A leading brand strategy agency
Stand out from the crowd.
A brand strategy is your long-term plan for success. It will define how you show up in the marketplace, and make sure you become memorable and meaningful in a crowded market.
Our brand strategy services
A brand is not just your logo. It underpins everything you do. A brand strategy gives you a cohesive, long-term plan to succeed online and stay ahead.
Brand audit
Understand where your brand stands in your market. Our audits take an objectively heuristic view of every aspect of your brand, so you can act with precision.
Brand identity
A brand identity will give you the creative differentiation and consistency to accelerate growth and deliver results, through every part of the marketing funnel.
Brand campaigns
An engaging campaign can position your brand as the ‘go-to’ service in your category, priming your target audience for more sales-led marketing efforts.
Let’s take the first step. We’re ready.
The best integrated search agency in Europe and the world.
How we work, works
We’re in the business of results. Take a look at our recent work, or get in touch to learn more about how we did it.
Latest creative articles
Read about industry trends, news and opinions from our creative experts.
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Brand is where the money is
Brands are important to customers in four key ways. Firstly, brands build familiarity, which is the first step on the road to trust. Secondly, brands can reduce ‘search costs’ through short-term memory checks to see if we already know of a brand that solves our problem.
Thirdly, brands help customers by building and reinforcing perceptions of quality. And fourthly, they provide meaning through brand cues about who we are and what we consume.
A strong brand can achieve up to a 38% price premium over a commodity equivalent. The value of the brand coming back into the company is through:
- A larger customer base and increased sales volume
- Improved customer loyalty and repeat purchases
- Better, harder working employees who act as advocates
- The ability to charge higher prices and achieve better gross margins
- The option to diversify into new categories
Distinctive brand assets are essential
The blue of the Tiffany box. The shape of a bottle of Coca-Cola. The interlocking Cs of the Chanel logo. Characters. Sounds. Colours. These are examples of distinctive brand assets. As consumers encounter your brand – both online and in physical spaces – you want these assets to be unmistakably you.
Our brand strategies will look at how you show up in the marketplace, both visually as well as in the written or spoken word, to see how you’re measuring up to your positioning intentions. We’ll work with you to ensure your brand assets stand apart from the competition and will resonate with your customers.
Brand management and the 3 Rs
Brand management is about making subtle changes to a brand’s identity over time in a way that stays true to the brand’s DNA, and that consistency is key for building long-term brand equity and keeping existing customers. But occasionally, brands may find that they need more than minor adjustments around the edges to stay relevant.
- Repositioning retains your existing brand identity, but seeks to change the positioning and how the brand is perceived in the marketplace
- Revitalisation retains your positioning, but changes how the brand is expressed in the marketplace to stay current to changes in society
- Rebranding completely transforms the brand in question, changing both the positioning as well as the visual and verbal identity
Whatever your brand challenge, our team of brand strategists can help. Get in touch today to start the conversation.
Our approach to brand strategy
Brand strategy is all about building brand equity – ensuring people know your brand exists (brand awareness) and encouraging them to think about your brand in a certain way (brand associations).
Brand research
What’s your origin story? We will dig into the history, heritage and founders of the company to uncover why your brand exists and what problem you were hoping to solve for customers. We’ll also take a look in the archives at creative executions over the years as well as how the press and marketplace responded.
Customer research
Using a blend of qualitative and quantitative methods, we’ll get to know your brand through the perceptions of your customers. From loyalists to lapsed customers and those in between, we’ll discover what makes people buy, what their criteria is for choosing a brand and how you measure up.
Brand architecture
Brand architecture simply means the way a company brings together and manages the brands they own. From a branded house to a house of brands – and multiple points in between – we can help you make smart choices about the structure that will deliver the most clarity to the marketplace.
Segmentation and targeting
One of the biggest questions in a brand’s strategy is “who are we targeting?”. (Spoiler alert – the answer can’t be “everyone”!) We’ll help you spot the most valuable segments that offer the opportunity to gain market share and align your budget and activities to targeting those customers.
Positioning
Positioning simply means “what do I want the consumer to think when they think about my brand”. What are the words, phrases or associations you want to come to mind when someone thinks about you? We can help you clarify your intended position and tailor that to your target customers.
Strategic objectives
Setting SMART objectives means selecting the strategic levers we can pull to get the results we want quickly and efficiently. Working across a 12-month period, we’ll set both long-term brand objectives addressing the entire market as well as short-term product objectives matched to your target customers.
Tactical brand plan
Everything we do in strategy is working toward an actionable plan that can be executed across 12 months to translate your objectives into business outcomes. Our tactical plans will include recommendations around your visual and verbal identity, a channel strategy, media plan and measurement framework.
There’s more to explore
Creativity doesn’t work in isolation. It needs to be led by an effective, robust strategy, deployed across relevant touchpoints and optimised across the channels most suited to your brand.
SEO
We combine technical expertise, content and user experience to create and deliver SEO strategies that deliver results and grow profits.
Content and PR
Secure widespread coverage with multilayered, data-led campaigns from one of the UK’s most trusted PR agencies.
Paid media
Unleash the power of modern digital advertising with one of Europe’s leading Paid Media agencies. Reach the world. Smash targets. Set the standard.
Web design
We combine deep expertise in SEO, Strategy and UX to build high-speed, accessible sites that create a lasting impression and get results.
Recognised industry expertise
Our experts regularly contribute to the most important conversations happening in marketing today — we’re helping to lead the conversation in marketing. You’ll find our voice featured in articles on The Drum, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Econsultancy, State of Digital and many more places.
We also speak at conferences and events such as Google Live, SMX, SEO Brighton, Nottingham Digital Summit and various Google events.
You’re in safe hands.
Frequently asked questions
Why do I need a brand strategy?
A brand isn’t a static thing – it constantly evolves and adapts to changes from competitors, society and even customer expectations. But these changes must also be consistent with who you are, what you do and why your company exists. A brand strategy takes an holistic approach to this process, intentionally responding to the marketplace while staying true to your brand DNA.
Why should I do customer research if this is about my brand?
A brand only really exists in the minds of the customer. A brand manager or marketer can control the inputs into the brand – the visual and verbal identity, the segmentation choices, the intended positioning, the activation of the brand in the marketplace. But it’s ultimately the customer who interprets the signals and decides what the brand stands for in their mind. Customer research helps us understand those perceptions and associations, so we know what action to take to change or reinforce them.
Can you deliver brand strategy as a standalone project?
The short answer is yes! A brand strategy is a great place to start to get the answers to key questions like who are we targeting, what do we stand for in their mind, what are the objectives we want to achieve this year and how will we go about it. Once that’s done, we can decide whether you want additional support with brand identity work or activating a marketing strategy.
How long does it take to put together a brand strategy?
While it depends on the complexity of the challenge – a rebranding project will take longer than a repositioning project – we generally deliver brand strategy projects in three to four months. We’ll need access to your senior team and knowledge of your business objectives, marketing plans and perceived challenges to make our strategies more effective.
