A brand strategy is a set of choices about who you are for, what you want to be known for and why people should believe it. It guides your identity, your messages and your website. If it doesn't rule anything out, it isn't a strategy yet.
What does a brand strategy contain?
A brand strategy contains the answers to a few hard questions, and it can fit on one page. For a small or mid-sized company, these are the parts that do the work:
| Part | The question it answers | A useful answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | Who are we for, and who not? | A specific type of buyer with a specific problem |
| Positioning | What do we want to own in their mind? | One clear place compared to the alternatives |
| Promise | What can they count on? | Something you can keep every time |
| Proof | Why should they believe it? | Work, people, process, facts |
| Personality | How do we come across? | Traits that rule out other traits |
| Message | What do we say first? | A sentence a customer could repeat |
How is it different from a marketing plan?
A brand strategy decides what you stand for, and a marketing plan decides how you get that in front of people this year. The strategy changes rarely. The plan changes often. If you change your strategy every time a campaign underperforms, you probably have a marketing problem and not a brand problem.
How do you test a brand strategy?
Run these four tests. They take an hour and tell you more than another round of wordsmithing.
- The swap test. Replace your name with a competitor's. If the page is still true, you haven't chosen anything.
- The no test. Name something you'd now refuse: a type of client, a service, a style. No refusals means no strategy.
- The decision test. Take a real open question, such as which case to put on your homepage. The strategy should help answer it.
- The kitchen test. Ask three colleagues to explain it in their own words. If you get three different stories, it isn't clear yet.
How do you make one?
Start by listening, not by writing. Talk to recent customers and to prospects you lost, and write down the words they use. Look at what the alternatives say about themselves, including doing nothing or solving it in-house. Then make the choices. Most strategy work fails at this last step, because a choice feels like losing business. In practice it usually means the people who suit you recognise themselves faster.
Our guide on how to define your brand positioning goes deeper into the most important choice. Your tone of voice then follows from the personality you picked.
Do small companies need one?
Yes, though not as a thick document. A smaller company often has a strategy already, in the founder's head. Writing it down matters the moment someone else has to act on it: a new salesperson, an agency or an AI tool drafting your emails. If you're working on a new identity, do this before the design starts. At 5DAYS a more extensive brand and design strategy is part of Brand System, from €4,950 excluding VAT.
