What is your message and who is listening to you? Successful brand development strategies involve some serious knowledge. Industry insight, consumer profiling, and a unified brand message are the foundation of genius marketing. In the same way that product development requires R&D, so does a marketing strategy. You are essentially conceptualizing a new way of promoting your brand and this involves some market research! 
This seems like a lot of work, right? It doesn't have to be. The Research and Development stage of strategy building includes an internal reflection to analyze and understand the basic mechanics of your message, and an external analysis to define your target audience. Consider these internal questions before moving forward:
What is our value proposition?
Your value proposition is an innovation, service or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers. Outline the big picture for your prospects. Why should they choose you and what benefits can they expect if they do?
What is our positioning?
Your position statement is targeted to a highly specific segment or consumer persona. This statement should indicate why your product is best suited for the customer. Customized marketing highlights the benefits most relevant to your audience.
What is our messaging?
This message should speak specifically to your prospects. What are you saying and how are you saying it? Messages serve as the link between positioning and content creation.
So now that you know what it is that you're saying, do you know who you're saying it to? Market research can only help you if you know the right questions to ask when defining your target audience. Fine tune your messaging with these questions:
What is that you want from our target audience?
What is the end goal that you want to achieve after successfully marketing to your audience? Are they buying something, sharing an idea, becoming an ambassador?
What demographic groups are most likely to take this action?
Consider socio-demographics:
Age, sex, location, family status, income level, education level, and occupation.
How do these groups think?
Consider psycho-demographics:
Personality types, attitudes, values, interests/hobbies, lifestyles, and behaviors.
What needs, challenges and frustrations do they have - and how does our idea, service, or product help them?
Understanding your audience's needs helps to subtly shift the conversation from how they can help you ("buy our product") to how you can help them!
How can we best reach our target audience - and what media do they currently use?
Consider the print media they read, the websites they visit and social media sites they frequent. Which angle and on which platform will yield the most interactions?
These results will act as the foundation for a digital marketing strategy. Defining the market is one of the toughest parts. Now that you know what messages you want to get across and to whom you are targeting, you should find it much easier to figure out which digital strategies will best bridge the gap between your brand and consumer visibility. The next step is to analyze the social media platforms that best align with your audience and implement SEO best practices that will get you ranking when your audience starts to search for you!
Are you ready to begin talking strategy, Marketeer?
Check out the next blog in our Marketing for Growth series,
Part II: Strategy & Techniques
