It’s game time, the quarterback calls out the play. The team takes up positions, but when the time comes to throw the ball people are running around, scrambling to make sense of the strategy.
While this is a nightmare scenario for sports fans, it also may sound too familiar to food and beverage business founders and leaders who have operated without a documented brand strategy.
Just like a team’s playbook, a brand strategy keeps everyone working towards the same goals. Having your strategy documented ensures that everything is communicated clearly and consistently, while also giving a constant reference point to keep efforts on the frontend and backend of the business moving towards the same goal.
Your brand strategy is so much more than your visual brand guidelines. It includes a variety of tools (listen to episode RFB Episode #2: How to Start Building and Documenting Your Brand Strategy for more details!) but at the most foundational level you can think of it as the intersection of where you meet your consumer’s needs in a way your competitors can’t — or won’t! When you align everything you do based on your brand pillars and positioning to consistently deliver on your promises to your consumers, you are setting yourself and your brand up for success in scaling.
If you are building a new brand, taking the time to create and document your brand strategy will start you off on the right foot, saving you time, money and frustration from the beginning. If you’ve already met some success but are looking to scale to the next level and you don’t have a documented strategy, it’s never too late to create one.
No matter what stage you find yourself in, documenting your brand strategy will optimize your efforts to align the frontend and backend of your business as you work to serve your ideal consumers and wow your retail customers.
Now, let’s go shake up shopping carts!
In This Episode:
- The Three C’s of brand strategy:
- Competitors
- Consumers
- Company
- Why a documented brand strategy is so important
- Documentation clarifies your vision and helps with decision making
- Decisions are streamlined and more consistent
- Aligning your team with the vision becomes easier, saving time and money
- Buyers and investors can better understand your strategy, giving them more confidence in your brand’s ability to win at shelf
Quotes:
“The whole goal is to offer a solution to your consumer’s needs in a way that your competitors, can’t or won’t.” — @realfoodbrands
“I know what a difference setting brand strategy first makes in a business, so you can use that strategy as your north star for all your business decisions going forward.” — @realfoodbrands
“As you scale your team beyond just yourself you need to make sure there is a unified, documented playbook.” — @realfoodbrands
Resources:
- RFB Episode #2: How to Start Building and Documenting Your Brand Strategy
- RFB Episode #8: How to Define Your Ideal Audience Using Personas
- RFB Episode #23: How to Find Your Unfair Advantage
- RFB Episode #15: How to Activate Your Brand Strategy
- Real Food Brands Marketing Roundtable Facebook Group
- Real Food Brands
