Branding
How to Build a Brand Strategy (Step by Step)
A brand strategy is the plan for how you want to be perceived and why customers should choose you. It is the foundation everything else, identity, messaging, marketing, rests on. Without it, your branding is a series of disconnected decisions. Here is a step-by-step process any small business can follow.
Step 1: Define your purpose and values
Start with why you exist beyond making money, and the values that guide how you operate. Purpose and values are the emotional core of a brand, they attract customers and employees who share them and make decisions easier when trade-offs arise.
Step 2: Understand your audience
You cannot be meaningful to everyone. Define your ideal customers, their needs, frustrations, and what they value. The clearer your picture of who you serve, the sharper every branding decision becomes. Specificity is a strength, not a limitation.
Step 3: Analyze the competition
Map how competitors position themselves so you can find the gap. If everyone in your market sounds the same, sameness is your opportunity. The goal is not to be better at the same thing, it is to be different in a way your audience cares about.
Step 4: Craft your positioning
Positioning is the space you want to own in the customer’s mind. A simple format: “For [audience] who [need], [brand] is the [category] that [key differentiator], because [reason to believe].” This one sentence guides everything downstream.
Step 5: Define personality and voice
Decide how your brand should feel and sound, friendly, expert, bold, calm. This personality drives your visual identity and messaging so they feel like one coherent character rather than a committee.
Step 6: Document and apply
Capture it all in a brief, usable brand strategy document, then translate it into identity and messaging. A strategy that lives in a drawer changes nothing; the value comes from applying it consistently across every touchpoint.
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Key takeaways
- ✓Brand strategy is the foundation identity and messaging rest on.
- ✓Define purpose, values, and a specific target audience.
- ✓Find the gap competitors leave open and position into it.
- ✓Write positioning as one guiding sentence.
- ✓Document it and apply it consistently, or it changes nothing.
Mara Whitfield
Brand Strategy Lead
Mara Whitfield leads brand strategy at ThisCom, helping small and medium businesses build distinctive brands and consistent digital presences that earn trust and stand out.
Frequently asked questions
What is a brand strategy?+
A brand strategy is a plan defining how you want your business to be perceived and why customers should choose you. It covers purpose, values, audience, positioning, and personality, and serves as the foundation for your identity and marketing.
What should a brand strategy include?+
At minimum: your purpose and values, a clear definition of your target audience, competitive analysis, a positioning statement, and your brand personality and voice. These guide every downstream design and messaging decision.
What is a positioning statement?+
A positioning statement is a single sentence that defines the space you want to own in customers’ minds, typically naming your audience, their need, your category, your key differentiator, and the reason to believe it.
Can a small business create a brand strategy without an agency?+
Yes. The process, defining purpose, audience, positioning, and voice, can be done in-house. Agencies add expertise and outside perspective, but the most important thing is doing the strategic thinking before designing anything.
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