ou know the influence that comes with an effective brand but do you know how to execute that branding? No matter your industry, a strategic brand management strategy is paramount to success.

49% of businesses do not have a branding strategy.

Don’t be one of them.

Crafting a perception of your brand goes beyond aesthetics. It involves purpose, people, and approach.

Strategic brand management is essential for your company. One mistake can tarnish your brand. That’s why we’re giving you 9 must-have tips you can’t ignore.

Let’s discuss strategic brand management tips to engage and inspire your target market.

1. Strategic Brand Management Begins With A Promise

Ever ask yourself why you get out of bed every morning for work?

Your brand needs a purpose to progress in the same way you do. Successful strategic brand management begins with defining your brand’s mission.

Sure, you want to make money. But how will that set you apart from other property investors or insurance companies? The world’s top brands have intentional brand promises.

Starbucks seeks to provide “the richest possible sensory experience”. Ikea promises to “create a better everyday life”.

Creating a brand promise will carve out a path for the rest of your strategy.

2. Be Consistent

Now that you’ve made your brand promise, stick to it.

Think of it as a guideline for each action your company takes. Venturing into markets outside of your brand promise detract from your message.

Doing so creates confusion for your customers and your financial backers.

Take, for example, Starbucks. We said they have a brand promise to provide “the richest possible sensory experience”. After years of prosperity, the coffee company began to think of themselves as a “lifestyle brand”.

So, to expand their efforts Starbucks invested in a furniture start-up with an online store.

They ventured away from their brand promise. This move alarmed financial analysts and inspired doubt.

In response, Starbucks’ share prices dropped 28% in a single day. This is the equivalent of a $2 billion dollar loss for the company.

Needless to say, Starbucks returned to its focus on the coffee experience.

3. Understand Your Competition

You understand the ramifications of your brand promise. The next step in strategic brand management is to understand your competition.

Observe your competition. Communicate a memorable point of difference to your consumer.

Maintain this difference. Play to its strengths.

A great example is Collin’s House Property Group. The company’s versatile team of experts oversees projects from start to finish. This makes them unique among property investors, building trust within their consumer base.

4. Connect With Your Target Audience

Speaking of building trust, the best strategic brand management strategies get personal.

74% of online consumers expect personalized web content.

How can you achieve this?

Get emotional.

Give your target audience a platform to feel like part of the brand. People want to belong.

It’s a Maslow Hierarchy of Needs thing.

Including your consumers in your brand will build trust that leads to brand loyalty. It costs six times more to attract a new customer than it does to maintain a current one.

5. Leverage Social Media

If you’re going to connect with your consumers, a great place to begin doing this is social media.

75% of consumers consider brand awareness a major influence in a buying decision. Use the amount of time your target audience spends on social media to increase that brand awareness.

Multimedia is your friend. Include images in your tweets to gain more clicks, favorites, and retweets

The use of video content has skyrocketed. Consumers want to be engaged with more than text.

Engage them and engage them often.

6. Keep Content Interesting

But don’t post any old content. Deliver interesting content on a regular basis. This is one of the most important aspects of strategic brand management.

The world is full of content.

Stand out. Be authentic. Keeps yours interesting.

Some tips for creating quality content are:

• Research your topic
• Present useful information
• Be as unique as possible
• Be thorough
• Proofread
• Make your content actionable

7. Be Flexible

We know what you’re thinking. “How am I supposed to stay consistent and be flexible?”

Fear not!

There’s a key difference among the two. Staying consistent helps you build consumer recognition and trust in your brand. Flexibility builds interest among your consumers.

Old tactics grow stale. Approach your market with fresh ideas or a new partnership.

Consider Payband. Wearables are an evolving and new technology. Finances, simply put, are not. Payband occupies the overlap, ushering in a flexible space in the finance market.

8. Design Your Brand With Authority

Branding is about perception. While a brand is about more than product, logo, and tagline, these things play a distinct role in strategic brand management.

Set rules for the way your brand presents itself.

Think about tone, style, and color.

Color increases your brand recognition by 80%. White space increases the perception of information by 20%.

A defined look and feel will contribute to your brand’s authority and your brand awareness.

9. Assemble An Invested Team

The old saying is true. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

You need employees and brand advocates who will adopt your brand voice.

You need employees and brand advocates who will embody your brand promise.

92% of consumers trust brand advocates.

This begins with leadership. Foster an environment of consistency and laser focus in terms of your brand promise beginning with those at the top.

When Cosmopolitan magazine suffered from declining readership in the 1950s, they brought in a leader who defined their target market. Helen Gurley Brown was a career-oriented, progressive woman. Her enthusiasm and embodiment of their brand and target audience pushed her team to innovate.

Their content strategy transformed. They published authentic, interesting content that appealed to the emotions of their readers. Their brand promise did not waver.

Cosmopolitan’s first issue (about 350,000 copies) under Helen Gurley Brown sold out before day’s end. Their brand promise and target audience have remained constant to today.

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Conclusion

Successful strategic brand management begins with purpose.

Strategic brand management centers around customers.

Strategic brand management hinges on your team.

With these 9 tips, you’re ready to craft and maintain a brand your consumers and your company can take pride in.