Brand Strategy Implementation. The dos and Don’ts.

Brand strategy implementation can be a maze.

But implementing brand strategy promises new ways to maximize your company’s brand revenues. We are a new kind of branding company. We see a brand as organic and changing. Give us a call, and we can share some of our experiences with you.

Other brand agencies focus on the marketing aspects of the strategy. If you’re lucky, you might get a style guide, brand standards, and some marketing safeguards.
Of course, Stealing Share does all of that too. But implementing brand strategy seldom fails because of marketing errors.

Usually, brand strategy implementation starts in marketing

Most often, the desire and need for a defined brand strategy implementation start in the marketing department. Marketers are hungry for it.
But the implementing brand strategy fails most often because the internal culture didn’t embrace it. Worse still, they were an afterthought.

That is why we focus on persuasive branding. It is a rogue view in the category of branding agencies. They see the brand as equity. We see it as a catalyst.

The branding world changed

This world of branding has changed. It is different from just five years ago. A revolution happened. Your brand lives in an age of social media. And this I assure you, social media affects the brand you try to manage and the course of implementing brand strategy.

Everything is shared. And everyone has an opinion and share that opinion in the cacophony of market noise. However, one thing has not changed. People look for meaning in everything.

And if they don’t find a thoughtful meaning, they will make one up. But, if you give it to them, people will use it and repeat it.

Your brand lives or dies on the effectiveness of your brand strategy implementation. And an outward viewpoint is half the battle.
Looking inward at your brand’s culture is the biggest problem.

Our brand implementation strategy process

We train everyone (read about our brand training here). We train your trainers, your employees, your stakeholders, and even HR. We have a salesforce training module that takes the brand’s promise and injects it into the salesforce like a vaccine (read about our powerful salesforce training here).

The brand’s antibodies fight with intruding thoughts and extinguish them before they lead to disease. Call us. Not all brand strategy implementation is created equal.

This is a new way to maximize your company’s brand revenues. First, regard and treat all of your customer and prospect interfacing functions as media. And, organize them to ensure that they are maximized as media.

Let us assume that your business already has a great brand strategy. That’s terrific.

After all, a great many businesses do not have one. You cannot really expect to grow your business organically without one. Consider your business for a moment as you consider implementing brand strategy.

Your responsibility in implementing brand strategy

And your own job in it. You are there primarily to keep increasing the value of your business’ stock.

This is done in just two ways: increasing your revenues in a sustainable way, and reducing your costs.

Likewise in a sustainable way. Of these, the more important is the increase of your revenues in brand strategy implementation. If only because you don’t have a business at all without revenues. 

The brand implementation strategy benefit is increasing market share.

Our business is about enabling our clients to keep increasing market share. At the expense of their competitors on a sustainable basis. Therefore, our business is not just about providing them with a brand strategy, name, and graphics. Because they may not steal a single sliver of market share from their competitors. If this brand strategy implementation is not done effectively over time.

What use is even the best brand strategy if your business is not able to take advantage of it?

Where do you start with brand strategy implementation?

You begin a brand implementation strategy by understanding what a brand is. Where it is located, and how it forms and grows.

A brand is the cluster of perceptions that determines the relative importance and relative preference for, your product. Preference for your service offering over those of your competitors. All among existing and prospective customers. Therefore brand strategy implementation influences the likelihood of their purchase and your revenues.

As a cluster of perceptions associated with a specific product name or symbol/s, the brand is located exclusively in the emotional and conceptual space. In the hearts and minds of both existing and prospective customers.

Accordingly, the brand is formed by the conceptual and emotional residue accumulated. Gathered from all the experiences that these existing and prospective customers associate with. Including the offering’s signals, such as the product name or symbols.

Brand strategy implementation should increase brand revenue.

Therefore we need management of three things when implementing brand strategy.

a) The identification of the emotional and conceptual residual content that is most likely to maximize the brand importance. And, preference for your product or service offering/s over those of your competitors. Among existing and prospective customers.

b) The development and design of your offering’s signals. In the form of name, logotype, symbol/s, color/s, sounds, and texture/s.

c) The development and design of all communications. AND— experiences that existing and prospective customers might attribute to your product. Or associations to the service offering via its name or other signals.

Elements of the brand strategy and brand strategy implementation

The brand implementation strategy might include, but not be limited to:

• Sales people’s Demeanor
• Sales people’s Appearance Sales people’s Language
• Sales people’s Usefulness Sales people’s Consistency (Follow-up)
• Sales literature
• Product Names
• Product Literature
• Product Packaging Appearance
• Product Packaging Functionality
• Product Packaging Disposability
• Product Appearance
• Product Application
• Product Performance vis a vis competition in all key parameters
• Product Disposal

Customer concerns in brand strategy implementation

• Customer Care Access
• Customer Care Demeanor
• Customer Care Language Customer Care Usefulness
• Customer Care Consistency (Follow-up)
• Bills Appearance
• Bills Comprehension
• Bills Accuracy Collections
• Timing Disruptiveness
• Collections Demeanor
• Collections Language
• Collections Consistency

Communications elements of the brand implementation strategy

• Communications Tagline
• Communications Rationale
• Communications Character
• Communications Tonality
• Communications Core Message
• Communications Selling Idea (visual dramatization)
• Stationery
• Advertising (all media)
• Promotions (all media)
• Facilities
• Vehicles Brand
• Direct Marketing
• Internet Marketing and Communications
• Social Media
  

Experiences associated with the brand and brand strategy implementation

As you can see from this list, there are a great many different kinds of customer experiences that can influence your brand’s revenue and meaning. And, implementing brand strategy influences the quality of importance and preference of your product or service offering/s.  It must be clear by now that your brand positioning service and your brand design service.

As well as your advertising agency, and your promotions and merchandising support services. Even when taken together, don’t have all the competencies necessary. All that’s necessary for brand strategy implementation to manage all these ways toward building your brand.

So you have to think of all these functions also as media for building your brand. And organize to manage these functions in a way that maximizes each one’s potential for building your brand.

Even a cursory glance at the above list will show you that some of these implementing brand strategy functions are covered. Covered by your existing marketing communications agencies and design services.

A closer look will show you that most of these agencies and services help you primarily with your interactions. Engagements with prospective customers but not brand implementation strategy.

That’s when you realize that there are many of your business functions, especially those that interact exclusively with existing customers. That you currently don’t even consider as media. And yet these are influencing the quality of your brand.

So, you have to do two things in a hurry.

Firstly, make sure that these functions are both not covered by existing agencies and services. And not managed as media for building your brand are no longer neglected in this way.

This means identifying someone who can make sure that all these functions fulfill their media function. As well as this can be done.

Secondly, make sure that the residue of both the work done by your agencies and services.

And those that are managed by your new internal media czar. Make sure they are both optimally contributing toward building your brand in the minds and hearts of your existing and prospective customers.That’s what implementing brand strategy is all about. (Read about our entire rebranding process here)

Looking at immature markets.