So, imagine you are constructing a house. Your brand strategy is your unyielding source — the solid, lasting core. Your marketing strategy? Everything else: the rooms, décor and appeal. Both are important, however — but both play a very different role in the story of your business.
Brand Strategy: Your Business’s DNA
Brand strategy — been around since before the internet and is deep, foundational work that defines who you are as a business. You must consider it your heart and soul.
Values/Personality (your brand promise), the special identity of you with whom customers do business. It is part of the DNA of your business — it does not shift based on trends or seasons. Where your brand strategy answers big questions such as what do we stand for? Who are we serving? What makes us different? What type of vibe are we hoping to give off?
The design of the tactic is essentially a long term play with this one. Emotional connection and time (trust). A robust brand strategy helps in providing such a consistent experience and emotion to the customers whenever they see you somewhere or hear anything about your store.
Marketing Strategy: Your Tactical Playbook
Marketing strategy, on the other hand, is how you compete and will get noticed to drive sales. The quantitative and operational, where you are going to conduct your campaigns in which placement, how to construct them when they will be live before reaching the target audience?
Your brand foundation goes into your marketing strategy so you can get that message out there. Questions it helps answer: Where should we place our advertisements? What content should we create? How do we measure success? What’s our budget allocation?
Why You Need Both
This is the critical part — you cannot do advertising effectively without strong branding. Without a brand strategy, marketing is akin to pushing on a string. It may seem good on the outside but it’s unsustainable.
Yet, brand strategy is a secret untold if you do not have marketing. If you do not promote (and get it seen by massive traffic), the wonderful brand of yours is irrelevant. For advice from a Brand Strategy Agency, contact www.reallyhelpfulmarketing.co.uk/specialist-services/brand-strategy-agency/
The Perfect Partnership
There is a magic in the two of these strategies working beautifully together. Your brand strategy is the lynchpin that ties all of your marketing efforts together, while your marketing strategy dictates how and where you will reach the folks most likely to be interested in what it offers.
