Brand Strategy VS Marketing Strategy

Understanding the difference between brand strategy and marketing strategy can be tricky, especially when the two are often used interchangeably.

The word “strategy” applies to several aspects of your business; there’s Business Strategy, Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Media Strategy, Social Media Strategy, and more.

Often, businesses recognise they need a plan, but they don’t know which type of strategy they need.

In this article, I’m breaking down the most common forms of strategy a new business will need to address, so you can figure out what you might need, and what stages you’ll need it.

What is a brand strategy?

A brand strategy is the process of moving through phases of understanding a brand and its audience. The main goal of brand strategy is to articulate the essence of a brand in one single, compelling message and tell that in a way that brings the story to life – to find that one idea that connects in the minds of the customer

When I work with clients through a brand strategy process, we cover topics like:

• Brand Foundation: Mission and Vision, Statements, Purpose Statement

• Brand Positioning: Full Brand Audit, Full Competitive Analysis, Positioning Statement

• Brand Personality: Brand Persona, Brand Language and Messaging

• Target Persona: Target Demographic Persona, Pain points, beliefs, values and needs

Once I define the foundational messaging – the “inside” of your brand and how it functions, I then move on to the “outside”; that is, the brand identity. Our brand process includes the following assets:

• Tone of Voice: How the brand speaks

• Brand Book: Brand Guidelines

Part of having a strong brand strategy is investing in your brand foundations Having a strong brand identity will make everything you do in the future much more consistent.

When should I invest in a brand strategy?

Investing in brand strategy isn’t just for new businesses or start-ups. I’ve worked with clients who have needed to reposition their brand, launch a new product or service, have never done any sort of strategic work and have been “winging it” for years, and businesses who have expanded quickly and recognised the need for strategy.

What is a marketing strategy?

A marketing strategy (often called a communications strategy) is about how you deliver your brand messaging to the right audience. A marketing strategist drives the process and connects the pieces of brand strategy and marketing. They will work with your brand foundations to figure out the best approach to get your brand in front of the right audience, at the right time, both online and offline.

This might look like:

• Paid and organic social media strategy

• Email marketing and automation

• Audience segmentation within your email list

• Advertising / media strategy

• SEO for digital

• Optimising your customer experience, like broken website links or SEO etc.

• 360 campaign development across digital channels

• Content marketing (blogs, articles, opinions)

• Launch strategy

When should I invest in marketing strategy?

So whereas your brand strategist helps you get clear on the identity and long-term plan for how your brand will reach its goals, a marketing strategist helps you increase shorter-term brand awareness in a specific market.

Over here, I’m both a brand strategist and a marketer. Having worked in marketing for 7 years means I know the industry, which is why I offer both brand and marketing strategy within my services.

🚀 Unlock the secrets of the world's best brands

Sign up to the OnlyBrands newsletter to join a 500+ community. Learn about branding, human behaviour and psychology, content design, and verbal strategy in <5 mins a week.

SIGN UP