How to Get into Brand Strategy

Strategy is key to the success of a brand, and a good brand strategist is an essential part of a great team whether they’re working for agencies or in-house at brands.

Brand strategists are responsible for researching a brand, developing a strategic framework to present to the brand or client, and supporting any creative work. Strategists also need to have a thorough understanding of the market that the client operates in, the target audiences for any product and the business and brand goals.

A good brand strategist will be capable of translating complex ideas and concepts into simple, concise messaging that everyone – even your IT guy at the back – can understand.

But how to break into brand strategy?

Network

One of the best ways to break into an industry is to share your point of view. LinkedIn is a great platform for this, because it’s seething with businesses.

For example, if a piece of work moves you or if you thought the strategy behind it was great, share a thought piece on LinkedIn, or even better, find the people behind the work and tag them. You could also share your thoughts about the industry and any new trends, for example the impact of AI on the creative industry

Post at least once a week on either platform, or at least start commenting on posts that have been shared by others.

Build a portfolio

Take the time to deconstruct your favourite pieces of work and build a one or two page case study for each that captures the objective, the challenge, the strategy and the resulting work. You could also try retrofitting creative campaigns or branding elements – working backwards to dissect the target audience, the brand mission, the brand purpose, the goal, and the positioning.

Dig deeper into brands

To be a good brand strategist, you’ll need to learn how to truly understand the brand you’re working for – the internal identity of the brand, the attitudes, behaviours and history, not just how it shows up in its marketing. Start asking more questions when you’re chatting with clients, uncover whatever you can about the brand, and get curious beyond just the creative.

Strategists have to do a lot of research, and are often presented with a lot of data that they need to unpack. But it’s what a strategist does with the insights that counts – how they use it to form a new idea or perspective. So when you’re researching into a brand, start noting down any ideas or insights that come to mind, and unpack each one.

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