Brand Strategy to Launch

A brand strategy for launch, or when it’s time to rebrand is vital for the life and longevity of your brand. Brands that lead develop and implement a brand marketing strategy early in their business. A well-defined and executed brand strategy affects all aspects of a business and is directly connected to consumer needs, emotions, and competitive environments.  A clear brand strategy is as important as your overall business plan. You can do amazing things with even tiny budgets, but you've got to figure out what you're going to stand for in someone's mind. First, what is that unique value? 

Your brand strategy is going to create that human side to your brand, which is required to make the connection out in the marketplace and also make the point of difference out in the marketplace. It's really important for startups to be thinking about that at the same time early and often in the development of the brand. Launching your business with a brand strategy is vital, since you don't want to leave it up to your customers or your competitors to define what your brand is about. You have to consciously address it, or end up having it defined for you.

"The paradox of branding is that you must change to stay consistent.We have to evolve as brands and along the way, we have to still be recognized. We still have to stand for that thing that is important to our target customers.–Derrick Daye

Brand Strategy to Evolve or Rebrand

Brands are never finished. They're a river, not a pond. So that means you have to manage them. It's not a set it and forget it thing.  You have to evolve with it. You have to understand that the brand and your brand strategy has to be managed along with that change to create an up to date marketing strategy.

Your brand must be close with your target customers, especially when thinking of evolving your existing content marketing or digital marketing strategy. This is even true when opting to rebrand, We really have to understand what matters to customers so the brand can move along with them. Brands that look ahead to the future, understand that marketing strategy is creating the future. Use content marketing as part of the rebrand marketing strategy to paint a bigger vision of what's ahead and how that can be exciting for your audience and customers

Derrick Daye & Cheryl discuss:

* A brand is  the sum of all experiences a customer has with you. Everything, all of the touch points, everything adds up to this one thing, and that is your brand.”* Each touch point where people are interacting with the brand is where the promise that you're making to your customer must come to life.* Today where trust really missing in parts of our society, your brand has to be a symbol of trust to lead today.* Brand consistency is the backbone of trust. People watch your behaviors over time. They come to trust those behaviors and that's a result of consistency. So if you are making changes with your brand, they should be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. A complete rebrand may not be in order, but evolution of your existing brand.* Every action we do take, we have to be careful. And the moves we're making and they have to be purposeful and they have to be on brand. They have to be meaningful to our target customers.

Takeaways from this episode:

* Brands are never finished. They're a river, not a pond. So that means you have to manage them. It's not a set it and forget it thing.  You have to evolve with it. You have to understand that the brand has to be managed along with that change.* The fundamentals of brand management transcend all business inquiries in all stages of a business's development.