7 Brand Strategy Examples
It’s one thing to develop your brand strategy, and quite another to set your brand strategy in motion for the world to witness. The purpose of focusing on growing your brand and not simply “doing business daily” is threefold:
To move your audience
To increase trust in your brand
To create brand loyalty
As you’re creating and implementing your brand strategy, seeing examples of other businesses and companies with strong and successful brand activations can only help. That’s why I’ve gathered a few of my favorites below that demonstrate some key branding elements done well: core values, taglines and even leveraging a personal brand.
7 BRAND STRATEGY EXAMPLES TO CAPTIVATE YOUR AUDIENCE
CORE VALUES TO ELEVATE YOUR BRAND
When it comes to creating your brand strategy, your mission, your vision and your values are key ingredients. Most entrepreneurs want to nail their mission, vision and often taglines first because they’re a bit sexier. Many times, establishing your core values can fall into last place and that’s a mistake. Here’s why - when you tell your audience what you believe in, and they’re aligned with those beliefs, you’ll win their hearts when you demonstrate your brand values in action.
Example #1: Helpful Honda
It can be hard for a car company to stand out in a sea of other car manufacturers, but Honda found a way to highlight one of their core values to do just that: being helpful.
Known now as the “Helpful Honda guys,” Honda regularly rolls out their “Random Acts of Helpfulness” campaigns where they help local residents and communities fund something they need help with - buying new computers for a school classroom, paying that dentist bill for new braces someone can’t afford on their own or even buying new sports equipment or uniforms for a local little league team.
What do these random acts of helpfulness have to do with selling cars? Nothing, and that’s the point. The reason they chose a core value to “be helpful to our local communities” is to associate their brand with being helpful in ALL ways. When you think of Honda, they want you to think “Helpful Honda,” especially when you’re at the point of considering your next car purchase.
This is a campaign that helps create a positive brand perception and tells the consumers exactly what Honda believes in and wants to be known for.
Example #2: Amazon
Showcasing your brand’s core values helps connect you with your audience because you’re not only demonstrating what you care about as a company, you’re aligning with the values your customers care about, too.
This latest Amazon commercial is a great example of showing what they care about - notice no where in this entire commercial script do they ask you to buy from them:
At Amazon, we don’t just think big, we do big
We’ll be net zero carbon by 2040.
We’ve ordered 100,000 electric vehicles.
We have 91 renewable energy projects
By 2025, we’ll power operations with 100% renewable energy
We’ve created a $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund
(smile logo)
Example #3: Apple Think Different
This is an oldie but goodie…Apple’s Think Different campaign. Apple is a beautiful example of brand strategy done well everywhere you turn. One of their greatest successes in standing out from their competition is by sharing what they believe in. One of Apple’s operating principles is to Think Different: it’s how they hire employees, it’s how they create new products, it’s how they approach marketing and advertising, and it’s a value that their customers want to share.
If you didn’t know that “thinking different” was a core value for you, you probably did after seeing their commercial that showcased 17 iconic 20th century personalities (Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King Jr, Richard Branson, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Gandi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock and Jim Henson with Kermit the Frog just to name a few) and a moving VoiceOver narrated by Richard Dreyfus that said the following:
Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.
GREAT BRAND TAGLINES TO INSPIRE
Whereas in many other areas of your brand strategy the goal is to be clear, a tagline’s sole purpose is to inspire. Once you know who you’re talking to (i.e. who your ideal clients are), you can position your brand to move your audience. When you move your audience you change their mind. Anytime you can evoke and emotional response, to stir someone’s heart or to create a motivation to reach for more, you’ve created a lasting positive impression that will have consumers choosing you over the competition every time.
Example #4: Nike
You can’t talk about stirring taglines without mentioning the most iconic one: JUST DO IT.
Most consumers probably never thought they’d have a favorite shoe company, but when the tagline is mixed with the visuals and storytelling that connects to an ambition…whew! That’s pure gold.
And that’s the key - a great tagline is tied directly into an internal motivation or ambition of the consumer. So, this tagline shows that Nike is very aware of what’s going on inside the mind of their ideal customers. And it continues to work for them as they pair it with current and relevant stories to tell that align with who their audience is and what they care about - check out this “Dream Crazier - #JustDoIt” commercial to see what I mean…
Example #5: Magnolia
Magnolia is a brand created by Chip and Joanna Gaines of the Fixer Upper fame where they started on HGTV. It’s grown to be a huge brand with crazy loyal fans and customers. One of the best brand advantages they had was allowing audiences to get to know who they are as people - what they love, what they do well and the dynamic they have that feels like people you actually know and want to be friends with.
In other words they were able to showcase their authentic personalities and how they transform lives and homes and create a better space to live in through their TV show every week. It’s that fact that simply makes their tagline a reminder to their audience about why they’re here for you:
INSPIRATION FOR LIFE AND HOME.
Example #6: Poppin
Not sure if you’ve heard of this brand before, but Poppin is an online office supply store and not only creates practical office furniture but is known for their bright and aesthetically pleasing colors and designs for office tools and essentials (I love buying their pens and notebooks!).
Their tagline is: WORK HAPPY
It’s simple, straightforward, and aligns with their customers’ ideals. Who doesn’t want to create more happiness where they work?
If you visit Poppin’s website you’ll also see a great example of how a brand that’s all about office furniture and supplies have pivoted their brand strategy to be relevant to what their customers need most right now:
Hello to the hybrid “work from home” office set up you can check out
Offering acrylic shields for classrooms at schools
Promoting remote work necessities
…all in the name of WORKING HAPPIER.
A SUCCESSFUL PERSONAL BRAND STRATEGY
Leveraging your personal brand to grow your business is a great brand strategy at work and it helps you establish authority in your industry and grow a business based on great relationships with your audience.
If you’d like to know whether a personal brand or business brand is right for your business, take my FREE quiz - it takes less than 60 seconds and you’ll get some quick clarity to help you move forward: TAKE THE QUIZ.
Example #7: Gary Vaynerchuk
A phenomenal example of a clear personal brand is none other than Gary Vee. From getting to know a wider audience as ‘the wine guy,” Gary leveraged his personal brand to pivot into helping people build businesses.
Go to Gary’s website and everywhere you turn on his homepage is another opportunity he uses to give value and connect with you in order to grow a relationship. That’s what he’s about and his audience loves it.
His brand strategy IS leveraging his personal brand to not only drive his many business brands, but to give value, to connect and to allow him to pivot to all kinds of businesses and directions he’s interested in. He’s known for building businesses, using digital marketing to do it, and in every single thing he does he shows you how he does it.
He is the shining example of how brand consistency wins every time. He shows up. And when you show up for your audience, your audience shows up for you.
In summary, remember that your brand strategy isn’t just something you write down on a piece of paper and file away. You utilize your brand strategy everyday in everything you do in your business. It helps you show up consistently, it helps you connect with your audience, it helps you add meaning to what you’re up to, and above all, it helps you….
POSITION YOUR BRAND TO MOVE YOUR AUDIENCE.
