Selecting a great brand name can be a challenging exercise. Your brand name plays a critical role in your brand strategy; it’s what triggers the thoughts and emotions of your buyer. Learn about the different categories of names, the pros and cons of each, how to brainstorm for your brand name, and how to perform a conflict check before settling on your final name.
Great brands make an emotional connection with their buyers and inspire them to take action. This is the foundation of your brand strategy. Here you’ll be introduced to the new field of behavioral economics to learn about the irrationalities of human behavior and how you can leverage these new learnings, along with proven research, to define your brand’s beliefs and inspire the people with the same beliefs – within your company and in the marketplace.
Without differentiation, you’re selling a commodity and have to compete on price – or your brand will stagnate or die. Here you’ll learn the nuances of brand differentiation to understand how to uncover the strengths of your brand as part of your brand strategy. After analyzing your strengths, you’ll learn how to communicate them using specific criteria which can turn them into competitive advantages in the mind of your buyer.
Positioning, or owning a space in the mind of your buyer, is more important today than it was decades ago. Learn the concepts of positioning and how the mind deals with brands, along with different positioning approaches for specific stages of your market’s lifecycle to decide what you want your brand to be known for.
Effective brand strategies are clearly understood and adhered to by everyone involved with acquiring and maintaining customers. Determine the key elements of your brand to create a unified brand experience that can be repeated to inspire, differentiate and position you in the mind of your buyers.
If you know what your brand should stand for, how well do your existing messaging, campaigns and creative represent it? What does your market think your brand stands for? Here you will determine all of your brand touch points, collect market feedback, determine your brand’s gap analysis and create your brand update schedule.
A great strategy is useless without a plan for execution. Establish your vision, big idea and tactics and create your 12-month sequence of actions to implement your brand strategy with your daily marketing activities. This is separate from a traditional marketing plan.