Your brand strategy says it all.
The five-step brand strategy process every company needs.
What perfectly illustrates the purpose behind Sagefrog’s approach to marketing is the idea that “strategy without tactics is a daydream” and “tactics without strategy is a nightmare.” Influenced by Sun Tzu and coined by our CEO and Co-founder Mark Schmukler, this concept is the backbone of Sagefrog’s step-wise marketing process JumpStart, which begins with a Brand Strategy. At Sagefrog, we aim to accelerate client success through integrated marketing and B2B brand building, so we take strategy seriously. Our flagship five-step Brand Strategy process contains all of the components required to create strong and consistent branding and marketing.
Brand building and rebranding is one of Sagefrog’s core competencies. Our agency has developed more than 150 brands, launching and re-launching companies, products and services to broadcast effective messages. Because we recognize that a superior strategy helps make the most of today’s marketing tactics, we have shaped our Brand Strategy to easily apply to all areas of a modern marketing plan, from digital, traditional and integrated marketing efforts to public relations, social media and content marketing. With Sagefrog, your new brand will be seen and heard.
Watch this short video to learn about our 5-step process.
Brand Strategy Overview
The visual and verbal experience your company provides in the market is clearly defined in a Brand Strategy with Sagefrog. Inside is your company’s visioning, positioning, messaging and visual identity, developed by evaluating and building upon your brand’s current and desired perception in the industry. With a formalized, tangible document as your guide, your brand is ready to take on competitors and secure more qualified leads.
Here are some of the reasons why B2B companies come to Sagefrog for a Brand Strategy:
- The internal team is not aligned around a common mission or long-term vision
- Marketing communications have inconsistent messaging, look and feel and tone of voice
- Target markets don’t understand what the company does or why it’s better than competitors
- The HR department has a difficult time recruiting new employees due to lack of awareness
Step 1. Discovery
The first step in the Sagefrog Brand Strategy process is to gain a complete understanding of your company’s situation, including your existing marketing communications, the current industry landscape and your top direct competitors. To do this, the discovery step includes a brand audit, a market situation analysis and a competitive assessment rolled into a single and helpful Discovery Document deliverable.
- Brand Audit: Sagefrog will conduct a comprehensive review of your existing marketing communications and customer experiences.
- Market Situation Analysis: Sagefrog will research your current industry and market situation to understand key market segments, target audiences and trends.
- Competitive Assessment: Sagefrog will assess your competitors’ activity and applicable competitive best practices.
Step 2. Stakeholder Interviews
Sagefrog conducts primary research to supplement the discovery phase in the form of interviews with your company’s key stakeholders, such as management personnel, employees and partners, as well as current and former customers. This step lets us gain a more thorough understanding of your brand, differentiators and core values, while empowering more people in your organization to have a hand in the creation of your Brand Strategy.
Step 3. Brand Strategy Workshop
Sagefrog coordinates a half-day kick-off meeting with key members of your business and the Sagefrog team, including representatives in strategy, creative development, copywriting and account management. At this important meeting, primary objectives, discovery research and findings and your desired visioning, positioning, messaging and visual identity will be reviewed and discussed. This is a pivotal point in the brand strategy process where we all come together to put our ideas on the table.
Step 4. Creative Brief
The Brand Strategy workshop results in a Creative Brief deliverable intended to verify key facts and assumptions from our meeting and align Sagefrog with your team. It’s an opportunity for your team to include other thoughts and ideas that may have been left out during our workshop and verify that we heard everything you said correctly. Upon review and approval, Sagefrog uses the Creative Brief to inform and guide our development of the formalized Brand Strategy.
Step 5. Brand Strategy
Sagefrog will create and present the Brand Strategy document to your team via an in-person meeting or video conference. Elements of this document typically include mission, vision, personality, tone of voice, tagline, anchorline, brand promise, positioning statement, differentiators, brand messaging, buyer personas and visual identity. The visual identity often features a new or enhanced logo, color palette, typography selection, imagery set and sample visual applications. After our presentation, Sagefrog will send you the document and will work with your team to make tweaks and finalize the document.
Once finalized, we hit the ground running to turn your Brand Strategy into tangible tactics by:
- Applying it to marketing materials, sales aids or a new website
- Updating your social media profiles with the visual and verbal identity
- Using it in your digital advertisements and content marketing assets
- Featuring it in any email or direct marketing and tradeshow signage
- Leveraging it to guide ongoing integrated marketing tactics
