Reading Time: 7 minutesDespite appearances, brands are complex. They exist to be quickly and easily recognised, and yet the work required to make them perform effectively is considerable and diverse. So how do you know if your brand is up to scratch? Here are the elements we recommend you include on your Brand Report Card. The purpose of […]
Category: Strategy
Proving brand effectiveness: Five success criteria for brands
Reading Time: 6 minutesIf you’re responsible for growing a brand, what are you trying to achieve? What does success look like? Some measure awareness. Others look at penetration. Or campaign results. But here are the five success criteria for brands that we look to use to judge progress over time and for proving brand effectiveness. Our five success […]
How to develop a brand positioning strategy
Reading Time: 12 minutesThe purpose of a brand positioning strategy is to identify the particular place in the market you want to dominate and where you can best deliver value. To do that, you need to mean something specific to customers. And to establish clear space between where you are and where others sit in the market. This […]
Three ways brands are evolving – and what we think that means
Reading Time: 4 minutesAs brand marketers continue to search for ways to keep brands relevant, some recent inputs from Wharton on how brands are evolving are worth noting. Meaning vs moment Americus Reed has observed that the connection shoppers are looking to build with brands through purpose and vision spurs the need to build “a very deep, well […]
Three different types of brand strategy
Reading Time: 4 minutesBrand strategy is often thought of one thing. At Audacity, we describe it as the ability to imagine a future for a brand to look forward to. An anticipated history. The implication is that one set of strategic skills is needed. Except that, confusingly, brand operates in a range of settings– and the strategic skills […]
Setting timeframes for your strategy
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe purpose of brand strategy is of course to envisage a future for your brand: to project beyond current circumstances to where your brand might be. But, in terms of actually setting timeframes for your strategy, how far ahead should you be thinking? An important decision Every brand strategy is a speculation – an attempt […]
Participation versus disparity for brands
Reading Time: 2 minutesIt’s tempting to think that talent and tenacity are all your brand needs to succeed. But the biggest challenge every brand faces is disparity: the ability to forge a profile in their sector that stands them apart from everyone participating around them. Right now, across the world, hundreds of different people are opening a coffee […]
Different ways to think about differentiation
Reading Time: 4 minutesIf you can truly find a difference for your brand, you should pursue it. But the difference needs to be meaningful to your audience. And you need to recognise it won’t last. Differentiation is an idea that has become controversial in recent years. Acknowledging that, here are some different ways to think about differentiation. The […]
A Brand Change Response Framework for leaders facing change
Reading Time: 5 minutesWithout exception, a brand strategy is a response to a change somewhere in the business. But choosing which aspects of change to act on, and those to ignore or deprioritise, is critical to successful strategy, given that everyone is operating on limited resources. To resolve this, we’ve developed a Brand Change Response Framework where we […]
Should your brand commit to a deliberate strategy?
Reading Time: 10 minutesA deliberate strategy is one that locks your brand into an approach for the foreseeable future based on clear data and harnessing the resources of the organisation to make that happen. It is a highly intentional strategy – motivating people to come together and work, in harmony, to accomplish defined goals. But is it the […]
Strategic goal setting, water and bicycles
Reading Time: 4 minutesHere’s a salutary little tale about strategic goal setting. It’s no news that there is a global water crisis and that large corporations, which consume 40% of all the water used in the developed world, have an important role to play in being part of the solution. Which brings us to the dichotomy. On the […]
Taking the time to build a sustainable brand
Reading Time: 10 minutesOn the face of it, building a sustainable brand looks relatively straight-forward. After all many brands already claim to be doing this. That’s both good news – and misleading. Taking the time to build a sustainable brand requires patience, focus and an ability to rethink priorities. It’s inspiring to see brands addressing their environmental impact, […]