Brand strategy or brand identity: which does your business need first?

“We need a new logo” is one of the most common briefs an agency hears. Sometimes it’s right. Often the real problem sits a step earlier: the business hasn’t decided what the brand should say, so no logo can say it.

That step is brand strategy. The logo, colours and look are brand identity. Here’s the difference, and how to tell which one you need.

What brand strategy is

Brand strategy is the thinking behind the brand. It answers:

• Who is the brand for? The audience you most need to win.
• What do you promise them? The one thing you want to be known for.
• Why you, not a competitor? Your position in the market.
• How do you sound? Your messages and tone of voice.
• What should marketing achieve? Goals, and the KPIs to measure them.

It’s usually a short document, not a long one. If the team can’t repeat it, it’s too long.

What brand identity is

Brand identity is how the strategy shows up when people meet you: the name, logo, colours, type, imagery, tone of voice and the guidelines that keep them consistent. It’s what people see and hear.

Why strategy comes first

An identity built without strategy is a guess. It might look good, but there’s nothing to check it against, so every opinion in the room counts the same. With strategy in place, design decisions get easier: does this colour, this word, this image fit who we said we are?

Which one do you need now?

Start with strategy if:

• your marketing isn’t delivering and nobody can say why;
• different teams describe the business in different ways;
• you’re entering a new market or launching something new.

You may only need identity if:

• the strategy is clear and agreed, but the look is dated or inconsistent;
• you’re launching a new product inside a brand that already works.

Two projects, one of each

Strategy: World Skills Asia. Its marketing wasn’t delivering. We worked as its strategy unit:

• defined the brand’s position and what it stands for;
• set marketing goals and the KPIs to measure them;
• researched its audience and benchmarked it against its peers;
• built a one-year plan with a budget split, and mapped the five years after.

Read the World Skills Asia case study.

Identity: Dar Global’s I Love Florence. The tower was designed with Roberto Cavalli, so the brand had to meet Cavalli’s standard and win Cavalli’s approval. We built the I Love Florence brand, took it through that approval and then to buyers around the world. The tower was 50% sold by launch day.

How we work at Talk The Walk

Strategy and identity sit with the same team, so what we decide in the strategy shows up in every design. We plan it, shape it, make it and take it to market, in Arabic and English.