Simple Brand Strategy Blueprint for Great Design
The most common misconception for those outside of the branding industry is that ‘brand’ is a logo or even the application of a logo on some type of material like a sleek website or business card. The reality is that the visual elements of a brand—colors, logos, photography, typography—are just a tiny sliver of brand expression. Beneath that expression is something far more important: brand strategy.
Without a brand strategy, design, and brand expression are directionless or, worse, meaningless.
The best brand designs come from intentional strategy, not artistic whims or trends. Strategy guarantees your brand remains relevant, effective, and memorable from the day it launches.
What are Brand Design and Brand Strategy?
So, let’s clear up the misconceptions with some (loose) definitions to guide this discussion.
Brand design refers to the visual components of your brand identity: the logo, typography, colors, and other design assets that visually communicate. It’s what people see when they think of your brand.
Brand strategy is the blueprint behind those visuals. It encompasses your goals, audience insights, competitive positioning, and unique value proposition. It’s about understanding why your brand exists, who it serves, and how it differentiates itself in the market.
When done right, your strategy guides your design, marketing, and even business choices with ease.
Why do agencies want to do strategy work?
In the age of information and visual overload, your audience needs direction, not just inspiration. The same goes for your design team.
Designers and agencies focusing purely on aesthetics can create the most beautiful designs. Still, there is no guarantee that they will resonate with your customers or support your business objectives.
Good design and exceptional branding require direction, and direction comes from having a point of view. That point of view isn’t something that’s conjured in a design brainstorming session while arguing over this color or that, it’s rooted in strategy, a big undeniable idea.
Without that strategy to guide you, you’re left making subjective decisions to satisfy current tastes that don’t stand the test of time.
Just like prescription without diagnosis is malpractice, to design without strategy is to condemn a brand before it comes to life. When you skip the diagnosis phase—your brand strategy—you risk solving the wrong problem or designing a solution that creates more issues than it solves.
Strategy Creates the Boundaries for Creativity
Think of brand strategy as the container for creativity. It doesn’t limit design; it focuses it. When your design team, sales team, and leadership team know the audiences, the messages, and the goals, they can channel their creativity and skills into solutions that resonate and work seamlessly across touchpoints.
Strong strategy answers essential questions:
What is the first emotional reaction you want people to feel when engaging with your brand?
Does your brand have a uniquely identified brand personality? Preferences? Tone and voice?
How does your brand manifest as a person? As a symbol? As a product? As an organization?
Where can you over-invest to generate a memorable quality cue?
Without these answers guiding how your brand expression looks, design is just decoration. Strategic insight is required to create solutions that address the nuances of your business and your audience’s needs.
Brand Strategy Prevents Costly Rebranding
A brand without strategy is like a house without a foundation. It may stand for a while but won’t weather storms or adapt to future needs. Many businesses that skip the strategy phase end up rebranding within a few years, realizing their initial design didn’t align with their evolving goals or market dynamics.
Investing in strategy upfront saves time, money, and frustration later. It ensures your brand isn’t just reactive but proactive, designed to grow with your business and stand out in a competitive market.
Your Blueprint for Brand Strategy
This is an agency article, so, by definition, we will encourage you to work with a brand strategy agency with a honed practice and set of deliverables. In the event you can’t or don’t want to, this is your blueprint.
Define Your Goals
Clarify what success looks like for your brand. Are you aiming for growth in a specific market? Increased loyalty among existing customers? Greater awareness? Your goals will shape your strategy.
Identify Your Audience
Determine your primary, secondary, and splash audiences. Your primary audience is the people who make the buying decision with you. Your secondary audience might be those impacted by that buying decision. Your splash audience considers anyone who would be paying attention to your brand but doesn’t fit into the prior two audiences. Understand each of these audiences’ needs, challenges, and desires.
Understand the Landscape
Review who you are competing with. Get to know their strengths and weaknesses. Find out what gaps they have, and then find out if you can fill them. If they all look and sound the same, think through if you’re willing to do the opposite. This analysis will help you identify how to differentiate your brand and create that memorable quality cue.
Clarify Your Positioning
You can do this through a plethora of options from writing a positioning statement capturing your brand’s unique value to writing a brand manifesto. No matter what expression you choose, this positioning should be known deep in your soul and able to serve as the goal post for your decision-making.
Design is how your brand speaks to the world, but strategy is the language it speaks.
The two are inseparable. To create a brand that doesn’t just look good but creates meaning, start with strategy. Diagnose before you prescribe, and understand before you create. The result will be a brand that resonates, endures, and drives meaningful results.
By taking the time to build a thoughtful brand strategy, you’re not just creating a better brand—you’re creating a better business.
