brand strategy

7 Successful Brand Strategy Examples To Inspire You

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Are you creating your own brand? Do you need to plan some business activities? Are you not sure whether you are going in the right direction and other brand strategies seem more interesting than yours? Or maybe you are looking for brand strategy examples that are similar to your company? We have a guide that will help you create the perfect brand strategy efficiently and thoughtfully.

Brand strategies – what are they?

Let’s start with a brand strategy definition. It is a set of various long-term activities aimed at achieving a predetermined goal. All these actions must be uniform and lead to a specific outcome. Put simply, it is a plan to build a brand identity, without omitting its entire business structure, in order to achieve sales and brand goals.

The most important branding strategy features

The brand strategy must be consistent with the mission, values, priorities and organizational culture of a company in order to function well and bring the expected results. For many people, the brand strategy is a kind of structured and well-thought-out action map. In fact, this analogy is accurate because the brand strategy allows businesses to build brand awareness and image as well as steadily increase loyalty of customers towards it. In a sense, it can also be said that the brand strategy helps to organize this process.

Remember that a good brand strategy should be a comprehensive, well planned long-term operation. If you run your company chaotically, coming up with branding ideas on the fly, you will not achieve the desired results and the pace of development will not be satisfactory. What is more, no brand branding is detrimental to the sales and image potential of the company. It is worth spending some time, effort, and money to create a branding strategy that will increase your profits in the long run.

branding strategy features

What should a successful brand strategy include?

At this point, you can see that through a good brand strategy you can specify activities that will allow you to achieve certain results. However, you may wonder what should be included in this type of branding guidelines. The brand strategy must have certain key components that you cannot omit if you want it to be useful and understandable not only for you, but also for everyone who will read it. The proper brand strategy encompasses:

  • The brand personality.
  • The company’s values.
  • The brand message.
  • The description of the brand’s audience (which should be very precise and well-thought-out).
  • The brand purpose.
  • The brand’s voice.
  • The brand vision.
  • The brand’s distinctive features (i.e., its greatest advantages that set it apart from other companies in a given industry).
  • Strengths and weaknesses (compared to the competition).
  • The marketing strategy (both related to the online world, e.g., brand positioning or social media presence, and traditional advertising, such as television).
  • The visual identity (for example, individual branding, that is a logo or colors used in communication, etc.).
  • The brand equity.

successful brand strategy components

Archetypes in branding strategies

When you create your own brand strategy, you can also rely on the so-called archetypes of brands, i.e., certain patterns that define the values behind the brand, and use particular kinds of messages to evoke specific attitudes and values. Based on the archetypes, it is easy to determine the brand personality.

There are 12 distinctive brand archetypes and each of them significantly influences the brand strategy. It is worth getting inspired by them, especially if you are not sure which path you want to follow. Here is the list:

  1. The Innocent

Brands that decide to build their image based on this archetype rely on tradition, consistent style and ease of use. When you watch the advertisements of such a company, you have the feeling that they want to convey the message that using their particular product will bring you happiness and make your life simpler. A great example is Coca-Cola.

  1. The Rebel

Such a brand is constantly striving to change and shows its product as revolutionary, since stabilization is an alien term for their owners. One company that definitely matches this archetype is Apple. It has been using the slogan “think different” for a long time.

  1. The Hero (also known as The Warrior)

A brand that often shows the work ethic. It likes competition, although it is able to maintain boundaries and discipline. Its hallmark is hard work that inspires others to act. Leroy Merlin’s brand strategy is a good example.

  1. The Caregiver

It is a brand that wants to satisfy the needs of customers. The key elements of their activities are meant to ensure safety and take care of the necessities of customers to such an extent as to develop customer loyalty over time. This archetype is used by a lot of brands in the medical and cosmetics sectors, among many, the owner of high quality razors, the Gillette brand. Interestingly, it can often be found in the automotive industry as well. The best example is the Volvo brand, which has been recognized as a safety leader for years.

  1. The Explorer (or The Seeker)

It is a brand that is constantly looking for new solutions, such as Red bull. Its core values include individualism and authenticity. What is also important for such a brand is a chance to experiment. A company like this offers new sensations and experiences to customers.

  1. The Lover

This kind of a brand focuses mostly on aesthetics, beauty, sensuality and deep feelings. Most brand strategy examples of this type can be found among jewelry or cosmetic companies, for example, Tiffany & Co.

  1. The Sage

This is the archetype of brands that strive to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible. In this case, brand values consist of understanding (of the external and internal environment), dispelling doubts and continuous analysis. Successful brand strategy examples of this type include, of course, Google and Microsoft!

  1. The Fool

The brand, which depicts this archetype, depends above all on a hedonistic approach to everyday life, taking full advantage of existence and freedom. The brand voice is characterized by a playful tone, curiosity about the world and openness. Such a company is, for example, Old Spice.

  1. The Creator

A brand that is both an innovator and visionary. It constantly looks for new inspirations, and then uses them to create interesting and aesthetic products. The creator’s archetype is definitely employed by the LEGO company.

  1. The Ruler

Brands that operate in line with this archetype recognize law, order, and balance as core values. Those companies usually offer luxury products and act as leaders of various industries. IBM and Mercedes are great brand strategy examples of this archetype. So, as you can see, iconic brands definitely like to rule the world!

  1. The Magician

This archetype seeks change, both internal and external. The brand purpose here is to preserve eternal youth. As a result, companies offer products that provide relief, alleviation and a good time. Usually, this type can be found among beauty salons because their marketing strategy is based on these aspects.

  1. The Everyman

Fitting in with everyone and not standing out are at the core of this archetype. The brand strategy is consistent but simple. It is most often used for brands that offer everyday products, such as Lidl.

Brand strategy important aspects: who should create it?

All employees and owners of a given company should be involved in building a brand strategy – from those who make decisions and hold top-level positions to regular employees. It is important because only in this way can you make sure that everyone fulfills the brand’s mission with commitment, feels responsible for the implementation of the strategy and enables you to release quality products.

Surprising brand strategy examples 

Since you know what a brand strategy is and how you can inspire yourself when creating it, it is time to move to 7 brand strategy examples, which helped companies to attract more customers and gain great recognition thanks to thoughtful ideas!

GoPro

GoPro cameras are known to everyone who likes to record their experiences in a convenient way. Most often they are used by athletes, stuntmen, vloggers and travelers. This company is a real tech giant with exceptional advertising campaigns. It is worth taking a look at GoPro’s brand strategy, as it is based on user-generated content.

The company has provided clients with a video editing program that automatically attaches their branding elements to the clip. GoPro shares this content on its social media, which encourages other users to create their own videos of this type and creates the snowball effect. Such a brand strategy allows this business to attract loyal customers at no extra cost!

Coca-cola

coca cola brand strategy

Any list of brand examples would be incomplete without Coca-Cola. Its strategy has proved to be phenomenal and led to building the entire community around its soda. How can you know it? Just take a look at all generic products, such as sweatshirts, hats, backpacks or other gadgets with the brand’s logo that are desired by people all over the world. If the public wants a drink logo on their clothes, then such a company definitely developed a successful brand strategy!

Currently, Coca-Cola’s brand strategy combines charity and marketing together. Such marketing campaigns are often criticized, even when large brands are involved. However, Coca-Cola knows exactly what to do, so it has not been the case here. What was their idea? They launched “The Happiness Truck” campaign in Brazil. A red truck drove through the country’s streets and free goods were handed out to anyone who pressed the red button on the car.

Of course, there was also an ad uploaded on Youtube, so the information about the event could spread. It was a huge success and the commercial became a viral video. The Coca-Cola management team used the same campaign in Armenia and Istanbul. The advertisement was widely publicized and won many awards.

Nike

nike brand strategy

Nike is a very strong brand that almost everyone knows. This company stands out among other brands which sell products such as sports clothes and footwear. In this case, the brand strategy is based primarily on extensive advertisements and marketing messages that appear in many places, thanks to which they are noticed by both regular and potential customers.

However, it is important to note that their promotional activities are consistent with the brand values ​​such as athletics, innovation, or desire. Thanks to this, they are successful at strengthening the brand awareness among consumers.

What is more, the sophisticated and extensive culture of this company allows it to create a unique brand image, known all over the world. Therefore, one can conclude that a successful brand strategy focuses not only on advertising, but also on organizational and cultural aspects.

Learn more about Nike and Apple’s successful partnership strategy in our article, which presents remarkable co-branding examples.

Taco Bell

When it comes to successful brand strategy examples in the fast food industry, we cannot forget about the popular Taco Bell chain. Do you know what made Taco Bell famous among customers? Knowing their preferences! When planning their brand strategy, they focused primarily on the target audience.

As it turned out, the largest part of it are younger customers, such as students who do not have a TV because they live in a dormitory. That was an extremely interesting discovery that initiated an avalanche of changes in the company! There was a complete makeover of their brand voice!

Appearance on TV proved to be definitely pointless in their case, so they found other places for the brand voice and among others they started to create campaigns in social media. For example, their Twitter posts are very funny, and sometimes even controversial. Branding strategies of this type do not always work, but Taco Bell has been guided in the right direction and attracts crowds of new customers.

What can we learn from this example? Marketing research is the basis for creating a good, effective brand strategy. It is believed that Taco Bell spent over ten percent of the total advertising budget on social media exploration and target market analysis!

Heineken

heineken brand strategy

Beer brands have a difficult task ahead of them because good alcohol advertising is really challenging. In its brand strategy, Heineken has focused on creative and strategic partnerships with other brands, which has made it more attractive in certain regions.

For example, the company decided to be the main sponsor of the UEFA Champions League. The number of football fans in Europe is huge, so reaching this target audience was a bull’s-eye. It does not matter that Heineken is a separate brand from the event. UEFA Champions League fans were buying this manufacturer’s products while watching the match, even though they had access to other beer, also containing high quality ingredients.

What was the reason? The Heineken brand awareness was being intensified by the presence of brand stands, private labels and products around potential customers. The entire Champions League event was simply drawn into the branding process, and thus the company automatically expanded its audience.

In addition, in its activities, Heineken focuses on stylish, recognizable advertising and combining various communication channels. Their marketing voice is interesting and targeted at a specific group of recipients, which is why it is so effective. One of the most important aspects of their brand management strategy is maintaining brand consistency. There are few brand strategy examples that show such unified messages and as a result attract many customers. Heineken receives a lot of praise for this.

Twitch

Twitch is definitely worth mentioning when it comes to famous brands that inspire. Twitch’s strength lies in its community, which is why the company puts a lot of effort into caring for users.

What is more, their brand strategy is based on this relationship. They engage people they have successfully gathered around a specific niche to promote and develop their business. They have provided a platform that teaches users something, keeps them entertained, meets their certain needs, and allows them to connect.

WWF

WWF is the last of the brand strategy examples that we want to inspire you with. It is mainly about presenting some difficult topics creatively. They have innovative ideas that no other company has presented so far. They are particularly active in digital marketing.

For example, the #endangeredemoji campaign, created by WWF’s talented team, turned tweets into donations whenever custom emoticons were applied to a post (17 endangered animals included in the emoji chart). In this case, out-of-the-box thinking and standing out in the social space resulted in success.

Summary

Now you know what the best brand strategy examples are and what made them popular. We hope it helps you create an action plan for your own brand. Whether you have a small business, e.g., a personal brand or you run a large corporation, remember that a clear vision, excellent customer service and a right brand strategy is a must-have if you want to be successful.

If we have inspired you with our examples of brand strategy, and you feel it is time to prepare yours, use our brand audit checklist. It will allow you to assess what aspects you have already covered and what you need to still focus on. Take a look also at our branding tips for startups, and analyze brand consistency examples that can serve as a great inspiration and motivation for you to pursue your goals. However, if you have no brand approach, our branding strategy examples did not excite you at all, and you feel rather overwhelmed with an excess of tasks, consider our business branding services. We will take care of everything!

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