Follow us!
4 Jun 2021

Brand understanding, a clear strategy to success

Brand understanding, a clear strategy to success

As we move away from lockdown and head towards a new normal, now, more than ever we are going to need a crystal-clear idea about what we want our brands to achieve. To know how relevant we are to customers, and why those customers should buy from us and not the competition.

It stands to reason that if every member of your team understands your brand and what it represents, and if that understanding is applied to their specific role, then customers will be delivered a consistent experience every single time they interact with your brand.

And this consistency is not only good for the customer, but it’s also for your business too as it ensures your assets, from your budget’s to your team’s time, are used as efficiently and effectively as possible.

In fact, a recent Gartner CMO survey put brand strategy as the number 1 strategic priority going into 2021 – ahead of subjects like market analytics, marketing operations, and digital commerce for example.

Based on his proprietary Brand Arrow® framework and used with over 90 clients across the world, Bruce focuses on the key building blocks:

  • Capture a vision for your business the whole team can understand and head towards
  • Identify your drivers (assets) to reach that vision and the barriers (issues) that could stop you
  • Describe your benefits (what problems are you solving) and your features (how you solve them (features)
  • Define your 5 most compelling key messages that can shape your copy across your website and marketing collateral
  • Nail an Elevator Pitch – 100 words that define the customer problem and how you uniquely solve it
  • Define a value proposition that marks you out as relevant to your customers and different from the competition
  • Prioritise your key customers and identify the characteristics they all share
  • Create a set of brand values to act as a benchmark for your team and a hallmark for your customers

Bruce speaks at conferences around the world on brand strategy and is regularly invited to lecture at business schools. He has also partnered with the Chartered Institute of Marketing on a variety of projects. Bruce is also the author of the award-winning book, ‘What’s Your Point?’ which will be available free of charge to each delegate.

“Bruce’s methodology and workshop were very effective. In short order we aligned everything from Vision to Positioning with full team buy-in along the way. Thank you from the Acin team.”  Paul Ford, CEO, Acin