If you want to build a great brand.
A brand that goes from strength-to-strength.
Year-on-year.
Remember these thirds.
The First Third. DIAGNOSIS.
The Second Third. STRATEGY.
The Third Third. TACTICS.
Not Just a List.
It’s not just a 1-2-3 list, though.
These are equal thirds.
All equally important.
And the reason I am explaining them as equal thirds.
Is to highlight that it is The First Third that most often gets diluted.
And when that happens.
Businesses are setting themselves up to fail from day one.
A Closer Look.
Here’s a closer look at the thirds.
The First Third. DIAGNOSIS.
Diagnosis is really, really understanding what’s going on right now.
With you.
Your customers.
And your competitors.
And it is the foundation of everything.
Second Third. STRATEGY.
Strategy is how you are going to achieve the Brand Position that you want.
Based on everything you learned in The First Third.
It includes clarifying what Brand Position you want to be known for.
Checking, of course, that the Brand Position you want to be known for is in fact derived from The First Third.
Rather than some rabbit-out-of-the-hat thing that you happen to like the look of.
Something that you just happen to think we all should all be interested in right now.
Because you see The First Third as ‘a box ticked’ rather than ‘real lessons learned’.
Third Third. TACTICS.
Tactics are the practical, timely things you will do inside the strategy you’ve designed.
The strategy you’ve designed to achieve the Brand Position that you want.
Based on what you learned in The First Third.
It is how you will get into the consumers consciousness.
A Further Note on Brand Position.
Your Brand Position.
By the way.
Communicates what your core purpose is.
Why you exist.
Your Brand Position incorporates your Value Proposition.
(How exactly you are valuable to and valued by your customers)
Brand Position considers Brand Attributions and Associations.
(The benefits or characteristics of your brand that come into a consumer’s consciousness when your brand is mentioned or discussed).
And Brand Image, or Branding.
(What you look like/sound like).
And all of these can only exist contextually.
And a consequence of.
What you found out inside The First Third.
The First Third.
So there you go.
It all comes back to The First Third.
Because if what you’re doing in The Second Third and The Third Third are not derived from what you unearthed at The First Third:
- Your customers genuinely valuing your purpose.
- Your competitor’s inability or unwillingness to deliver on that same purpose.
- The fact that you (and only you) can deliver on the purpose promises you’re making – really well.
You’re knackered.
