Brand Strategist may sound like a fluff position to you; in reality, it may be the most important person you hire for your company.
A Brand Strategist specializes in research, analysis, positioning, messaging, and developing an informed PR/marketing communications plan to effectively connect your company to your customers and build and further your brand equity. Strategists are the experts at seeing the big picture and generating results. Your Brand Strategist should be able to forecast your company’s future and position your company to benefit from it. Will this be a high-tech, high-growth, or high-value company? Your Brand Strategist is the strategic expert that can look at the overall state of your industry, the competition, your position in the industry, and other issues.
Brand equity is the commercial value derived from consumer perception of the brand rather than from the product or service itself. Your Brand Strategist has first-hand knowledge of the product or service. They know consumers, marketing and advertising, sales, distribution, and other key issues that determine the success of your brand. The Brand Strategist also possesses the ability to identify brand opportunities that would have a significant impact on your company and achieve strategic objectives.
What worked for your friend’s business may not work for yours.
No two businesses are the same. Even if you work in similar industries or have similar target customers, the same strategy should not be blindly applied. Can you imagine if Coca-Cola and Pepsi deployed the same brand strategy? Customers would likely be confused and turned off. The Brand Strategist has a critical role in determining, building, and protecting a brand’s unique image and positioning, as well as determining how these elements will be expressed (written, spoken, image, sound, etc.) in the strategic communications of your business.
Not all of your customers are created equal.
As I mentioned, research with your target audience(s) is important. And, if you think your audiences are the same, think again. Your brand likely has several audiences – investors, customers, employees, etc. And, the message and strategy won’t be the same for them all. So, which audiences get a say? How do you filter through all the material to come up with one short, powerful statement that encapsulates the innate qualities of the company’s core philosophy? A core set of values can be distilled into a single sentence. Not all of your customers are created equal.
Because you don’t ‘just need social media support.
For many brands, a presence on social media is essential. But, I wouldn’t recommend any brand prioritize social media before identifying their best brand message and strategy. The time to build this knowledge is BEFORE you need it. That’s when you should use your newfound intelligence to turn social media into a platform to test the tone, voice, and feel of messaging. Re-purpose the dull. Do you know why? Most people aren’t good at messaging. They aren’t good at copywriting. They think messaging = relaying information to the public. It’s NOT. It means how are you going to define who you are, what’s your unique value proposition, how are you going to inspire and motivate your audience, and what kind of experiences are you going to offer? “As a result, many clients don’t have the emotional connection to their brands because, you know, they’re just so busy, they don’t have time.
You’re not a PR pro or marketing guru.
Nor are you expected to be! And the only thing you should DIY is your business’s core competency. Unless marketing or PR is in your background, it is not expected of you as a business owner to know everything inside and out about successfully marketing your business. That is why hiring a brand strategist to manage and ensure all marketing assets create the success you are looking for is essential. Did you know there are thousands of people currently operating as Brand Strategies?
Wherever your business is today – the beginning, two years in, five years in, or more – it’s never too late to invest in your brand! The most successful stories in the world all began with an investment in their “brand” and ensured their success. A Brand Strategist is a connector between marketing deliverables and success for your business. There are thousands of Brand Strategists throughout the United States, but The AD Leaf is ready to work with you and meet your goals today. Meet with our Brand Strategist, Joleen Santos, to get started! (321) 255-0900.
