BRAND STRATEGY: Determine your destiny

by Anne M. Berg

Strategy drives performance. Yet so many marketers rely on tactics alone to yield results. Asking the right questions is the place to start.

• THE COMPANY: What’s the purpose of your organization? Where does your brand want to be in ten years? What can your brand do better than any other? What factors most influence your profit margins?
• THE CULTURE: What values inform your decision-making? How will you engage employees with the longer vision? How will you inspire them to perform? How will you measure success?
• THE CUSTOMER: Who are your most ideal customers? How will you continuously create value for those customers? What rational benefits and emotional rewards does your brand offer those customers?
• THE COMPETITION: How will you position your brand against its competition? What is the most unique attribute your brand offers? How and why is that uniqueness relevant to your target markets?
• THE CRUNCH: How will you create a flexible and adaptive mindset? How will you challenge assumptions? What systems will you deploy to expose the brutal facts and leverage the compelling opportunities? How will you diligently prepare for the unknown realities of tomorrow?

The strategy piece of your brand puzzle frames the focus for all tactical execution. What fits in the frame deserves your focus and energy. What doesn’t fit should be left behind. Answering these strategic questions will determine your choices. And your destiny.