Brand Strategy Quotes & Sayings

Your brand exists to differentiate. "Same crap, different day" won't do it. A day that goes by without breaking some sacred branding rule is a day a brand has lost to rise above the status quo. By breaking those rules with insight, intelligent and innovation, your brand can get heard in a world that's simply too busy to listen. — David Brier

It may be necessary to change our brand, catch phrases, strategy, design, etc. once in awhile. It may give us competitive advantages. But a change that demands the change of the SOUL of who we're doesn't deserve to be entertained. — Assegid Habtewold

Strategy doesn't change when hard times arrive. Consumers' willingness to try, and to stay loyal, remains, the goal. Winners know this; their brand focus and strategy remains consistent. — Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison

Marketing leaders instead must ask, "What values and goals guide our brand strategy, what capabilities drive marketing excellence, and what structures and ways of working will support them?" Structure must follow strategy - not the other way around. — Marc De Swaan Arons

A brand strategy can enable, sometimes crucially, the potential of an innovation to be realised. There are times when you literally need to brand it or lose it. — David A. Aaker

Every great brand goes back to a courageous individual who dared to say 'NO' to the status quo. — David Brier

Launching a brand is not for those with thin skin. It takes courage, intelligence and foresight. — David Brier

History is filled with inferior brands outselling superior ones thanks to better branding. Only superior branding has the power to overcome and reverse this (and superior products and services deserve superior branding). — David Brier

Consumers today have become a cynical mob of buyers who believe the reviews and ratings of complete strangers much more readily than your brand's promises and distinctions. — David Brier

Cookie cutters are for baking, not branding. — David Brier

Branding is the art of differentiation — David Brier

The contents of a Brand Toolbox depend on the specific needs of the company but usually a Brand Toolbox contains An explanation of your brand strategy along with background and rationale so that everyone can understand why you're doing what you're doing, and definitions of key terms so everyone grasps the meaning behind the words Principles and guidelines for delivering brand values and attributes at key touchpoints between your brand and the outside world Sample applications for how the brand should be expressed and delivered Guides that walk people through important decisions, along with outlines that map processes so that people learn how to do things on brand like select a co-marketing partner and screen a new product — Denise Lee Yohn

We've all seen it. A #startup begins with a #dream, a #passion to do something others have missed or overlooked. — David Brier

Look at every 'revolutionary' brand or category killer, it had an app, or a feature, or a functionality, or a user experience nobody else at that point could offer. I refer to this as 'the Killer App' principle. — David Brier

We're doing some very exciting, bold things, pioneering content on mobile and for broadband, ... My vision is to say, as we take the strategy forward, we are doing it to deliver public remit. We're thinking less and less about C4 and more about the brand family. — Tim Duncan

And while a brand is so much more than a company's logo, the logo is one of the key ambassadors to any brand. — David Brier

Customers have a first moment when they discover your brand. If you were to look at it today with a fresh pair of eyes, in fact only through a pair of fresh customer eyes and witness your brand for the very first time, what would you see? What impression would make? Or fail to make? Would your brand blend in? Would it stand out? Would it be memorable, or the leading cause of amnesia amongst shoppers everywhere? Facing the truth of this and fixing it as needed will determine whether your brand thrives or merely stumbles along. — David Brier

In this case, it's half strategy, half engineering. The combination is going to be different in every situation, but the point is that it's always outside-the-box, even outside-the-budget. Today, as a marketer, our task isn't necessarily to "build a brand" or even to maintain a preexisting one. We're better off building an army of immensely loyal and passionate users. Which is easier to track, define, and grow? Which of these is real, and which is simply an idea? And when you get that right - a brand will come naturally. — Ryan Holiday

Part of having a social media strategy is being smart about whom you follow. Ask yourself who is important to your company or brand. Figure out who needs to know you exist. — Michelle Phan

One can always sell something by offering the lowest price. But this does not create loyalty to your brand. Never did and never will. It only creates "loyalty" to that price point. As soon as your guest or visitor is offered a better price, he or she will jump ship, leaving you like a scorned lover in the middle of the night. — David Brier

I think Facebook is an extraordinarily important part of the Internet ecosystem, and having a robust presence there is a critical part of any brand (or company's) strategy. — John Battelle

Why do some brands grow explosively when others (that could be thriving) die a lonely and forgettable death? — David Brier

Buyer Legends is a business process that uses storytelling techniques to map the critical paths a prospective buyer might follow on his journey to becoming a buyer.

This process aligns strategy to brand story to the buyer's actual experience on their customer journey.

These easy-to-tell stories reveal the opportunities and gaps in the customer's experience versus the current marketing & sales process.

These legends communicate the brand's story intent and critical touch point responsibilities within every level of an organization, from the boardroom to the stockroom.

Buyer Legends reconcile the creative process to data analysis; aligning metrics with previously hard-to-measure marketing, sales, and customer service processes. The first result is improved execution, communications, and testing. The second result is a big boost to the bottom line. — Bryan Eisenberg

As an entrepreneur, one of the biggest challenges you will face will be building your brand. The ultimate goal is to set your company and your brand apart from the crowd. If you form a strategy without doing the research, your brand will barely float - and at the speed industries move at today, brands sink fast. — Ryan Holmes

Who are we, and how do we relate this idea in a way that's meaningful to our customers and the values they hold dear?

In other words, one must define something meaningful. To do that, one must identify to whom this must be meaningful. — David Brier

When strategy, culture, and brand harmonize, they amplify one another and resonate loud and clear. — Kate O'Neill

Your style guide is your most loyal brand protector. — Dane Brookes

Eighty percent of all cultures are the same, it is the 20% that make a culture unique and slam dunks the brand promise to the customer. — Curt Coffman

Brands are either built on reruns or coming attractions. The future has no road map while the past does. Creating a brand that blazes new trails can sometimes be bumpy but will also allow you to be the first to discover something new, something meaningful and something that makes others ask, "Why didn't we think of that?" Be very scared of "old tricks" and build a spirit of innovation. It's the "old tricks" that have the highest risk, not doing something bold. — David Brier

A great sports car that goes from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds is just a fact. To the wrong audience, it's irrelevant. But to the right audience, it's a passion. — David Brier

Increasingly, corporations will look to advertising agencies for direction. Without an understanding of brand creation, messaging, and strategy, today's designers are destined to become the haidressers of tomorrow's creative environments-great for styling but light on strategy. — Hartmut Esslinger

There are three points I used to help a gourmet chocolatier increase sales 300% in a single month as well as a Midwest city to increase tourism guests 500% in 12 months. — David Brier

The biggest mistake brands make are trying to "sell their stuff" rather than clarifying what people are actually buying. — David Brier

We as artists are actively encouraged - by other authors, your agent, publisher, and society - not to think about money, strategy, how to manage your career, how to create a brand, because we're supposed to focus on the art. — Cassandra Clare

Evidently, one thing seems to have more value in direct proportion to whether or not we feel we have the freedoms, joys or conveniences of that thing. — David Brier

When it comes to branding and the ever-changing social media phenomenon, you're not a mushroom. In other words, you shouldn't be kept in the dark and fed a pile of...well, you get the idea. — David Brier

The opposite of value is a commodity item with little or no perceived value - which means people are not seeking it out and when they do, it's merely one of the many choices (so very likely the cheapest offering will get the sale). — David Brier

A global brand building strategy is, in reality, a local plan for every market. — Martin Lindstrom

Having a me-too brand is a death sentence. — David Brier

Why is it there's no aisle in a grocery or department in a store or menu on a website for "average stuff" or "beige products"? FACT: People never got passionate about mediocre and average. While consumers and clients can find "best deals" and "natural foods" and "artisan goods," one doesn't find an aisle or a website menu tab offering "average stuff" without excelling in something (which might explain that while vanilla is necessary for the ice cream sundae, it's the hot fudge we all crave and talk about). — David Brier

So it comes down to scarcity, one product or service having qualities you won't find everywhere or ideally, anywhere. It's the job of every brand to seek that out as their standard, their stamp. — David Brier

Brand growth and dominance is created by having the highest brand value, not the lowest price tag. — David Brier

It becomes a question of 'How do we convey our differentiation instantaneously?' and drive a wedge between any apparent (or assumed) sameness in the marketplace. — David Brier

Life is made up of dots — David Brier

Many thrifts layered a billion dollars of brand-new loans on top of their existing, disastrous hundred million dollars of old loss-making loans, in a hope that the new would offset the old. Each new purchase of mortgage bonds (which was identical to making a loan) was like the last act of a desperate man. The strategy was wildly irresponsible, for the fundamental problem (borrowing short term and lending long term) hadn't been remedied. The hypergrowth only meant that the next thrift crisis would be larger. But the thrift managers were not thinking that far in advance. They were simply trying to keep the door to the shop open. That explains why thrifts continued to buy mortgage bonds even as they sold their loans. — Michael Lewis