The Ultimate Brand Strategy Development Guide (with Brand Strategy Template)


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Published

12th October 2020

Illustration of a person writing on a scroll, symbolising brand strategy development and ideation.

Your brand’s success starts with a solid brand strategy.

Without one, you’re navigating without a map, facing confusion, inconsistency, and missed opportunities.

Your brand strategy is more than just a plan; it’s the foundation for everything your brand does.

It defines your mission, shapes your messaging, and determines how your brand interacts with the world. Ultimately, it’s your roadmap to building a brand that not only looks great but also performs exceptionally and connects your brand with your audience.

Brand Strategy Made Simple

Developing a brand strategy is no easy task. It's something we've seen people struggle with time and time again. Which...

Brand Strategy Made Simple resource cover

Do you want a brand that people recognise instantly?

A well thought out brand strategy is the only way to get there. Without it, you’re left relying on guesswork, which is a surefire recipe for failure.

That’s why we’ve created this comprehensive guide to help you build a brand strategy that aligns your team, drives every decision, and delivers results.

Every great brand strategy starts with a strong foundation.

It begins with a solid brand concept. Without this, you’re building on shaky ground.

Ready to deep dive into the world of brand strategy? Let’s get started.

What is Brand Strategy?

Brand strategy is the blueprint for how your brand looks, feels, and performs. It’s a comprehensive plan that guides every decision your business makes about its identity and direction.

At its core:

A brand strategy provides a clear framework for communicating your brand, no matter the medium or touchpoint.

A well-crafted brand strategy acts as a roadmap for aligning your team, shaping your messaging, driving growth, and determining how your brand looks. Without it, a brand risks confusion, misalignment, and missed opportunities in an increasingly competitive market.

What is a Brand Strategy Document?

Coupled with your brand guidelines, your brand strategy document is the ultimate brand bible, but by no means does it have to be the length of one.

Depending on what your business is offering, a one sheet document might hold all the information you need to encapsulate your brand. Short, sweet, and concise. If you have more to say, then it’s going to be a bigger file, but it should always be an easy to digest format that everybody in the business is able to refer to.

Brand strategy documents usually come in the form of a PDF file.

They contain all of the relevant information about building your brand and what you believe in.

Later in the post, we’ll be outlining what should be included (and make sure you download our ebook for a step-by-step method to creating your own.)

pen paper laptop headphones

Why Is Having a Brand Strategy Important?

A brand strategy is one of the most important investments you can make.

It provides a roadmap for the company’s marketing, sales, and customer service efforts, so that everything is working towards the same goal.

By defining the company’s mission, vision, values, and unique selling proposition, your brand strategy creates a sense of direction and purpose for everyone in the organisation.

There’s no room for ambiguity as it should all be outlined in this golden document (or PDF file, as it were).

It also builds credibility and trust among your customers, who are more likely to work with you if they can relate to your brand and what it has to offer.

You’ll also have competitors to think about, regardless of your industry, and having a strong brand strategy can help differentiate you by highlighting your unique strengths and attributes.

It’s not something you should overlook, as this can make the difference between steering the company in the right direction or acting on a whim.

Brand Strategy for B2B Companies

While the foundations of brand strategy apply to any business, B2B brands face a different set of challenges. Buying decisions are rarely emotional or impulsive; they’re rational, researched, and often involve multiple stakeholders. That means your strategy needs to balance logic and trust with creativity and clarity.

In B2B branding, your brand strategy should:

  • Build long-term credibility. Decision-makers need to believe you can deliver consistent results, so thought leadership, expertise, and case studies are vital.
  • Focus on relationships, not transactions. B2B buyers are looking for dependable partners. Your messaging should speak to reliability and measurable ROI.
  • Align sales and marketing. A strong B2B brand strategy connects both teams, ensuring that brand messaging supports lead generation and sales conversations, as well as client retention.
  • Emphasise clarity and differentiation. Many B2B markets are crowded with similar-sounding brands. A sharp positioning statement and clear tone of voice can make your brand memorable and credible.

Ultimately, your B2B brand strategy should help decision-makers trust your expertise and believe that working with you reduces risk, not just adds value.

Circular design showing interconnected brand strategy components like tone of voice, audience personas, and brand messaging.

How to Create a Winning Brand Strategy

Starting your brand strategy from scratch might seem like an overwhelming task. But if you’re truly passionate about your business and have a good idea of what you’re trying to achieve, then all of the elements of your brand strategy already exist in your head.

It’s just about getting it down on paper in a structure that makes sense to your colleagues, competitors and customers.

Someone with no previous experience in your industry should be able to read your brand strategy document and have a good idea of your brand’s direction.

In the same way, a brand guidelines document acts as a visual reference for your brand, your brand strategy document takes care of the business strategy and high level thinking.

Before diving in, you might want to consider holding an internal brand workshop with your marketing and leadership team.

Ready? Let’s get into how to create your brand strategy.

Who?

Every brand strategy begins by answering the question, “Who?” This involves identifying the people you’re speaking to, the competitors you’re up against, and the personality your brand will embody.

A deep understanding of these elements will help your strategy resonate with the right audience and set you apart in the marketplace.

In this section, we will:

  • Explore how to define and document your target audience with customer personas.
  • Investigate your competitors to identify opportunities to stand out.
  • Understand how brand archetypes influence your brand’s personality and connection with customers.

infographic showing questions to ask when deciding on target audience

Target Audience and Customer Personas

Your target audience is the group of people most likely to engage with and benefit from your brand. Customer personas are detailed profiles that represent these people, combining demographics, behaviours, and motivations.

Understanding your target audience aligns your messaging, products, and services with their needs. It creates focus across all brand efforts, allowing you to connect meaningfully with the right people.

To create personas:

  • Identify key demographics: Age, location, job role, income level.
  • Explore behaviours: What challenges do they face? How do they interact with brands like yours?
  • Define motivations: What drives their decisions? What problems can your brand solve for them?
  • Use real data: Gather insights from surveys, interviews, and analytics to sense check your persona.

Documenting customer personas eliminates guesswork and helps your team create targeted campaigns, unified messaging, and better products. Without personas, you risk missing opportunities and misaligning your efforts.

Give Them a Face

Use a stock photo or an AI-generated image to make your personas feel more real and relatable. Once you can picture them, it’s easier to create content and strategies that speak directly to them.

Visual graphic of two illustrated people researching, showing the process of Brand Audit, Competitor Analysis, Audience Research and Brand Strategy.

Competitor Research

Your competitor research identifies strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in the market, helping you discover how to position your brand uniquely. By understanding what competitors do well and where they fall short, you can create a strategy that sets you apart.

Consider diving deeper into how to effectively analyse competitors in our guide to performing a brand analysis on competitors.

  • Study their strengths: What do they excel at in messaging, branding, or customer engagement?
  • Spot their weaknesses: Are they neglecting customer needs or lacking consistency?
  • Examine their audience engagement: What channels do they use, and how do they interact with their customers?
  • Track their SEO strategy: Analyse the keywords they target to identify untapped opportunities.

Look for gaps where competitors underperform or fail to meet customer expectations. These are your opportunities to innovate, differentiate, and offer something unique.

Be a True Competitor

Subscribe to their emails, follow their social channels, or even make a small purchase. Seeing their process firsthand can give you insights no spreadsheet ever could.

multicoloured wheel showing different archetypes with brand examples

Brand Archetypes

Your brand archetype is a fundamental pillar of your brand strategy. It influences how your brand looks, communicates, and interacts with your audience. Understanding and identifying your brand archetype is the first step towards creating a brand strategy that resonates deeply with your customers.

It acts as a guiding principle, influencing everything from your brand’s messaging to your visual identity, creating brand consistency and an emotional connection with your target audience.

Brand archetypes are universal symbols and patterns of behaviour that tap into the human psyche, helping your audience instantly connect with your brand.

Understanding your brand’s archetype guides how your brand communicates, behaves, and evolves over time. It creates clarity and consistency in your messaging and visual identity, ensuring your brand feels familiar and relatable.

  • The Hero: Inspires courage and achievement (e.g., Nike).
  • The Creator: Celebrates creativity and innovation (e.g., Lego).
  • The Caregiver: Nurtures and protects (e.g., Johnson & Johnson).

By aligning your brand strategy with an archetype, you create an anchor, helping to build trust and loyalty with your audience. Whether you’re the Sage, the Creator, or the Hero, knowing your archetype guides every brand decision, making sure your strategy stays on track and true to your core identity.

Give Your Archetype a Life of Its Own

Write a backstory for your brand persona; what drives them, what they care about, and how they interact with the world. This exercise can inspire creative ways to bring your archetype to life in your branding.

Where?

Your “Where?” determines your brand’s position in the market. This is about understanding where your brand sits compared to competitors and how you want to be perceived by your target audience. A clear brand positioning strategy helps you stand out and remain relevant.

In this section, we will:

  • Establish your brand positioning. Where does your brand currently sit in the market, and where do you aspire to be? Compare your offerings to competitors and identify the unique value you bring.
  • Analyse market dynamics. How do pricing, audience preferences, and competitor strategies impact your positioning? Use these insights to identify opportunities and gaps your brand can fill.

A quadrant chart depicting a brand positioning matrix with various points placed within the quadrants.

Brand Positioning

Your brand positioning defines how your brand is perceived compared to competitors, emphasising your unique value. It answers the questions: Where does your brand sit in the market, and where do you aspire to be?

Positioning is about clarity. It helps your audience to understand why they should choose you over someone else. It also shapes how your brand communicates and the space you want to occupy in your customers’ minds.

  • Who are your biggest competitors?
  • What is your USP? What makes your brand different?
  • Who is your cheapest competitor, and who is your most expensive competitor?
  • How do your target markets overlap or differ?
  • Where do you place yourself on this scale?

Creating your brand positioning statement is a key part of this process. Use this as a tool to clearly define your value and communicate it effectively. You can learn more about how to make your own here.

To make this concept tangible, let’s look at an example from the UK: beans.

brand-positioning-beans

In the UK, here’s ASDA’s bean offering, and their respective prices per can:

  • Supermarket’s Smart Price Range: 23p / 30¢
  • Supermarket’s Own Range: 30p / 40¢
  • Branston Beans: 65p / 86¢
  • Heinz Beans: 80p / £0.60

The contents inside are similar, but preferences differ. Why? The answer lies in brand positioning.

At one end, the Smart Price Range offers no-frills packaging and a low price point. At the other end, Heinz Beans brand name dominates the market with campaigns like “Heinz Means Beans,” positioning themselves as the premium choice—the only beans worth having.

This positioning shapes customer perception, and most people buy Heinz because they believe in its value, even though the product is nearly identical.

This shows how positioning impacts customer choices and why it’s crucial to get it right.

Win Hearts and Minds

Focus on how your brand can emotionally connect with your audience—what story do you tell, and why should they believe in you? A strong emotional connection often outweighs price or product features.

What?

Your “What?” defines the essence of your brand: what it offers, the problems it solves, and the values it embodies. This is where you clarify your purpose and what sets your brand apart, shaping the story you share with your audience.

In this section, we will:

  • Identify your brand story. What journey, vision, and passion drive your business? Your brand story inspires your audience to believe in what you do and become part of your mission.
  • Highlight your brand values. What does your brand stand for? Clear, authentic values differentiate you from competitors and show customers what makes your brand unique.

Brand Story

Your brand story weaves together your mission, history, and purpose to create an emotional connection with your audience. It’s not just about what you do; it’s the narrative that inspires trust, loyalty, and emotional investment.

By sharing your journey, vision, and passion, your brand story helps your audience believe in what you do and encourages them to become part of your mission.

To help write your brand story, ask yourself:

  • Why did your brand come to life?
  • What challenges have you overcome?
  • How does your mission resonate with your audience’s needs?
  • What led you to where you are today?
  • What’s your brand narrative?

Your brand story isn’t static; it should evolve to reflect the structure of your business. For companies with multiple brands or complex architectures, adapt your story to showcase the relationships between offerings and highlight their unique roles.

Make sure your story answers the questions: “Why do we do what we do, and why are customers going to choose us?” Done effectively, your brand story becomes a key driver for building brand loyalty.

Brands that prioritise storytelling see conversion rates increase by up to 96%, proving the power of a compelling narrative.

Pass The Popcorn

Treat your brand story like a movie. Break it into three acts: the beginning (why your brand exists), the middle (your challenges and journey), and the future (your vision and how your audience is part of it). A great story keeps people engaged and invested.

A person at a desk with thought bubbles showing key brand values.

Brand Values

Your brand values are the principles that guide your decisions, shaping your brand’s personality and behaviour. They represent what truly matters to you and set you apart from competitors.

What does your brand stand for? To create authentic values:

  • Avoid clichés like “honesty” or “reliability”—these are expectations, not differentiators.
  • Focus on unique principles that align with your mission and resonate with your audience.
  • Encapsulate your values in your story and messaging.

For example:

  • If your brand is environmentally friendly, showcase this proudly in everything you do.
  • If innovation is core to your identity, make it a visible part of your actions and communication.

Clear, authentic values differentiate your brand and help build trust, which is non-negotiable in today’s market. Research shows that 81% of customers need to trust a brand before making a purchase, and your values form the foundation for that trust.

Don’t Bullshit Yourself

Test your values by asking, “Would we still uphold this value if it cost us money?” If the answer is yes, it’s authentic. If not, it’s a buzzword. Authentic values build brand loyalty and lasting connections with your audience.

Why?

Your “Why?” defines your brand’s purpose—the reason it exists. It’s the driving force behind your mission and vision, giving your audience a clear reason to trust and choose your brand over competitors. A compelling ‘Why’ builds emotional connections and loyalty.

In this section, we will:

  • Define your brand mission. Why does your brand exist? Your mission outlines your purpose and explains how you fulfil your customers’ needs in a way that sets you apart.
  • Clarify your brand vision. Where is your brand heading in the future? A clear vision inspires your team and guides long-term decisions, ensuring your brand remains consistent and focused on its goals.

A target graphic with puzzle pieces, arrows, and checkmarks representing a brand mission and strategy alignment.

Brand Mission

Your brand mission is the reason your brand exists, defining the impact you aim to make in the world and how you fulfil your customers’ needs in a way that sets you apart.

Your mission outlines your purpose and how you plan to achieve it. It should connect directly to your brand vision by explaining the steps you’re taking to get there. A clear mission helps align your team and communicates to customers why they should choose you.

To write your brand mission statement:

  • Ask, “What do we do, and how do we do it differently?”
  • Define the purpose of your business—why does it exist?
  • Explain how you address customer needs in a unique way.
  • Keep it concise and action-oriented.

For example:

A mission statement for a sustainable clothing brand might be, “To create stylish, eco-friendly fashion that empowers conscious consumers and reduces environmental impact.”

Your mission sets the tone for everything your brand does, ensuring your purpose is clear and compelling. Need help? Learn more about crafting a mission statement here.

Look To The Stars

Think of your mission as your North Star. It should guide every decision you make. When in doubt, ask, “Does this align with our mission?” If it doesn’t, it’s a sign to refocus.

Brand Vision

Your brand vision is your long-term aspiration, outlining where your brand is headed and what success looks like. It serves as a guiding light, keeping your team inspired and your decisions focused on your goals.

Your vision details where you want your brand to be in the future. It’s about defining your ultimate objectives and ensuring consistency across all efforts to achieve them.

To clarify your vision:

  • Define your long-term goals—what does success look like in 5, 10, or 20 years?
  • Align your vision with your mission and values to create cohesion.
  • Decide whether to keep it concise or create a timeline that outlines key milestones over weeks, months, or years.

For example:

A vision statement for a tech company could be, “To empower every individual with seamless, accessible, and innovative technology solutions worldwide.”

A clear vision inspires your team to stay motivated and keeps your brand on track for consistent growth and success.

Make It Tangible

Create a vision board for your brand. Use images, quotes, and milestones to bring your vision to life visually. This makes it tangible, exciting, and easier to share with your team.

How?

Your “How?” focuses on the practical aspects of bringing your brand to life. It’s about defining the steps, structures, and brand touchpoints that will help you connect with your audience and deliver on your brand’s promises.

In this section, we will:

  • Organise your brand with a clear brand architecture. How do your products, services, or sub-brands fit together? A well-structured brand architecture creates clarity for your audience and supports growth.
  • Map out your brand touchpoints. How and where will customers interact with your brand? Whether it’s your website, social media, or in-store experience, touchpoints should create a seamless and consistent journey.
  • Refine your brand messaging. How will you communicate what makes your brand unique? Consistent messaging that reflects your mission, values, and positioning helps your audience understand and connect with your story.
  • Define your tone of voice. How will your brand speak? Whether formal or casual, playful or professional, your tone of voice should align with your audience’s expectations and your brand’s personality.
  • Develop your brand identity. How will your brand be visually represented? From logos to colour palettes and typography, a cohesive brand identity creates alignment between your visual elements and your overall strategy.

illustration showing a brand architecture set up

Brand Architecture and Hierarchy

Your brand architecture and hierarchy organise how your products, services, and sub-brands connect, creating clarity for your audience and providing a strong foundation for growth.

Brand architecture defines the relationship between your main brand and its sub-brands or products. There are three main types of brand architecture structures, each with distinct benefits and challenges:

Branded House

In a branded house, the parent brand is the primary focus, and all products and services fall under its identity.

Example: Google. Google’s brand is consistently applied across its range of products and services, such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Drive.
When to Use: If you want to leverage the strength of a single brand name across multiple offerings.
Key Benefit: Builds strong recognition and trust under one unified brand.
Challenge: Any issue with one sub-brand can affect the entire brand.

illustration showing p&g at the top with sub brands below

House of Brands

In a house of brands, individual sub-brands operate independently and may not reference the parent brand.

Example: Procter & Gamble. Brands like Tide, Pampers, and Gillette each have their own identities and target markets.
When to Use: If you want to target distinct markets or have diverse product categories.
Key Benefit: Limits reputational risk, as issues with one brand don’t affect others.
Challenge: Higher costs for marketing and maintaining separate brands.

illustration at the top showing unilever with sub-brands beneath

Hybrid Model

The hybrid model combines elements of both a branded house and a house of brands, offering flexibility for sub-brands.

Example: Unilever. Unilever owns a diverse range of brands, including Dove, Ben & Jerry’s, and Lipton. While each brand has its own identity, they all benefit from the strength and reputation of the Unilever name.
When to Use: If you want some offerings to maintain independence while others remain connected to the parent brand.
Key Benefit: Balances brand consistency with flexibility.
Challenge: Can lead to confusion if the relationships between brands are not clearly defined.

A clear brand architecture helps your products, services, and sub-brands work together seamlessly, aligning with your overall strategy and improving customer understanding.

  • Map out all your products, services, and sub-brands: Create a diagram to visualise the structure.
  • Determine the type of architecture that suits your business: Choose between a branded house, house of brands, or hybrid model based on your goals and offerings.
  • Align your architecture with your overall strategy: Reflect your mission, values, and growth plans.
  • Use clear naming conventions: Make it easy for customers and employees to understand how everything fits together.

A well-structured brand hierarchy improves customer understanding, prevents confusion, and supports brand loyalty. It also acts as a roadmap for growth, helping new offerings strengthen your overall brand presence.

Think Like a Family Tree

Each product or service should have its place, and the relationship to the parent brand should be clear. Use visuals like diagrams to keep everyone in your organisation aligned, and help customers to easily understand the structure.

jigsaw puzzle with icons around the side

Brand Touchpoints

Your brand touchpoints are every interaction customers have with your brand, from your website to your social media presence. They represent the opportunities for customers to connect with your brand and experience its value.

To map your touchpoints, consider all the ways people interact with your brand. These can include:

  • Website
  • Blogs
  • Email
  • Events and Networking
  • Word of Mouth
  • Direct Mail
  • Social Media
  • Brochures
  • eBooks
  • Advertising
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews and FAQs
  • Case Studies
  • Public Relations

Your touchpoints should create a seamless and consistent journey for your customers, ensuring they experience your brand in a way that reinforces your values and messaging.

By aligning all touchpoints to your brand strategy, you build trust, enhance engagement, and drive loyalty.

Learn more about creating winning touchpoints here.

Swap Your Shoes

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Map out their journey step by step, from the first interaction to post-purchase engagement. Ask yourself; is this experience consistent, valuable, and reflective of the brand we want to be?

Brand Messaging

Your brand messaging is how you communicate your brand’s essence, values, and benefits to resonate with your audience. It’s the voice that reflects your mission, values, story, and positioning, all distilled into a clear and compelling message.

Your messaging explains what makes your brand unique and helps your audience understand and connect with your story. For example, McDonald’s uses “I’m Lovin’ It” alongside a catchy jingle that evokes instant recognition and emotional connection.

Your brand messaging should speak to:

  • Prospective clients and customers
  • Prospective employees
  • Referral networks
  • Potential influencers
  • Potential partner brands

While your core message should stay consistent across all these audiences, tailor it slightly to suit the needs and expectations of each group.

To create or refine your messaging:

  • Focus on what makes your brand unique—your USP.
  • Make sure it reflects your mission, values, and positioning.
  • Create messaging that’s clear, memorable, and relevant to your audience.
  • Test it across different platforms for consistency and impact.

There are several brand messaging frameworks you can use to help refine your messaging.

Anchor Messaging with Emotion

People remember how brands make them feel more than what they say. Tap into your audience’s desires, needs, and aspirations to create a message that sticks.

infographic to show tone of voice

Tone of Voice

Your tone of voice is how your brand speaks, conveying personality and consistency across all communication. It reflects your brand’s values and helps your messaging align with your audience’s expectations.

Choosing the right tone of voice is crucial to building trust and connection. For example, if your product is made for children, it’s the parents you need to speak to—emphasising safety and reliability while keeping the messaging fun and approachable. Misaligned tone can confuse or alienate your audience, so it’s important to get it right.

To define your tone of voice:

  • Consider your audience; what do they expect and respond to?
  • Align with your brand personality; are you playful, formal, professional, or casual?
  • Decide on key attributes for your tone (e.g., warm, authoritative, inspiring).
  • Test your tone across different platforms and refine for consistency.

A consistent tone of voice builds trust, makes your brand memorable, and creates clarity across all your communications.

If you’re unsure where to start, check out our handy guide to finding your brand tone of voice.

Checklists Create Clarity

Create a tone of voice checklist. Include do’s and don’ts for word choice, sentence structure, and tone. This helps to maintain consistency and reflects your personality perfectly.

Illustration of a person pointing to a computer screen with charts and a color palette.

Brand Identity

Your brand identity is how your brand is visually represented, combining all the visual elements that create a cohesive and consistent image. It’s the fun part of branding, but also one of the most critical for aligning your visuals with your overall strategy.

To build a strong brand identity, consider these elements:

  • Logo design, including vertical and horizontal lockups
  • Website design
  • Colour palette
  • Typeface selection
  • Stationery design (e.g., letterheads, business cards)
  • Marketing materials (e.g., flyers, leaflets, brochures)
  • Digital templates (e.g., invoices, quotation documents, PowerPoint slides)
  • Social media imagery
  • Tone of voice

Your brand identity should be consistent across all touchpoints, ensuring that every interaction reinforces your brand’s essence and builds recognition. Brands that maintain consistency across platforms can see up to a 23% increase in revenue, proving the power of a unified identity for both aesthetics and measurable business success.

Learn more about building a corporate identity here.

Get Your Guidelines Together

Create brand guidelines that include all key elements: logos, fonts, colours, and templates in one place, ensuring your team and partners have the resources they need to maintain consistency across every platform.

A document with text, icons, and a pencil representing the creation of a brand strategy document.

How to Document Your Brand Strategy

Your brand strategy isn’t just a concept; it needs to be a clear, accessible document that everyone in your organisation can refer to.

A single, well-structured document is better than multiple scattered files. It should include every element outlined in this article, organised clearly for reference and implementation.

What Your Brand Strategy Document Should Include

Your brand strategy document should include everything that we’ve talked about in this post so far.

Here it is as a quick checklist:

  • Audience Personas: Detailed profiles of your ideal customers.
  • Competitor Research: Insights into strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in the market.
  • Brand Archetypes: The universal persona your brand embodies.
  • Brand Positioning: How your brand is perceived and what makes it unique.
  • Brand Story: The narrative that connects your mission, history, and purpose.
  • Brand Values: The principles that guide your brand’s decisions and behaviour.
  • Brand Mission: Why your brand exists and the impact you aim to make.
  • Brand Vision: Your long-term goals and aspirations.
  • Brand Architecture and Hierarchy: How your products, services, or sub-brands fit together.
  • Brand Touchpoints: The places and ways customers interact with your brand.
  • Brand Messaging: How you communicate your brand’s essence and values.
  • Tone of Voice: How your brand speaks consistently across all communication.

Steps to Create Your Brand Strategy Document

  1. Gather All Elements: Use this article and our downloadable PDF guide as a checklist to make sure nothing is missed. The guide includes a framework for every element of your brand strategy. Review your existing materials, identify gaps, and compile all insights into one place. If you’re starting from scratch, use the PDF as a roadmap for gathering and documenting these key elements.
  2. Organise Your Content Clearly: Structure your document so it’s easy to navigate. Use clear section headings and a logical flow. For example:
    • Start with foundational elements like your mission, vision, and values.
    • Move into audience personas and competitor research to define your market.
    • Follow with strategy-focused sections like positioning, messaging, and tone of voice.
    • End with actionable components like touchpoints and architecture.

    Incorporate visual aids like charts, personas, and brand identity assets to make your document more engaging and functional.

  3. Design for Accessibility: Save your brand strategy document as a PDF for easy sharing across your team. Consider using a collaborative tool like Notion, Google Docs, or Miro for live updates and team input. A well-designed document helps everyone to understand your brand’s direction.
  4. Review and Refine: Before rolling it out, review your document for clarity and completeness. Share it with key stakeholders for feedback and buy-in. Update it regularly to reflect changes as your brand evolves.

One Document is Better Than Two

A single document is always better than two. Combine your brand strategy and visual guidelines into one comprehensive document to give readers a complete picture of your brand.

For further insights on how to take your brand to the next level, explore brand growth strategies used by top companies.

Brand Strategy Examples

Now that we’ve covered what a brand strategy includes and why it’s important, we’re looking at some brand strategy examples.

Tesla

We can’t explore brand strategy examples without mentioning Tesla.

The automotive company has an effective brand strategy as it leans into something we all care about: the planet. They are a great example of a purpose-driven brand as they’re showing customers the ‘why’ behind their work.

Furthermore, the brand’s purpose statement is:

“To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

This allows Tesla to expand into other markets outside of just building electric cars. Essentially, they are tying the brand to a greater cause which creates a deep, emotional connection with customers.

Apple

A huge part of any successful brand strategy is defining and communicating your brand values.

A great example of a company that does this is Apple.

Their brand values are clear, actionable, and embody what the brand is all about. They position Apple as a leader in the space and differentiate the brand from other tech companies.

Apple’s brand values are:

  • Accessibility
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Inclusion and diversity
  • Privacy
  • Racial equity and justice initiative
  • Supplier responsibility

It’s important you live, eat, and breathe your brand values as if you’re not following them, how can you expect anyone else to?

Make sure you take a leaf out of Apple’s book and create brand values that effectively convey what your brand stands for.

Why Work with a Branding Agency?

Most companies bring in a branding agency when it’s time to think about colours, logos, and layouts. That’s a step too late.

Developing your brand strategy in isolation rarely works. It’s often where businesses struggle the most.

A branding agency offers expertise from the start, helping you build a strong strategy and avoid common pitfalls. Agencies don’t just design logos; they’ve seen what works and what doesn’t, giving you a clear path to a successful branding journey.

Involving an agency early makes the brand identity process far simpler. You’ll experience fewer revisions and create a more cohesive result.

Look for an agency with experience in similar projects and a start-to-finish service. The right agency will help you lay the strongest foundation for your brand.

If you want to tackle your brand strategy yourself, our ebook is a great place to start. Or, if you’re ready to partner with experts, we’re here to help.

Brand Strategy FAQ’s

Before we bring this guide to a close, we thought we would add a few frequently asked questions to recap, to make sure that you’re crystal clear on brand strategy.

  • What is a Brand Strategy?

    Your brand strategy document is your brand bible, but by no means does it have to be the length of one. They contain all of the relevant information about building your brand, and what you believe in.

  • Why is Brand Strategy Important?

    For any company to get to where they need to be, stand out from the competition, and avoid any unnecessary (and potentially expensive) mistakes – investing time into creating a clear brand strategy is an essential step to take when you start out or consider rebranding your business.

  • What Makes a Brand Successful?

    Your brand strategy should always align with your business strategy to give you a high chance of success. By having something to refer back to, your core goals, your mission, story, and vision, you can always ask ‘Is this what we set out to do? Will this help achieve our goals?’

The Ultimate Brand Strategy Development Guide (With Brand Strategy Template)

Your brand strategy is the foundation of your business and should be your top priority when starting out.

By using our guide, Your Brand Strategy Made Simple, you’ll help yourself by taking the time to understand your brand and standing out from the crowd, going the extra mile.

You’ll gain a unique insight into what you do, why you do it, who you do it for and where you are going with it.

Without your brand strategy, your brand lacks direction. Branding is something we know a lot about here at Canny. Check out some of our case studies if you don’t believe us!

Or if you’re already convinced that you need our help, all you need to do is reach out to a member of our team.

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