Brand & Messaging Strategy

What exactly is this?

Brand and messaging strategy is the starting point for all your marketing communications. It’s the initial, fundamental thinking you do to define what your brand is all about.

It starts with defining your purpose, vision, mission and values and then builds out your positioning, differentiators, messaging architecture, target audiences and personas, brand personality and voice.

What is ISN’T

This is not graphic design or copywriting work. It’s a step before those. You wouldn’t hire a bricklayer to build a house before an architect had drawn up the plans, so make sure you have a strategy in place before you brief your creatives.

You will use your strategy document to brief designers, writers and other creative, so they can bring it to life through visuals and words. (They will ❤️ you for giving them such a thorough brief!)

Why do a brand and messaging strategy?

• It helps you define what you do, why you do it, what your offer is, who it’s targeted at, why they should care and how what you do will positively impact them.

• It gives you a framework to communicate all this ⬆️

• It helps you to remain focused and guides decision-making.

• You’ll have the perfect words to describe your business.

• It focuses your attention on clearly defined target audiences.

• You’ll have the right messages for the right audiences.

• You’ll be able to position your brand vs competitors clearly in your market.

• You can identify what truly sets your brand apart, amplify it and grab your audiences’ attention.

• Inspire and motivate your team to feel proud and excited to be a part of what you’re doing.

• Attract the right people to apply for positions in your company.

• Attract the right investors.

• Fire up your customers with a powerful, authentic brand story.

• Attract customers who are aligned with their own values and more likely to become fans and advocates.

• Spend your marketing budget more effectively by knowing exactly what to say and to whom.

• Improve brand recall, familiarity and credibility (and sales!) via a consistent, recognisable and trusted brand.

• Enable your creatives to create a much more impactful visual brand that has deeper thinking and more substance to it - and which accurately represents what your brand stands for.

When should you do this work?

It’s most valuable when:

• You need to level up from bootstrapping to ‘grown up’ comms, but don’t necessarily want to hire an agency just yet.

• You’re 4+ months away from pitching for VC funding. This gives you time to complete the strategy and create kick-ass messaging in place for those important meetings.

• You’ve just received a round of funding 🎉 With shareholders to report to, you’ll probably be looking to generate a better ROI on your marketing spend, and that starts with a solid brand and messaging strategy.

• You’re thinking about rebranding or upgrading your brand.

• BEFORE you brief a designer, web developer or social media specialist.

What’s included:

• Research and discovery including:

  • Competitor analysis

  • Voice of customer research

  • A review of your current brand communications

  • A review of any available data and analytics.

• 4-5 x 75 min Zoom workshops to explore your brand, competitors and audiences.

• A detailed brand strategy that includes:

  • Your brand fundamentals (purpose, vision, mission and values)

  • Target audience and user personas definition

  • Positioning and differentiation (unique selling points)

  • Key message and messaging architecture

  • Brand archetype and personality

  • Brand voice including guidelines.

• A 60 min Zoom call to present and discuss the strategy. You’ll also receive it as a Google Doc.

Cost:

• From $ 22,000