New Year’s Resolutions: Revisiting Brand Strategy

Every New Year, many of us make resolutions. We stretch to see a better version of ourselves and try and coax it into being. 

I believe brands are similar. 

Brands can sometimes get distracted from their true purpose. Often, it’s because the people who manage them are time poor, and other times the market has changed, leaving businesses feeling like they’ve lost their way. 

So, it’s good to stop, take stock and ask the question, “is our brand the best version of itself?” 

Back to Brand Strategy Basics

To answer that question, businesses need to ask themselves: What is our purpose? What is our vision? What is our mission? 

Brand Purpose

Aside from making a profit, brands need to define their purpose. 

Our motto at Cannings Purple is ‘We start and shape conversations that matter”. For me, that means getting people together to talk about the important things that can make a difference. Whether these conversations are between colleagues or clients, it’s the ‘why’ behind everything we do. 

It’s crucial for businesses to evaluate whether their internal and external communications have drifted away from their purpose and need to be realigned. 

Brand Vision and Brand Mission

I’m going to use Lego as an analogy. 

A brand vision is the picture on the Lego box – it’s what the final product will look like. The brand mission is the section currently being worked on, and how it fits into the existing build. 

The vision should be scary, but achievable. The mission should be motivating. 

Without a mission, a vision is a dream. Without a vision, a mission is listless. 

A business’s vision probably won’t change much, but the mission might. Has it changed post-COVID? 

Brand strategy is a complex thing.  But, by  revisiting and clarifying your brand purpose, mission and vision, you will galvanise and align the efforts of your team, as well as providing the yardstick for measuring how effective your website, social media content and the rest of your collateral are. 

When you are communicating a single, unified message, you are more likely to cut through the background noise to position your brand effectively in your audience’s mind. 

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Adam lives and breathes design. An Art Director with a diverse skill set covering print and digital design, Adam developed his knowledge and design touch in a variety of industries including real estate, government, mining, not-for-profit, technology and information technology.

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