Brand Strategy
Developing a brand can be intimidating. After the initial excitement of a new idea, the details that follow can quickly become overwhelming. Even the best ideas may fail if a brand lacks a clear concept that not only reflects the current market but can also adapt to meet its future needs.
As someone with a background in research as well as design and marketing, I excel in creating cohesive strategies that begin with inspiration, are backed by research, and have a unique style and message. I believe that developing a brand is just as intriguing as dreaming up the initial concept and that every phase of development reveals the keys to establishing a truly innovative and lasting strategy.
"Be yourself;
everyone else is already taken."
-Oscar Wilde
Areas of Focus
Research is the foundation of a strong brand strategy. Understanding the current market trends and target audience leads to more effective branding strategies.
It is necessary to discover the ideal target audience, to create a target persona, to make an empathy map, and to discover the concerns of the target persona. You can see an example of this in the case study below.
Design is not only how others will see your brand but how it makes them feel. Color, style, typography, and visual layouts all convey messages to the consumer.
Design choices should also be based on the needs of the target audience. In the case study below, the layout design was directly related to the target consumer needing an easy to search and uncluttered site.
Content creation has to be unique and informative but it also needs to reflect current trends, be easily digestible, and be consistent with a brand's overall identity.
Content should also reflect the Value Propositions of the company and address pain points of the target audience. In the case study below, the consumer needed high quality parenting content from reliable sources.
Marketing is one of the most useful ways to gather ongoing information specific to your brand and consumers in order to increase conversions and to discover areas of improvement.
Marketing choices are heavily influenced by understanding consumer needs, where the target audience will be located, the Value Proposition, relevant market trends, and SEO research. In the study below, the market plan reflected the initial research as well as the design and content choices.
Case Study
Fizz & Pop Parenting
Fizz & Pop was a parenting site that provided psychology-based parenting articles and modulated courses, recipes, DIY projects, and printable party decorations. The target was Millennial moms with children ages two to seven.
Research
Who is the target audience?
What are the existing problems?
Research revealed that Millennial moms were a valuable group of target consumers.
The Style & Substance Segment would be specifically targeted for its consumer habits and social values.
From this research, the target persona of
Kate was created.
It was then necessary to find where to
connect with Kate to reach her through
social media effectively
It was also necessary to find out how to connect with Kate and to create an Empathy Map.
To best meet Kate's needs, we also needed to know...What are the concerns/issues Kate has a parent with current parenting sites?
Research revealed that Kate was spending too much time searching for valuable information online and that websites were either clunky and outdated or provided anecdotal versus prescriptive information.
This led to the cornerstone of the value proposition to provide prescriptive, psychology-based parenting advice and quality content on one site, free of ads and digital noise.
Psychology-based parenting advice and content consolidated on one site that is ad-free and has excellent an excellent user interface.
Fizz & Pop's Value Proposition
Design
Fizz & Pop created a contemporary and clean design that matched current style trends and addressed pain points of the target audience.
Content
All Fizz & Pop content was created with the target consumer in mind.
Parenting Articles and Modulated course content was based on research in the field and industry experts rather than
simply anecdotal evidence found on many other mommy blogs.
Printable party decorations, DIY projects, and recipes were created to reach the target consumer on sites like Pinterest and to respond the pain point of wasted time in online searches.
All content was organized into content buckets and a content calendar was created based on the user data of the target consumer.
And on to marketing...
Marketing
Research revealed a clear framework
for SCQA (Situation, Complication, Question, and Answer)
A classic marketing funnel was designed to reach the target audience, build an email list, and increase brand awareness.
A launch calendar was created along with a budget and a list objectives and KPIs.
Research revealed that Millennial moms are pragmatic buyers but more emotional when purchasing for their kids. A/B testing was set in place for emotional versus pragmatic campaigns with SEO best practices.
Focuses on statistics
Focuses on humour
A strong marketing strategy cohesively reflects research, design, and content choices and is itself an information gathering tool.
Good market research is an ongoing process. In this way, all case studies are continuous.
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