The brand brief is a strategic element of a branding tool kit. The document conveys key information about a brand such as the brand vision, values, objectives, goals, and its USP. The brand brief plays a crucial role in creating your unique brand identity in the minds of your target customers. It acts as a strategic document that provides a clear purpose and direction for all the stakeholders in the business.
Importance Of Brand Brief
Creating a brand brief is a critical step for any business, big or small. It ensures that everybody associated with the business is on the same page about the core ideology of the brand and where it is headed. Here are some significant uses of a brand brief.
- It ensures clear communication of the brand vision, mission, goals and objectives.
- The document helps the marketing department in generating advertising and promotional materials.
- It plays a guiding role in the creation of the brand PR strategy.
- It helps the HR department in the employee onboarding process as well as in training the existing employees.
- The brand brief outlines the brand personality and helps to create trust in the investors.
- It plays a crucial role in the strategic decision-making process by providing direction and purpose.
Components Of A Brand Brief
A brand brief defines the brand personality by outlining the core ideas of the business. Here are some of the key components of a brand brief.
- Vision – The long term and short-term goals of the business. What you want to achieve in the future.
- Mission – The mission outlines your plan to achieve the vision. It defines how you plan to achieve the vision and the larger impact you wish to have on the world.
- Core Values – Core values are the central ideology of your business. They are the main reason why you established the business. These are the values that your brand promises to stand by under all circumstances. For example, the core values can be reliability, quality, innovation, affordability, etc.
- Brand Promise – This statement highlights how your brand proposes to solve the customers’ problems.
- Competitive Advantage – It highlights the unique selling proposition of your band. What makes you different from others and how the customers will benefit by choosing you over others.
- Target Audience – This is the market you wish to target with your products or services.
- Key Competitors – Who are your competitors?
- Brand Voice – If your brand were a person, how would it speak. Every brand has a specific style of communication. It includes the colours, language, tone, images, and other components of your branding. Your brand voice should appeal to the target audience.
- Brand Culture – The brand culture depicts the internal environment of the business. It includes the code of conduct, work ethics, and other stakeholder policies of the business.
Who Should Write The Brand Brief?
The brand brief is a crucial document and hence requires collective effort. The brand manager, founders and the heads of various departments must actively contribute in the process of the making the brand brief.
Once the brief is written, it is essential to take feedback from the employees, customers and other stakeholders to get different opinions. If you have a branding agency, they should also be taken into confidence while preparing the brand brief.
The brand brief should provide the right amount of information to the readers. Hence the person responsible for writing the brief should have strong analytical skills, communication skills, in-depth understanding of the brand personality and sharp focus on results.
How To Write An Effective Brand Brief?
The brand brief provides vital information about the brand to the readers, hence it requires attention to detail. Giving too much or too little information may prove to be counterproductive. Here are some tips to write an engaging brand brief that showcases your brand story.
Describe The Brand Idea
The first step in writing the brand brief is to define the exact reason you started the business. What is the product or service, the reason you created it, what problems does it solve and how it is different from the other brands in the market. Once you have answers to these questions, you can start writing the brand brief.
Define Your Target Customers
Defining your target customers helps in creating the buyer persona and targeting your products to the specific customers. Define the age group, gender, income category, educational qualifications, location, and other demographics of your potential customers.
For example, if you are a business selling school stationary than your customers will be school students, schools, teachers, and parents of school children.
Outline Your Brand Promise
Once you have defined your potential customers, the next step is to spell out your brand promise. The brand promises tells the customers what they should expect from your product/service.
List out all the reasons why customers should choose your brand and why they should count on your products or services to solve their everyday challenges. Shortlist the reasons that you are sure about and create a brand promise that is unique, credible, and memorable.
State Your Mission and Vision
Vision and Mission are two important statements that showcase what your brand is, what it wants to be in the future, the roadmap you choose to achieve the future goals and the impact on the world you hope to have with the brand offerings.
Describe Your Unique Value Proposition
Brainstorm with the team to define the brand USP. what is the one factor that sets your brand apart from the competitors. Do not list the features and benefits of the brand but state the most significant difference between you and your competitors.
Identify Your Competitors
It is necessary to identify your competitors and keep a tab on what they are doing to stay competitive. Write a short overview of your top 3 competitors, who can take away your customers and affect your business.
Showcase Your Brand Values
Brand values are the core ideals that your brand stands for. The brand values should be in line with the vision and mission statements and connect with the audience to inspire loyalty. Brand values play a crucial role in creating your brand image in potential customers.
What Is Your Brand Culture
The brand culture defines the internal working environment of your business. Create a brand culture that values employee contributions and promotes growth. Your brand culture helps to attract motivated employees and loyal customers.
Determine The Brand Voice
The brand voice should be consistent across all the marketing channels. It is the tone and language used by the brand when communicating with the target audience. Choose a brand voice depending on your buyer persona and the image you wish to create for the brand.
Creating a brand brief is a time consuming and challenging process. Follow the above steps to create an effective brand brief that portrays your brand story in a unique and engaging manner.
Reader’s Insight
Let us know if we missed out on anything in this article how to write a Brand Brief with its important components and share your thoughts in the comment section.