minds.

Take note that this brand position is not necessarily an accurate reflection of reality. There may well be more innovative or affordable brands. The trick is to claim this desired brand position for yourself, through the clever use of brand messaging, visual storytelling, and other marketing tactics.

Decide how you want to position yourself in the market and create a brand positioning map. You'll have to create engaging content later that drives that perception into the mind of the consumer. Before you do that, you need to focus on your brand identity.

3. Brand Identity

Your brand identity is what others see of your brand. It's the most visual representation of your brand, including designs, colors, fonts, and logos. It's what stands out in your promotional materials, and even your product packaging.

Picture for a moment, the Coca-Cola logo and colors. We know we don't have to describe them to you - you already know what they are. That logo and those colors represent Coca-Cola's identity as a fun brand to be shared with friends. It is what makes this brand instantly recognizable.

Everything from the colors to the typeset says something about your brand. To be sure that they are saying what you want them to say, choose such visual elements with care. Regardless of how exciting your product is, no one will want to purchase it if it's wrapped in unappealing packaging.

4. Target Audience

Every brand marketing professional knows the importance of the target audience. These are the people you want to appeal to with your brand marketing. They are the consumers most likely to buy your products.

Your target audience will probably be similar, if not identical, to your closest competitor. This makes it a challenge to get their attention, especially if you're the new kid on the block competing against well-established brands.

Know who your target audience is. This will guide you in your brand marketing strategies. Choose your brand marketing channels accordingly. Your branding should always appeal to the majority of your target audience.

5. Brand Messaging

Brand messaging is the communication style and choice of language that you use to communicate your business values. This includes your brand's slogan, visual identity, and brand voice.

Brand messaging can bolster the brand's purpose, position, and identity. But to do this, it has to be consistent, and align with these other brand elements. When it does not, it creates a confusing or mixed message for the consumer. This is not conducive to building a trustworthy and consistent brand.

Use language in such a way that it shows consistency and trustworthiness. It must also match the undertone of all your other brand elements. For example, if your logo shows a vintage scene, your slogan should echo this theme with language that matches traditional values and concepts.

6. Voice and Tone

In branding, it's all about what you're saying to the public through your brand. And sometimes it's not what you're saying, but how you're saying it. What you're saying is your brand's voice, and how you say it is the tone.

The tone may need to vary in situations where you market different products under the same brand, to different audiences. You need to get the tone right, to provoke the desired emotion or mood in prospective customers. However, it should also always support what you are saying with your brand.

When your brand voice speaks to customers, does the tone convey what you want it to? Ensure that the tone is suitable for the audience and your message.

7. Consistency

Every brand strategy is only successful when the brand remains consistent. This doesn't mean that you can never change or update anything. Many big brands have successfully rebranded themselves to meet changing consumer trends and stay in step with the times.

There's a reason these big brands have managed to retain their share of the market and go on to attract more customers, despite a big brand revamp. They didn't change too much, too soon.

If you fail to remember this, it can have a detrimental effect on your brand. You'll lose the recognition, and perhaps even the credibility, you worked so hard to achieve. Consumers love consistency as it tells them that they can trust a brand that meets their needs today, to keep doing so in the future.

Keep your brand identity consistent across all marketing channels and materials. This means keeping the same tone, voice, and brand elements like logo, color scheme, and fonts.

How to Build a Branding Strategy

It's time for you to start building your very own branding strategy. These are the eight steps you need to follow to build a brand that you can be proud of.

1. Define Your Brand

The first step in any brand strategy is to define your brand. Decide what your brand's purpose is, and what its mission and goals are. Think about how you want your brand to be perceived. Note this all down, as well as how your products (or the ones you still want to produce) fit in with this.

This is not a quick and easy step. It takes time to narrow down what your brand is, or what you want it to be. Take your time, and be prepared for several revisions before you're happy with the resulting barns statement.

2. Know Your Target Audience

Know your target audience like the back of your hand. Conduct market research to gather data on your industry, competitors, and potential customers. Identify the key demographics and psychographics of your audience. This will help you segment your audience more effectively.

Next, create detailed target personas based on your research findings. These are fictional representations of your ideal customers. Create one or two for each segment. Include their demographics, hobbies, occupations, goals, pain points, and interests. This will help you visualize and empathize with your target audience.

3. Evaluate Current Brand Assets

Look at the brand assets you already have. Evaluate their performance, and determine what they may be lacking. This will be a whole lot easier if you have all your brand assets neatly categorized in a digital asset management (DAM) or media asset management (MAM) system.

So, what's the difference between MAM vs DAM?

Digital asset management is specialized software designed to store, organize, manage, and share your business's digital files. Media asset management is a subcategory of digital asset management. It is used specifically for managing image, audio, and video files.

4. Develop an Appealing Brand Identity

The visual elements of your brand, such as the logo, packaging design, fonts, and colors together make up your brand identity. This identity helps to distinguish itself apart from other brands, in consumers' minds. It's what makes it recognizable and in time, familiar to them.

This should be visually appealing to attract a wider customer base. The colors and even the shapes and lettering you use can help to solidify a concept. This is best left to the experts, who understand how to use color and design for maximum effect.

5. Craft Impactful Brand Messaging

Brand messaging is the communication used to motivate people to try your product (and keep buying it). This covers all language and brand elements used across all your marketing and advertising channels.

To craft brand messaging that resonates with your target audience emotionally, you must empathize with their needs, desires, and pain points. Maintain consistency in tone, style, and content across all channels to reinforce your brand identity and build trust.

6. Create Brand Guidelines

As time moves on, your brand marketing team and your product lists will grow. Employees will come and go, as will industry trends and styles. To avoid your branding going off the rails, you need brand guidelines.

These guidelines will keep all your brand marketing efforts on track so that you consistently exhibit the same brand identity and deliver the same brand message.

Upload these brand guidelines to your DAM system so that they are easily accessible to your entire marketing team.

7. Implement and Monitor

It's time to implement your branding strategy. It's important to monitor it closely, to assess its impact. Don't be afraid to go back to the drawing board if your first attempts don't bear fruit. But don't be in a rush to do this, either. It takes time, and lots of patience, to build a successful brand.

8. Stay Consistent Yet Flexible

As we noted earlier, efficient brand asset management will make following your branding strategy much simpler. But the key is to maintain brand consistency while remaining flexible and open to new consumer and industry trends.

What Is Brand Collateral?

Your brand collateral is the sum of the creative assets designed to represent your brand's identity and messaging. These can be physical items or digital assets. What ties them all together is their underlying purpose - promoting your brand to the world at large.

Your brand marketing strategy, market niche, and budget will all help to determine the types of brand collateral you use. Relying on only one will mean that your brand does not get the exposure it needs. Therefore, it's wise to include as many types of brand collateral as possible in your brand marketing.

7 Types of Brand Collateral You Need

These are the seven types of brand collateral you need for a more comprehensive brand strategy.

1. Website

Every brand needs a website. This is your platform to introduce your brand to a worldwide audience. It's where you can engage consumers, and give them information about what your brand offers. With the right tools, it can be used for marketing, engagement, sales, and even customer service.

2. Print Ads

Print ads are still very much in use for promoting brands big and small. Printed advertisements in news publications and well-respected magazines carry an air of credibility. Their tangible nature can have a more dramatic effect on the consumer than advertisements on digital platforms.

3. Social Media Content

You've heard it so many times before, but it's an inescapable fact: social media plays a huge role in today's brand marketing. Much, if not most, of your audience probably spends hours a day on social media platforms. This repeated exposure makes it ideal for brand marketing.

4. Billboard Ads

Billboard ads are still making a big impact in brand marketing. Their size and placement, usually in high-traffic areas, means they get viewed often. A potential customer may drive past your billboard ad several times a day while on their way to work, fetching their kids from school, or going grocery shopping.

5. Video Content

Sharing videos with your target audience is one of the most powerful ways of getting your brand's story out there. But why is it so powerful? Video is a combination of sights and sounds that appeal to both the audio and visual senses, unlike a still image, which can only be experienced visually.

With the rise of video-sharing social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, video content has become an increasingly powerful marketing channel.

6. Merchandise

Branded merchandise works wonders for any brand. Firstly, it promotes brand identification and loyalty in those who wear or use it. Secondly, it showcases your brand to others who view your customers with the merchandise.

7. Digital Ad Banners

Digital ad banners are embedded in web pages, driving traffic to your webpage when they're clicked on. They increase brand visibility, awareness, and recognition. Banner ads increase the flow of web traffic to your website, where you can engage potential customers and promote your products more fully.

Examples of Successful Brand Strategies

What is it that makes a brand successful? Is it the vision, the mission, or the purpose? Perhaps it's the story it weaves in the public sphere. It can be any of these things. There are countless examples of how successful branding has given brands an edge over their competitors.

Here are three of our favorites.

Airbnb - Where Brand Storytelling and Community Storytelling Meet

Few people haven't heard of Airbnb, the online marketplace that offers an alternative to traditional hotel accommodation. With Airbnb, you can now stay in a cozy cottage or a luxurious loft apartment, instead. But what has made the Airbnb brand so successful, worldwide?

Airbnb tells a good story, but in truth, it is its users who tell the collective story. The brand's tagline, ‘Belong Anywhere', encourages users to feel at home wherever they choose to stay. It also empowers users to share their stories of happy accommodation experiences, publicly.

Humans have responded favorably to masterful storytelling for millennia. Even before we transitioned to modern societies, storytelling was a part of our culture. We started telling and listening to stories around campfires in the days of old, and still enjoy stories today as evidenced by the popularity of film and media.

Dove - A Brand Purpose Everyone Appreciates

Dove is one of Unilever's most popular brands. But there are so many toiletry and personal care brands today. How has the Dove brand become so loved by young and old alike, all over the world? The answer may lie in its brand purpose - the reason it does what it does.

Let's look at their slogans over the years. There's ‘Dove cleans beautifully'. Let's not forget ‘Real beauty from real care'. And, of course, ‘Let's change beauty'. This gives us a clue to the brand's purpose. The Dove brand aims to make consumers all over the world feel confident in their natural beauty.

They have invested a lot of money and effort into marketing campaigns showing the beauty of everyday women, and it's had a big impact on their audience. Their purpose resonates with people because everyone wants to feel beautiful and confident in their own skin.

Tesla - A Brand Mission For A Sustainable Future

Why is the Tesla brand so globally appealing? It's a whole lot of innovation backed by a mission to "accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy". Despite his sometimes controversial views on other topics, founder Elon Musk's mission for Tesla is a noble one.

But many brands aspire to change the world. What's different here? Let's look at what the founder, Elon Musk, had to say about brands. "A brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time." – Elon Musk, Tesla Founder.

This shows us that no matter how impossible the mission may seem initially, consumers will reward your confidence and dedication to see it through. Did you find value in this quote? Check out our collection of other insightful branding quotes, for more inspiration.

Conclusion

When you have the right branding strategy, you catapult your brand to success. But what's ‘right' for one brand won't necessarily be right for another. Your brand strategy must be an accurate reflection of your brand's mission, values, and message.

This requires carefully considered and dedicated brand marketing, plus the software and online tools that make it all happen. You'll find these tools in Razuna, a cloud-based brand asset management system for businesses of all types and sizes.

Razuna lets you organize, store, share, edit, and distribute your brand assets like logos, graphics, images, videos, and more. It also facilitates easier collaboration on your branding strategies.

Get your branding strategy on track, with Razuna. Register your free account today.