When things are smooth sailing, it’s easy to stay in focus, meet your KPI’s, keep the momentum going, and show up to your business with contagious energy and commitment.
But what happens when life throws you a curveball and you lose momentum?
While we all try to keep business and personal lives separate, we know that major changes in our lives will impact how we run our business.
As a company made up of military spouses, we are intimately acquainted with these types of changes—ones that often hit us hard, forcing us to start all over in new states or countries every few years. And yet, despite these challenges, we persevere.
One of our team members recently endured a challenging prolonged move, naturally losing momentum as they waited months to settle in their new home. Moving is another job in itself—between navigating inventory for household goods (yes, that’s a thing—you have to inventory your home items and take tons of pictures), managing pack-out and unloading, securing new housing, and temporary homeschooling as your child is transitioning schools, you get a hot mess of confusion. But we keep going, adapting, and learning.
You may not be in the military or have family members who serve, but we know that at some point, life will throw you tough challenges that affect your business. It might mean a complete pivot in your offerings, pausing operations, or something in between.
When life happens and we lose focus, we need a compass to guide us. And no, this is not your business plan. It’s your brand strategy. A brand strategy is not just a set of guidelines; it’s a roadmap that defines how you communicate and manage the meaning behind your brand. It keeps us on track and you can even use your brand strategy to revive your brand after a major life change.
How to use your brand strategy to revive your Business after a major life change
We believe in leading by example, so as we hit some roadblocks post-move, we referred to our brand strategy to lead the way. But before we share some behind-the-scenes for ourselves, let’s discuss the core elements you need in your brand strategy document.
5 Things Your Brand Strategy Document Needs
People often think of brand strategy as the visual direction of your brand and marketing as the promotion of your brand. In reality, brand strategy serves as the compass that ultimately directs your marketing efforts. A brand strategy is a long-term plan you create to outmaneuver your competition.
The terms brand, branding, and brand strategy are often confused. We totally understand! They are thrown around a lot and sometimes used like they are interchangeable (they aren’t).
Start with brand self-awareness:
One of the most important factors in your brand strategy process is clarity and self-awareness. As you start or refine your brand strategy, begin with these core elements to get you started on the right path.
Who you are: Why do you exist beyond making money? How does your brand, product, or service seek to make an impact and why does it matter?
What makes you different: What differentiates you from others? What sets you apart in a sea of sameness?
Belonging: Think about how you will create a brand that aligns with your ideal customer’s sense of belonging. How are you providing a product or service that aligns with their desires?
Foundation elements you need in your brand strategy:
Defining your brand strategy will take time and can get complex depending on your needs. We recommend starting small and building your plan in phases. Here are some areas to consider including in your brand strategy document:
Your purpose (why you exist beyond making money)
Brand values
Mission & vision
Persuasive & dissuasive language
Analysis of your competitors
Insight on your consumers, clients, and customers
Brand positioning (how you will outmaneuver your competition)
Don’t forget, we have a FREE Brand Building Starter Guide that you can download to guide you through the steps to build this document.
And if the sound of creating your brand strategy document sounds overwhelming or scary—that’s normal. Doing this whole process for yourself can be daunting, and we’ve always found that our clients see a different perspective when working with us rather than when they did it on their own. If you rather partner with us to co-collaborate and develop your brand strategy, we’ve got you!
When we reviewed our brand strategy, we were very intentional. We did the same thing we do when hosting a brand strategy session for our clients. The key was to remember that we were doing this for the business, not just a personal approach.
How We Ran Our Own Brand Strategy Session
Since we weren’t creating a strategy from the start, we were able to narrow our focus by referring to our existing strategy document we created inside Miro. We’ve done this enough to know the gaps we needed to revise (this is another reason it can be helpful to work with someone who has done this before!).
- Discuss Our Gaps and Challenges:
We discussed the gaps and challenges that occurred in the business while we were in a moving transition. Since our goal was to increase productivity and optimize our time, we narrowed our focus to 3 challenges we needed to solve and wrote the others on a sidebar in our Miro board. - Review Our Current Brand Strategy:
Next, we focused on reviewing and reconnecting. We spent 10 minutes reviewing our existing brand strategy. Each of us took notes on how our current brand strategy either helped or harmed our selected challenges. - Evaluate and Prioritize The Changes Needed:
Then, we came together to evaluate what changes needed to be made. For any changes that affected our services or offerings, we made sure to evaluate how this would align with our audience and potential clients. We also considered exploring new approaches to solve existing problems.
- Divide and Conquer:
To prevent communication gaps, we divided our tasks among our team while mitigating potential pitfalls that could cause delays. Our strategy also allowed us to trust each other in the process without needing frequent approvals. - Define Our Timeline:
Our last step was to break down our due dates into smaller, more attainable tasks so that we could move forward. Then, we manage these tasks in our project management software.
A brand strategy is an essential document for any business. It is not something you write out once when you start your business and never revisit. Brand strategies can shift and evolve the longer you are in business, and you will need to adjust to support your new direction.
When we drive in a new city and we don’t know the area, we rely on GPS to guide us. Imagine launching a new product or service for your brand, but you don’t adapt your brand strategy to support that. How will you know where to go? How much time are you willing to lose trying to figure things out without a brand compass?
We saved a lot of grief and money by having a brand strategy that helped us reconnect and evolve past this season. And while we wish you don’t endure tough business seasons, we hope that implementing these practices will help you in the future.