3 V's of Building an Authentic Brand Strategy
When thinking about building a brand from scratch, most people immediately think of logos and color palettes. Who could blame them? That’s the fun part.
However, while pulling an all-nighter to create the most aesthetic mood board of what you want your brand to look like is extremely fun, it’s not exactly considered brand strategy.
Now don’t worry, all that time didn’t go to waste. It can certainly be part of your process, but the truth is a strong brand is not only a logo or color palette.
Developing a clear, well-defined, and authentic brand strategy the right way is important in today’s market. Doing so will not only enable you to hit the ground running in meeting your business goals, but it can also prevent you and your team from burning out!
This is because an authentic brand strategy is value-driven. Rooting your business in your why helps to better move forward in an ethical, sustainable, and engaging way. Moreover, customers will likely feel a greater sense of loyalty to you when you lead with your values.
What is an authentic brand?
An authentic brand is one that is true to its values and mission while being transparent in its communication, both internally and externally. As consumers become more socially conscious, authentic brands are not just competitive in the market, but actually expected by buyers.
Conscious consumers, also known as Mindful Consumers, are buyers that want to purchase from brands that align with their values. These consumers want high-quality products that are sustainable and ethically sourced; they support local businesses and don’t mind paying extra for these goods and services.
Authentic branding is therefore important to communicate these values and bond with your customers on a deeper level. By being authentic in your brand strategy, you can build an audience that is loyal and willing to come back to you over and over.
What is the difference between a brand and a brand strategy?
A brand can be defined as the experience a customer has when interacting with a company or product. It is your reputation in the minds of your customers, or as I like to say, the story you tell about yourself across different channels.
A brand strategy lays out why you do what you do and who you do it for. It’s what gives you the clarity to create offers and content that align with your audience and yourself. In other words, it’s the way you choose to tell your story.
A well-defined brand strategy includes:
Who your audience is
Positioning of your brand in the market
Content of your brand story
What you sound like (your brand voice)
And more
Your brand strategy should guide all the decisions you make as a company, from the design of your logo to the tone of your marketing communications.
The key to brand building is authenticity. It allows you to craft a brand and business that aligns with you. Not only that but developing an authentic brand strategy will make the difference between creating good content and creating good content that resonates deeply with your audience.
And the best part? You can do it in just THREE steps:
1. Values
The Japanese call it your ikigai. The French say raison d'être. In English, we call it your purpose, your calling, your ‘why’.
No matter what you call it, every brand starts with one thing: a mission. From championing a social cause to empowering others in their business, that mission is at the center of everything you do.
That is to say that the foundation of your brand strategy is in its values. If you are going through a brand refresh or starting a brand from scratch, this is where you want to start.
Here’s the catch: your values need to be defined holistically to resonate deeply with your audience and align with your personal values. To do this, there are three types of values you should clearly define:
Business Values
Personal Values
Audience Values
By honing in on these three types of values, you will find an overarching mission that you can center your brand around. Discovering your business, personal, and audience values will also help you understand your positioning and value proposition.
Think of it like this: when you meet someone for the first time, you immediately get a “vibe” from them, an instinctive sense of their personality. It sits with them in the way they talk, the way they walk, and the way they dress.
Your values seep into every aspect of your business: content, visuals, products, services, and more. They come together to form the foundation of your brand strategy. When your brand distinctly turns certain people away, while attracting others, that’s when you’ll know you have built an authentic brand.
2. Voice
Brand voice refers to the personality that your business embodies. Think of it how your brand would sound if it was a person or character; the words, language, style, and tone you might use.
Your brand voice gives you the chance to emphasize characteristics of your business that make you unique. It is a way to embody and communicate your unique selling point and the values you defined in step one.
This is the reason we begin working on brand strategy through an in-depth reflection of your values. Developing a brand voice takes extreme clarity. Once you hone in on those core values, you will gain a deeper understanding of how to build an authentic brand.
Through your brand voice, you want to communicate four key things:
Brand Personality
Positioning
Unique Selling Point (USP)
Brand Values
For instance, if you are a lingerie e-commerce business with an emphasis on sustainability and self-love, your brand voice will likely not be stiff or overly professional. Instead, it might be carefree, gentle, and witty.
The goal is to capture the essence of your brand through your voice.
If you are doing this on your own, finding inspiration in varying forms is a great place to start. For example, vision boards can help you identify a general mood or feeling for your brand that may help you find the right words. You could also create a brand playlist or look through literary inspiration, such as poetry or other websites.
It can, however, be hard to get this right by yourself, especially if you don’t consider yourself a good writer. That’s why my Brand Strategy Blend gives you three personalized 1:1 coaching sessions to completely guide you through this so you can cover your bases in-depth with expert guidance and have all the tools you need to do it all by yourself whenever you need a refresh.
An example of what you can expect to receive when working with me on a Brand Strategy Blend. Contact me to learn more.
3. Vision
After you’ve done the work to develop strong brand values and a clear brand voice, you need to put a face to the name. This means translating the emotions and feelings of your brand into a visual experience: color palette, type suite, logos, submarks, and more.
Visual design elements bring the values of your brand to the forefront without ever uttering a word. It works in tandem with the other two steps to pull everything together in a way that allows you to stand out from the crowd.
When you arrive at this step, be careful not to get carried away with the shallowness of ‘aesthetics’. Any designer will tell you that a brand is so much more than just a logo, and it is important to keep this in mind when you’re working on the visual aspect of your brand
For instance, when I was working with my designer, Whitney from The WildHive Studio, I had to be careful about separating my preferences from what best resonated with my audience.
Because my business leverages my personal brand, it is okay that these intersect. However, in some scenarios, your preference may stray from what best fits your audience.
Create a visual mood board in inVision or Pinterest to capture the feeling of your brand. As I mentioned with Brand Voice, this will help inform your visual choices through a more purposeful lens.
To get a snapshot into how this all works together, check out my fun TikTok series on how I develop a brand personality based on just a word or name:
Once you’ve worked through your values, voice, and vision, you need to tie everything together. I highly recommend documenting these three things that make up your overall brand identity so you have a resource to reference for both internal and external use.
This can then serve as the foundation for your brand strategy which will work to execute this authentic brand identity across different channels and feel aligned with your values in every piece of content.
Craft a magnetic brand that keeps your customers coming back for more
The best thing you can do when building a brand is to take your time. Being intentional is key and developing an authentic brand strategy will invite your ideal clients to connect with you before you even ask.
If you are working on your own brand strategy for the first time or giving it a refresh so it aligns with you (rather than current design trends), this brand strategy framework will help you enormously. Being value-based makes all the difference in the world!
If you feel like you could use the extra guidance to craft the perfect brand strategy for your audience, book my Brand Strategy Blend package and work one-on-one with me, hand-holding and all, to make sure you are on the right path.
