So, you’ve got a great product. But have you got a great brand? And we’re not just talking about a logo. We’re talking about a brand strategy: who your company is, what your brand stands for, and how you build amazing relationships with your customer base.
In the digital age, carving out a robust, successful brand strategy is more important than ever. Nowadays, consumers think of brands almost like people. They get to know them, suss them out, and then decide if they want to buy from them.
That means—across all touchpoints—you need an authentic, engaging, and consistent brand.
Below, we’ll cover some inspirational strategies and tips for elevating your branding with technology.
Note: Brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
What is a brand strategy?
A brand strategy is a master plan that sets out how your business will present itself to consumers across the customer journey. Far from being a one-way street, your branding strategy lays out how you’ll interact with your customer base and build emotional resonance with them.
If this sounds a little odd to you, just consider this stat. Research shows strong brands consistently outperform their competitors by 400%. This exemplifies that developing a brand image isn’t just nice to have—it’s a central pillar for success.
After all, today’s consumers are more empowered and informed than ever before. With the internet at their fingertips, they’re happy to switch between brands based on factors like price or reviews. The thing that makes them stay—that makes them loyal for the long term—is brand affinity.
That means being a brand that stands for something, that listens and learns from its customers, and goes above and beyond to be relevant, authentic, and engaging.
Key components of a successful branding strategy
Developing a branding strategy is a mighty task. It requires you to really think about the essence of your business and what you want to achieve at a macro and micro level.
To help you get started, here are the key components you should include:
- Purpose: The combination of your company’s values, goals, and mission—how your brand wants to improve customers’ lives.
- Personality: If your brand was a person, what would they be like? Witty? Authoritative? Friendly? This is about developing your brand’s unique tone of voice, lexis, and visual identity.
- Ideal customer: The demographic your brand is trying to foster a relationship with.
- Awareness goals: Your approach to nurturing emotional connections with your ideal customers, including KPIs for measuring success.
- Company culture: How you’ll live out your core values as a business.
- Loyalty: How you’ll capture the hearts and minds of your customers long term.
- Competitive awareness: Your unique value proposition that makes you stand out from other players in the market.
The top 10 branding strategies to know
Once you’ve architected your overarching brand strategy, it’s time to think about how you’ll deploy it across the business.
We recommend breaking down the touchpoints across the customer journey, and developing a unique branding approach for each while being mindful of your overarching values and messaging.
1. Product branding
Product branding is the process of distinguishing one of your products or product lines to make it appealing and recognizable to your target audience. You’ll need to think about factors like packaging design, your brand personality, and how you’ll convey your values to your target market.
A great place to start with product branding is to look at your brand guidelines. What color palette and visual elements are associated with your brand? What do you want your audience to think and feel? From there, you can start to build out your packaging in a meaningful way.
If you want some inspiration on great product branding, take a look at Patagonia. This brand’s mission statement is to “save our home planet,” and they live and breathe that mission through their product branding.
For one, all of their packaging is recyclable—but so are most of its products. Currently, 87% of Patagonia’s garments are made from recycled materials, and they’re working towards getting that number to 100%. By thinking about design from a purpose-led perspective, Patagonia has found a way to thoughtfully and succinctly stand out from the crowd while telling a compelling story.
2. Personal branding
Personal branding is about elevating and accentuating the profile of one of your company’s executives, with the ultimate aim of reinforcing your brand’s values, mission, and purpose to your customers.
Just take Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft. He’s built a reputation as a knowledgeable, forward-thinking, and human-centered businessman, which reflects Microsoft’s ethos (empowering people to achieve more) beautifully.
To start a personal branding strategy in your company, first take an audit of your current executives and their social media usage. Do any of them currently use social channels in a professional capacity? They’ll likely make the best candidates for a personal branding campaign.
Once you’ve settled on the executive—or executives—you’re going to focus on, work with them to figure out their key talking points, writing style, and other personal touches. While you’ll want their personal brand to complement your company’s overall brand, there’s a little wiggle room here for them to bring out their own unique personality.
3. Corporate branding
Corporate branding puts your brand strategy into action. It’s less about a specific person or product, and more about storytelling: explaining who you are, why you’re here, and how you want to help your audience.
While this can seem intangible, your corporate branding strategy will inform a whole host of decisions, including:
- Your business name
- The products you launch
- Your employee uniforms (if applicable)
- The design, tone, and style of your website, marketing materials, and social media profiles
- The look and feel of your retail stores and customer service approach
- The third-party organizations you support and partner with
Corporate branding is one of the best ways to win consumer loyalty. As Forbes research shows, people are more likely to buy from companies with a strong mission and purpose.
Just take Lush. This UK beauty retailer has made their mission clear: They want the makeup industry to be ethical, sustainable, and cruelty-free. But they don’t just talk about these values, they live them out.
A few years back, for example, they released the Charity Pot hand and body lotion, which is still a bestseller today. 100% of the profits for this product go to charities and campaigning groups. In 2021, Lush also turned off all its social media channels, in a pointed stand against social media companies and the lack of online safety features to protect children.
As you can see, Lush doesn’t just talk the talk. It walks the walk. And you can do the same by developing a corporate branding strategy.
4. Co-branding (or partnership branding)
Co-branding is a novel and exciting way to elevate your brand’s reach and develop a new product by partnering with another brand that compliments your own. McDonald’s has done this well over the years through its McFlurry co-brands, partnering with the likes of Galaxy and Mars to bring unique ice cream flavors to the market.
The beauty of co-branding is the benefits it brings to both parties. It can increase market share, boost brand credibility, and skyrocket customer loyalty.
However, co-branding for the sake of co-branding won’t have the desired outcome. For maximum impact, partner with a brand that shares synergy with your company’s values, mission, and customer base—without being a direct competitor.
5. Service branding
If your business offers a service instead of a product, then service branding will be important to you. This is about weaving your company’s identity, mission, and values into the service you offer to customers.
To put this in context, think about the hotel industry. What sets five stars apart from three stars is the customer experience: warm greetings from front desk employees, chocolates on the pillows after turndown service, and luxurious toiletries in every bathroom.
To set your service apart from the rest, think about what you want your customers to think and feel when they interact with your brand. Then, look at ways to infuse these emotions into the customer experience from end to end.
6. Private label branding
For e-commerce stores and physical retailers, private label branding is a powerful way to offer new products and win market share. This branding strategy involves purchasing a product from a third-party retailer under a mutual agreement that you will brand the product under your business’ name.
Amazon is a prime example of a company that engages in private-label branding. As well as offering third-party branded topics, they also offer their own Amazon Basics line at a slightly lower price.
While private labeling can be an excellent way to boost profitability, it’s best reserved for businesses that already have an established customer following. If you’re a startup or still building your brand, focus first on nurturing a loyal customer base through your product and corporate branding, before embracing a private label strategy.
7. Brand extension
So, you’ve got a great product with a strong brand identity and a loyal following. Now, you want to introduce a new, innovative product to further win market share, but you don’t want to go through the process of building a brand product strategy from the ground up again.
That’s where brand extension comes in: the process of introducing a new product under an already established brand name. Coca-Cola has done this brilliantly over the years, with the introduction of drinks like Coke Zero, Diet Coke, and Vanilla Coke—all of which are different products benefiting from Coca-Cola’s household name.
Before embarking on a brand extension mission, do your research. Is there market demand for a new product? Does the proposed product match your corporate identity? What are the potential costs and profits? By first gathering the data, you can make an informed decision that’s likely to yield positive results.
8. Internet branding
Internet branding refers to the strategy you’ll take to position your brand and engage with customers across social media channels, your website, and e-commerce channels.
Last year, Deloitte found brands that prioritized social media achieved an average revenue increase of 10.2%. Clearly, online branding is crucial to building meaningful customer relationships.
The key thing to remember is to remain consistent across channels, while also playing to the unique aspects of each different social platform. How you approach visually-led Instagram will be much different from text-focused email marketing efforts, for example.
Still, even though the content you produce will vary across channels, your underlying values, mission, and tone should remain consistent and authentic. That way, however and whenever your customers choose to engage with you, they’ll build a deeper understanding of your brand every time.
9. Experiential branding
Another way to build brand affinity is through experiential branding: immersing your customers in your brand by engaging their five senses.
At first, you might think having a physical store is a must to unleash the potential of this approach. But, thanks to novel technologies like virtual reality and artificial intelligence, it’s easy to bring experiential branding to life in the digital realm too.
Take L’Oreal. This brand was one of the first to offer virtual try-ons for online shoppers, allowing them to see what their makeup and hair dye products would look like through their phone or laptop camera.
While experimental branding initiatives tend to have a large initial cost, the returns can be immense, with research showing 91% of consumers would be more inclined to purchase a brand’s product or service after participating in a brand experience.
To make your initiative successful, you’ll need to create an experience that’s relevant, memorable, and most importantly, helpful to your customer base.
10. Emotional branding
Emotional branding is about nurturing a relationship between your brand and your target audience by connecting to their motivations, values, needs, and desires.
Nike excels at this. The brand often uses the ‘hero’s narrative’ in its marketing campaigns, showcasing athletes of all levels and backgrounds overcoming adversity and achieving success.
These campaigns are inspiring and motivating. The consumer doesn’t just look at Nike and see its products; they see a lifestyle they want to adopt.
To tap into emotional branding, you’ll need to do the same. Instead of marketing your product, think about how you can market a lifestyle your consumers will resonate with and aspire to.
Tips for leveraging technology in your branding efforts
With the advent of digital tools, developing and maintaining a strong brand presence is easier than ever. Here are some of the ways you can leverage technology to boost the success of your branding strategy.
Optimize for mobile use
According to YouGov, almost half of consumers use their phones to shop online. When they do, they expect a frictionless, intuitive user experience. That means websites, emails, and apps that are optimized for smartphones and tablets.
We’ve all experienced the frustration of trying to visit a website on our phones, only for the experience to be clunky and underwhelming. A lack of mobile optimization indicates to your customers that you don’t care about their customer experience, making them far less likely to purchase your product or service.
On the other hand, when you thoughtfully design your brand’s mobile interface for speed and ease of use, you’re showing your customers you care. And when you care about them, they’re more likely to care about you.
Incorporate AR, VR, and AI into experiences
Another fantastic method of showing your customers you care is by embracing innovative technologies as part of your branding. As we mentioned earlier, virtual reality initiatives like product demonstrations and virtual try-ons are a fun way to attract new customers and spread the word about your brand.
Another game-changing technology to consider is artificial intelligence (AI), which you can harness to offer your customers 24/7 chat support and personalized product recommendations.
Of course, today’s consumers are increasingly concerned about online privacy and security, which is why it’s important to demonstrate credibility when inviting your customers to try out new experiences. Customized touches like branded links and branded short domains help to foster trust as you invite your customer base to try out new online tools.
Use social media
Being on social media is a must for ambitious brands. But having X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok profiles aren’t enough. You need to use them strategically, designing and implementing campaigns that capture the attention of your target audience and build a sense of community.
Remember, too, the importance of consistency. Even though your brand messaging will vary slightly depending on the platform, your underlying brand voice and personality should still shine through in every post.
Track key performance indicators (KPIs)
Great marketers know that a branding strategy isn’t a one-off document; it’s a living, breathing exercise in continuous improvement. Customer expectations, after all, are dynamic. For long-term success, you’ll need to listen, learn, and adapt your strategy to delight your customers every time.
To truly listen to and understand your customer, you’re going to need data—and lots of it. That’s where tools like Bitly Analytics come in. When paired with third-party analytics tools like Google Analytics, your business gets a thorough, deep dive into all the insights you could need to understand customer behavior, preferences, and trends based on segments of your choosing.
With these insights, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of whether your brand strategy resonates with your audience and what you need to improve to better meet and exceed your customers’ needs.
Use Bitly technology to bring your brand to new heights
Great brands stand the test of time by keeping a pulse of their customers’ needs. These brands’ staying power is no accident; it’s the result of refining and elevating their brand strategies over time, and connecting with the hearts and minds of their consumers in new and exciting ways.
By choosing a few of the branding strategies above, you’ll be well on your way to fostering deep, meaningful relationships with your customer base. And Bitly has the branding and analytical tools to help.
It’s easier than ever to build a powerful, consistent brand presence with Bitly on your side! Get started today.