Lecture Notes on Brand Strategy

Introduction

Добрый вечер! The lecture focuses on brand strategy within the Netology branding course. The lecture will cover the role of a strategist, brand strategy development in agencies, brand audits, consumer journeys, market analysis, target audience profiling, brand platform construction, positioning, and brand manifests.

Speaker Introduction

Юлия Глушакова, бренд-стратег в Wildberries последние два года, specializing in market and consumer analytics across Russian, European, and Chinese markets.

Lecture Plan

A two-hour session with a 10-minute break. The plan covers the role of a strategist, brand strategy development, brand audit, consumer journey, market analysis, target audience definition, brand platform building, positioning, and brand manifesto. Questions will be addressed at the end, with a short workshop on defining the target audience.

Role of a Strategist

Strategy acts as an intermediary between business and creative aspects. The strategist's role significantly impacts the branding process. For designers, the strategist provides direction through presentations and copy, enabling effective visual representation. Copywriters also rely on the strategist's presentations for verbal brand identification, including names, slogans, and brand legends. Стратег получает бриф от клиента и определяет фронт работ для себя и креативной команды.

Business Perspective

Businesses aim to increase profit and focus on KPIs, financial efficiency, and investment returns. They possess deep internal knowledge of the company, including production costs and internal hierarchies. However, they often lack insight into external factors such as competitors, new technologies, market trends, and consumer behavior. Лояльность потребителей не гарантирована.

Creative Perspective

The primary goal of creatives is to develop compelling ideas using professional terminology and aiming for awards like the Cannes Lions. They stay updated on branding trends, new technologies, and competitor activities. However, they may lack understanding of the client's internal operations, leading to ideas that are not relevant or feasible for the business.

The Strategist as a Mediator

The strategist understands both business and creative languages, bridging the gap between the two. They provide direction to the creative team and ensure clients make effective decisions, aligning with the target audience's needs. Strategy is gaining importance as clients seek external perspectives and advice.

A successful strategy benefits both the business and inspires creativity, balancing both to solve client and business problems with business, marketing, and communication objectives.

Branding vs. Communication Agencies

Брендинговые агентства преобразуют бизнес-задачи в маркетинговые, создавая платформу бренда и визуальную вербальную идентификацию (брендбук). Коммуникационные агентства преобразуют маркетинговые задачи в коммуникационные, разрабатывая коммуникационную идею, сообщения и выбирая релевантные каналы (коммуникационная стратегия). Медийные агентства создают медиапланы для размещения активаций в различных каналах.

Strategy Development Process

The strategy development process is cyclical, starting with analytics to gather information about the brand, consumers, and communications. The strategy phase involves creating new entities, followed by tactics to implement these entities. The implementation phase is analyzed to measure consumer reaction and campaign effectiveness, feeding back into the analytics phase. The process involves:

• Analytics: Identifying what to correct and where to develop by auditing the brand and analyzing the market.

• Strategy: Determining the brand identity and target audience.

• Tactics & Implementation: Defining how to communicate the brand message and engaging with contact points.

Brand Audit

The Brand Audit thoroughly examines the brand to form a comprehensive understanding. The goal is to evaluate how the brand is perceived externally. This involves comparing the declared and perceived position of the brand. The declared position is the brand's stated identity, while the perceived position is how consumers actually view the brand. The audit consists of a personal expert assessment and evaluations of consumer perceptions.

During the personal assessment, the current visual (firm style, package, interface, retail space) and verbal identity (tone of communication, name, and slogan) should be evaluated. The evaluation of consumer perception involves analyzing social networks, forums, and reviews and conducting interviews to compile an overall impression. For example, a declared position of "high-quality baby diapers at affordable prices" might be perceived as "the most absorbent baby diapers".

Brand Types

There are three main types of brands: corporate, retail, and consumer brands. X5 Retail Group owns the retail brands Перекресток, Пятерочка, Карусель, and Перекресток Маркет. Corporate brands are focused on ideology and should be analyzed for reputation with investors, potential employees, and the public. Retail brands focus on retail space to determine brand personality plus functional and emotional advantages. Consumer brands focus on emotions caused by product in order to assess unique competition advantages. It is also important to identify disparities between what the brand claims and what it does, noting any inconsistencies that weaken brand perception.

Consumer Perception Evaluation

This involves analyzing forums and online sources, looking for advantages and disadvantages of the product or service, situations of consumption, and motivations to purchase. It also includes mentioning competitors by consumers. Personal interviews can be valuable for verifying assumptions and obtaining live insights. There are artificial intelligence services that register any brand mentions including in social media. SWOT analysis can be used during electrical strategy also.

Consumer Journey

Потребительский путь расширяет границы мышления и позволяет увидеть всю коммуникацию бренда. The consumer journey extends beyond immediate purchase decisions to include earlier stages where consumers develop needs. The goal is to manage all contact points, building a unified ecosystem and smooth experience. The consumer journey starts with initial needs, not only in the retail space. The path involves brand touch points to evoke various emotions. Work on any consumer issues for solutions. Instead the description,