Branding & Messaging Strategy
Activate your Brand with L.O.V.E.
On some level, every business understands that brand matters, but nailing down what the brand is and what it means is another matter entirely.
We’re Rebels, though. And the way we think about brand activation is not at all what anyone expects. We activate brands with L.O.V.E.: Learn, Optimize, Validate, Execute.
Like any journey, brand L.O.V.E. starts with a goal in mind: business success. In order to truly fulfill your brand promise, everyone in your organization, from leadership to middle-management and staff, needs to consider how to enhance the customer experience to compete in today’s environment.
Learn from (and take advantage of) your brand positioning
All businesses have some kind of positioning relative to their competition, but making the most of your positional advantage requires a little rebellion. In the discovery process, our branding team starts by listening to your story, your points of difference, and most importantly, your passions. Then, we distill those learnings into:
- Brand value propositions
- Target audience personas
- Messaging pillars
- Brand promise
Understanding your positioning and finding opportunities to grow your brand are the initial components of an effective marketing strategy. We use both data science and qualitative measures to define your branding opportunities based on factors such as your competitors, location and target audience’s needs. And at each stage, we utilize data to validate that your positioning will resonate with your target audience (more on that in a moment).
OPTIMIZE YOUR BRAND IDENTITY
What drives your team to do what they do every day? We believe branding doesn’t start with a product: it starts with the essence of the brand, the inherent truths, what makes it tick. That’s what we mean when we talk about brand identity, messaging and experience.
Depending on where you are in the process of developing your brand, we weigh-in on naming, tone, voice, personality, and look and feel to capture your brand identity. We make extensive use of data to adjust and optimize as we go. In the process, we coordinate with our expert copywriters, designers, and developers to define and bring to life a stronger brand.
VALIDATE YOUR BRAND STRATEGY
It’s one thing to create a brand that looks good to you. It’s quite another to build something that resonates with your target audience. We perform qualitative and quantitative testing to prove your brand holds up, using surveys, test groups, focus groups and more. And, of course, we’ll work with you on any adjustments that emerge from the validation and testing process.
EXECUTE YOUR BRAND MESSAGE
As you create content, you need a well-defined, consistent brand strategy throughout your channels. Rebel doesn’t just zero-in on one project; we zoom-out on the big picture and make sure your brand is integrated across all content. That includes branded content and messaging within your marketing strategy, content strategy, technical strategy, website, email, print advertising, and social media. No matter where your target audience encounters your brand, they should have a consistent experience.
Speaking of which…
CULTIVATE THE BRAND EXPERIENCE
You might think of your brand as something that’s primarily for your customers, but it starts with your internal team. Your employees are the face of your brand, and getting them invested is the first step toward delivering a memorable brand experience. That experience continues at the customer level in the pre-sale, sale, and post-sale processes; brand promise events and day-to-day customer service. We even bring your HR team to the table (they always love us for it: a strong internal brand experience helps with recruitment, performance, and retention).
MEASURE AND REFINE THE BRAND WITH DATA
At every stage, we turn your brand objectives into measurable goals with quantifiable results. We’ll create a brand roadmap that clarifies how to implement and reinforce your brand internally and externally, short-term and long-term. Branding shouldn’t be vague or vapid: it’s the very foundation of your conversion strategy, and it has to be fleshed out and refined over time.
Ready to put some rebellion in your brand?
Remember, people now interact with brands on their own terms — there are no captive audiences anymore. The way to build a brand and engage customers is to deliver memorable, engaging experiences.
There’s only one approach that lets brands win in today’s market: stand out, think differently, and take advantage of every opportunity to find your Rebel. If you’re driven to succeed, contact us today to talk brand activation.