How To Facilitate A Brand Strategy Session With Your Client Step By Step
- Nour Alhamwi
- Jan 23, 2023
- 7 min read
Branding is crucial for any company looking to expand its business and maintain healthy success. Suppose a company wishes to take its business global. In that case, brand strategy sessions are a step every company should implement to plan and execute the tactics they need to reach the global market. One of the biggest mistakes companies makes when it comes time to strategize is that they need an agenda in mind or be made aware of what tactical steps they should take first. Strategic planning for a brand marketing campaign isn't simply brainstorming innovative ideas, it's taking the time to make sure decisions are made correctly and in the company's best interest.
What is a Brand Strategy?
Brand strategy is the process of finding, defining, and designing your brand's unique capabilities, opportunities, and competitive positioning. It's done by assessing the current landscape and future trends to determine how your brand can best meet its objectives. It's a process that can take months or years and shouldn't be rushed. To ensure brand success, subsequent steps should be taken to create a solid strategy.
What is a Brand Strategy Session?
Brand strategy sessions, or brand workshops as they're sometimes called, are usually one-on-one sessions between a client and their brand development consultant or marketing firm. The purpose is to outline the steps necessary to develop the strategic plan and build a strong brand presence. To succeed, the consultant needs to make sure companies are thinking manageably but simply taking the time to develop their services and create a strong foundation that will allow them to expand in other directions.
Steps on How to Facilitate a Brand Strategy Session With Your Client
Step 1: Define the Brand Purpose
Before even conceptualizing the brand campaign, it is essential to have a clear understanding of what your brand is. Start by establishing your important qualities and defining what you want to be known for. Clients want to know the overall goals and objectives the brand is trying to achieve. Once you clearly understand the core values and principles your brand promotes, start building your strategy from there.
Step 2: Assess Your Current Marketplace
To build an innovative brand campaign, you must understand what opportunities exist. Use this as a time to brainstorm and discover new ways your company can better serve your target audience. Brainstorming sessions are crucial to building a solid brand strategy. It's essential to take the time to consider all of the pros and cons of different areas you wish to focus on.
Step 3: Define Key Performance Indicators
A strong understanding of how well your brand is doing and where it stands in the marketplace will help you craft a brand strategy that is both relevant and effective. Identify which KPIs can be used as indicators of your brand's performance. Once you have identified KPIs, you should be able to define what success looks like for your company's future. These indicators aren't just for your understanding, they should be communicated to your team as well.
Step 4: Identify Your Target Market
Knowing which area you plan on targeting is essential. It's important to clarify who your target audience is and what you plan on doing to reach them. The importance of the target market cannot be stressed enough. Without a clear understanding of your target market and the message you plan on delivering, you will have issues progressing further with your brand strategy session. Clients need to understand precisely where they will be targeting their brand.
Step 5: Define Your Unique Selling Proposition
Companies need to define what makes them unique in their industry. Understanding your brand's motivation, purpose, and passion is crucial when developing a brand strategy. Creating a compelling USP is a challenging process and will require some brainstorming. Remember that your USP should be able to convey what distinguishes you from your competition. It can be done through either how you serve your target market or the products/services you provide.
Step 6: Identify the Brand's Core Values
Within your brand strategy, you must determine which values are important to your company. These values can play an essential role in deciding your KPIs. With a strong understanding of your core values, it will be easier to determine what is valuable to you and what will aid you in growing.
Step 7: Define Your Strengths, Competencies & Resources
It is essential to define what makes your company unique and special. Describing your company as unique and special is an easy way to communicate what you are known for. If a company knows what they are great at, it will be easier to build a brand strategy that can benefit the company.
Step 8: Create a Strategic Plan
Knowing why you are creating a brand strategy is essential to success. It is vital to have a clear goal when building your system that can be used as an outline for what you hope to achieve. This strategic plan will allow you to stay focused and remain on track with your marketing initiatives. It will ensure that your efforts are well-spent and your money is being spent correctly.
Step 9: Determine Brand Strategy Deliverables
You must develop a timeline for what you want to achieve within your brand strategy. Determine which deliverables are acceptable for the campaign. These deliverables should be able to prove to the client that the work is worthwhile. It will make clients feel more comfortable knowing that their investment is going towards something that can be hard to measure.
Step 10: Help the Client Develop a Clear Brand Purpose
It is essential to have your client develop a clear purpose. It will be used as a way to guide the campaign toward success. Clients must understand what they are trying to accomplish and why it is essential. A brand strategy needs to focus on developing a solid drive that you can build on future campaigns. Creating a clear view of what your brand is working towards and why it is essential will be necessary.
Essential Factors to Consider to Facilitate a Brand Strategy Session With a Client.
1. Preparation
You must come to the meeting ready to go. Before you even reach the client's office, you must prepare for what you want to accomplish. Be sure to have a clear outline of your goals and the deliverables that will be expected from your strategy. You must research the company beforehand to bring up points about its brand, which will help them remember why it is essential for their business.
2. Client Feedback
It would be best if you allowed the client to speak freely about their brand and its direction. Allow them to provide valuable feedback on what can be changed or improved. It will enable you to create a more beneficial brand strategy for your company.
3. Establish Trust and Confidence
You must hold the client's hands as much as possible throughout the meeting. It will show them that you care about their business and what they are trying to accomplish. It allows you to build a strong foundation for the brand strategy and help you create something useful for your company.
4. Focus on Brand Direction
The brand strategy should focus on showing your clients exactly what they can expect from their company in the future. It will make them more comfortable knowing that their money is going towards something worthwhile and will make them feel more positive about your company and the work that you're doing.
5. Bring in other Experts
You must go to the meeting with others. Bring in your team or other experts to help you and your client realize the outcome of the brand strategy. Experienced and well-respected marketing professionals can help you create something useful for your company.
6 . Use Concrete Numbers, Not Qualitative Ones
It would be best if you stayed focused on the goals and deliverables of your brand strategy. It is not essential to use qualitative measurements like "I believe this brand could be more successful if we did x,y, and z"; it is necessary to focus on concrete numbers such as "We will generate 1 million dollars in revenue for our campaign."
7. Be Authentic
You must show the client what they need to expect from your company. Tell them the truth and what they can expect to happen. You mustn't lie to them or make promises you cannot keep. It would help if you stayed focused on your company's needs without worrying about what other companies are doing in the industry.
The primary purpose of having a brand strategy is to develop a deeper understanding of your company's vision. At the same time, it is essential to understand how you can create a compelling and beneficial campaign that will benefit your business. It would help if you defined the overall direction that your brand campaign will take. It would be best if you had a clear idea of what goals will be accomplished by the end of the project or else it is not worth taking the time and effort to create one for your company if it does not produce any results.
Are you interested in learning more about brand strategy and how to facilitate a strategy with clients? If so, you won't want to miss this brand strategy workshop with certified brand strategist Nour Alhamwi.
As of right now, there are over 405,911 marketing specialists in the United States. Out of that number, only 4,197 are brand strategists. That means that less than 2% of all marketing specialists are brand strategists!
Since the demand for brand strategy grows, and with the industry growing, there's plenty of opportunity for talented people like you to make a name for themselves.
So if you're looking for a challenging and rewarding career, brand strategy is the way to go. If you're interested in brand strategy, take a look at this workshop, and reserve your seat.
Reserve your seat now, and pave your way to success.
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