Brand Marketing 101: How to Build a Killer Strategy

What do brands like Apple, Nike, or Coca-Cola have in common? They all started with a concept that was bigger than the products they sold.

This concept evolved into products that built the foundation for the mega brands you see today. Decades later, these brands continue to inspire customers through the power of brand marketing.

If you hope to gain customers that will be loyal to your brand for years, brand marketing is the secret sauce. We’ve got the recipe on how to build a good brand strategy along with examples for inspiration.

Let’s dive in!

What is brand marketing?

The main goal of marketing your brand is to build customer loyalty, get customer referrals, gain recognition, and charge more for products. A long-term goal many businesses overlook!

It involves creating a brand identity and marketing your products or services as a concept or lifestyle that goes beyond your products. As emotional creatures, humans are much more likely to purchase when being sold a feeling created by a brand.

The difference between branding and marketing

A brand is the identity and personality of your business. Branding means creating brand assets like designing a logo, color palette, and typography that distinguishes your brand.

Marketing is the process of building brand awareness and selling products and services to customers. Anything from using ads and posters to social media posts is marketing.

How to create a brand marketing strategy

We’ve outlined a step-by-step process to building a killer brand marketing strategy that makes your customers swoon. Lets get started!

1. Establish your brand story and purpose

Think of your small business’ purpose and outline your brand story. This is unique to you!

Use this to create a brand that will resonate with your audience and forge an emotional connection to your brand. For example, look at Lululemon’s story:

What started as inspiration to build a wellness community ended up as a global brand known for premium yoga apparel.

Source:https://workingnotworking.com/projects/89154-lululemon-this-is-yoga

Lululemon’s brand marketing strategy used its story to connect premium products to a healthy, mindful and active lifestyle. People resonate with that brand story, and as a result, they buy the products.

To solidify your brand purpose, answer the following questions:

2. Define your target market

Your target market is your potential customers, so start by pinpointing the details of your ideal client. This helps clarify who you want your brand to resonate with, and how you can target them with marketing.

Outline the following details of your ideal customer:

Here’s an example of the answers you need to outline an ideal customer:

Source:https://wix.com/blog/creative/2020/02/how-to-create-a-user-persona-ux/

3. Build brand guidelines

Brand guidelines are the rules you follow to be consistent and build recognition and trust. It takes the guesswork out of creating assets and marketing materials for your business!

Brand guidelines cover the following:

To maintain consistency no matter the medium, some brands also include video style guides, packaging parameters, and more. Here’s an example of what brand guidelines look like:

Source:https://venngage.com/blog/brand-guidelines-templates/

If you’re interested in designing a logo and getting brand guidelines tailored to your brand, try Looka’s logo maker.

4. Study your competition

List of your top competitors and study their product, branding, and pricing. This way, you’ll understand the ecosystem of brands you’re competing with.

Look for weaknesses in how they market or represent their brand and create a competitive advantage around this.

Think of a Coca-Cola beverage. Although it’s full of sugar (39g in each can!) people still buy it. Competitors are capitalizing on Coca-Cola’s weaknesses by creating soft drinks with healthy ingredients, reduced sugar, and more modern brand personalities.

Here’s an example:

Traditional pop products have solid, dark color palettes with tons of sugar and artificial flavors.

Olipop’s brand strategy targets both outdated branding and unhealthy ingredients. They set themselves apart by using light pastel colors, minimalistic branding, and healthy ingredients. Talk about refreshing!

5. Evolve your brand

Your business and brand will need to adapt to changing consumer preferences and new competitors.

Although consistency is key to brand recognition, your brand needs to stay afloat by always adapting to change. When brand and logo redesigns happen, they signal a change in product offering to support new consumer trends.

For example, General Motors rebranded to adapt to preferences for electric vehicles and environmental laws. They updated their branding to reflect their new vision below:

Clean, sleek, and modern, their new logo signals their commitment to an efficient future.

Your brand and messaging will have to be flexible as well! Always stay in tune with your environment and consumer preferences. Otherwise, your competitors will take advantage of your weaknesses.

Brand strategy examples

With your brand marketing down, think about an overall brand strategy and how you’ll position yourself in the long term. Here are some world-famous examples of brand strategy done right!

1. Airbnb

Airbnb differentiated its brand by offering an authentic local experience, an affordable price. Their slogan “Belong Anywhere” inspires customers with the spirit of traveling like a local.

They found a gap in the market and used a blue ocean strategy to “create and capture uncontested market space, thereby making the competition irrelevant” as the strategy states.

2. Tesla

Source:https://electrek.co/2020/11/06/tesla-releases-ad-like-videos-showcasing-charging/

Tesla differentiated itself by offering the first-ever luxury electric vehicles. Meeting both environmental and consumer needs, Tesla’s strategy challenges the gas-powered status quo with futuristic-looking electric cars.

Their brand strategy is based on making the future of transportation sustainable. They do this through futuristic branding that distinguishes them from traditional car companies (and traditional values). As a result, people feel like they’re part of the climate change solution when they buy a Tesla car!

3. Dollar shave club

Dollar Shave Club gave the $8 billion shaving empire, Gilette, a run for their money by offering affordable prices for premium-quality razors.

Their brand marketing was relatable and hilarious- giving them an edge over Gilettes uninspiring ads. Their brand colors are warmer than Gilettes, and their brand voice is friendly and approachable. A perfect example of taking something as simple as a razor and making it fun.

4. Lyft

Lyft uses differentiation in brand voice to resonate with consumers on a more personal level. The product is the same as Uber, but the experience is different. They focus on community building with the slogan “Your friend with a car”.

Their branding reflects this with a bubbly, approachable, and bright appeal compared to the dark and geometric look of Uber.

5. MUJI

Most apparel companies focus on differentiating their brand, others choose a no-brand approach altogether. MUJI is a Japanese brand that means “plain”. They compete by offering generic but high-quality products at affordable prices.

As a result, people flock to them for basic needs, leaving competing brands in the dust. Their branding is simple, clean and classic. Just like their clothing and brand strategy!

Brand marketing takeaways

Keep these main takeaways in your back pocket:

Want more content like this to help build your brand? Join over 30k entrepreneurs in our monthly newsletter!