Nine times out of ten, when brands tell us that they have a brand strategy, what they really mean is that they have a creative strategy and/or a communications plan. There’s a big difference between the two...

A creative strategy is like the driver. When you jump in the brand’s cab, it’s who you see and who you engage with. The driver has a personality, tone, style and a point of view that does or doesn’t work for you. She makes you feel comfortable or uncomfortable, want to chat with her or to simply to pretend you’re reading a book and avoid eye contact!

The driver choses the environment you travel in according to her taste – how the car looks, feels and smells and what’s on the radio – loud, chatty and fun or sombre, quiet and calm. The environment the driver creates impacts how you feel in the moment and by association how you feel about the cab ride, and following that, how you feel about the whole brand. It impacts whether you’re happy to stay in the cab or want to get out as soon as possible and even whether you want to use that cab company again. 

Importantly, the driver is also making the car go – she is making the sale, taking the money and transporting you to your destination, where you want and need to be. She is making that connection between you and your destination happen.

That is what good creative strategy is about. It’s about creating a visual and sensory world for the brand – creative assets such as logos, packaging, brand colours and style – that you use consistently to create short cuts and signposts to your brand and which will connect and appeal to your target audience.

It’s also about creating the right environment, messages, point of view and personality that appeal to your consumers and imbue the right meaning in and benefits of your brand. Finally, it’s about the execution – the campaigns and communications tactics – that flow from this; the messaging, straplines, tone and story-telling in your adverts and communications that help consumers understand what you stand for and how you will meet their needs.

No matter how amazing the driver is, or how well she drives, she still needs a sat nav (or a map or knowledge of a map - if you are old school) to get you to the right destination. There is no point having a fun, memorable and interesting cab ride if you don’t get to the destination you wanted.

Brand strategy is the sat nav (or map). It is the boring white box that gathers all the data and information about all the routes you could travel and makes clear, rational decisions about which route to take (and which routes to definitely avoid) to get to your growth targets most efficiently and competitively.

It then articulates how you’re going to get there. What consumer needs you are targeting and how you are going to meet them differently or distinctively from your competitors. 

A brand strategy sets a path for how your brand is going to grow long term and what changes you need to make. It looks at where you are headed and when you hit a problem it calculates alternative routes to get there.

A brand strategy understands how you are currently seen and experienced by consumers and where you need to be. It identifies how consumer perceptions and behaviours need to change to change for your brand to appeal to them.

It articulates the direction of travel and provides a guide for creative agencies to develop effective creative ideas and campaigns. And a brand strategy is so much more than just comms. It provides a framework for how your product, processes, price, distribution and comms need to operate or change to meet your target consumers’ needs and change their behaviours and perceptions.

It’s not sexy (at least not to the average person!) and it should be summarised in just a few pages of very concise decisions about what you are (and are not going to do).