Are you caught in price competition because your company’s strengths are not being communicated effectively? For those worried about inconsistent messages across advertising and social media, this article explains everything from the definition of brand strategy to specific methods for creating one. By reading to the end, you will find hints for building a consistent communication axis that generates deep empathy from customers.

Definition of Brand Strategy and the Difference from Branding

You may often hear the term “brand strategy,” but do you know its true meaning? Here, we clarify and explain the differences from “branding,” which is often confused with it. Understanding this difference is the first step toward unwavering information dissemination.

Item	Specific Role	Goal
Brand Strategy	A blueprint for deciding to whom and what value to provide	Clearly defining the “reason to be chosen” for the company or product
Branding	Activities to communicate appeal at specific touchpoints based on the strategy	Establishing a positive image in the minds of consumers

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Brand Strategy is the Design for Deciding “By Whom and for What Value You Are Chosen”

Brand strategy is a blueprint that determines what position your company’s products or services take in the market, and to whom and what value they provide. It plays a role like a compass indicating the direction the company should take. If you start disseminating information without a strategy, your target becomes ambiguous and messages become harder to deliver. The process of re-examining your company’s unique strengths and clearly verbalizing the reason why your company is chosen over competitors is crucial.

Branding is the Activity of Executing That Strategy at Consumer Touchpoints

On the other hand, branding refers to the entire process of taking specific actions based on the blueprint defined in the brand strategy. This includes logo design, advertising creatives, and communication on social media. In other words, effective branding activities are only possible when there is a foundation of strategy. Even if you refresh the design prematurely, it will be difficult to nurture a brand that resonates with customers if the underlying strategy is not solidified.

The Foundation for PR, Advertising, Social Media, and Sales Activities

A clear brand strategy serves as a firm foundation for all corporate activities. Whether public relations officers are approaching the media or marketing departments are running advertisements, they must be based on the same strategy. If the underlying strategy is shared within the company, it becomes easier to prevent messages from fluctuating between different personnel. Customers will be able to perceive the same value regardless of which channel they use to interact with the company, and as a result, trust in the company will increase significantly.

 

Why Companies Need a Brand Strategy

In recent years, many B2B and B2C companies have been seeking to review their brand strategies. There is a clear background of changes in the market environment and the difficulty of information transmission. We will explain why strategic brand building is required now.

Background of the Issue	Risk	Benefit
Product Commoditization	Competition shifts to functions and price, leading to lower profit margins	Being chosen for unique value and escaping price competition
Media Diversification	Communication content becomes contradictory across channels	A consistent message is communicated at all customer touchpoints
Increase in Stakeholders	Appeal is not effectively communicated in recruitment or sales activities	Everyone inside and outside the company shares the same understanding, improving corporate value

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It is Becoming Harder to Be Chosen Based on Price or Function Alone

In today’s market, functional differences between products and services are said to be narrowing due to technological progress. Therefore, even if you promote good functionality or low prices, they will be immediately imitated by competitors. Falling into price competition squeezes profits and makes long-term corporate growth difficult. To escape this difficult situation, it is important to define unique brand value that only your company can provide and create a reason for customers to specifically choose you.

If Communications are Inconsistent, the Company’s Appeal is Hard to Convey

The places where companies can disseminate information, such as social media and owned media, have increased significantly compared to the past. However, if personnel for each platform continue to communicate based on their own interpretations, the brand image will become fragmented. For example, if an advertisement claims a sense of luxury while social media emphasizes low prices, customers will become confused. Having a brand strategy that ties everything together makes it easier to build a consistent and attractive worldview.

Consistent Messaging is Also Necessary for Recruitment, Sales, and Public Relations

Brand strategy affects not only marketing activities for customers but also relationship building with all of a company’s stakeholders. Consistency is required not only in media relations by public relations but also in sales and recruitment activities. If the company’s goals and provided value are clear, sales representatives can propose products with confidence. Furthermore, the company’s appeal will be correctly communicated to job candidates, and the effect of making it easier to attract excellent talent who empathize with the culture can be expected.

 

How to Create a Brand Strategy from a PR Perspective

When building a brand strategy, it is effective to incorporate a PR perspective that emphasizes the relationship with society, rather than just speaking from a corporate viewpoint. Here, we explain the specific formulation steps in order to generate empathy from consumers.

Step	Actions to Take	PR Perspective to Keep in Mind
1. Organizing Elements	Identify the company’s history, technology, strengths, and purpose	Search for value that is useful to society, not just self-serving
2. Discovering Context	Combine with target concerns and social interests	Find points where the company and consumers can mutually empathize
3. Verbalization	Turn the discovered context into words that are easy to communicate in media and social media	Refine expressions that make third parties want to tell someone else
4. Theme Setting	Design an axis for continuous information dissemination that does not end as a one-off	Select themes that can be discussed long-term in line with social trends

Organize Your Company’s Strengths, History, and Social Value

The first step is to thoroughly unearth the value dormant within your company. Carefully identify the background of the founding, the secret stories behind development, and unique technologies that other companies cannot imitate. At this time, care is needed so that it does not become a mere list of functions. It is important to go as far as organizing the social value—how society and people’s lives will be enriched by the existence of that technology or product.

Find the Context That Consumers and Customers Empathize With

Once your company’s strengths are organized, the next step is to link that value with social context. No matter how wonderful a technology is, if it is not linked to people’s interests or concerns, it will not reach anyone’s heart. Deeply observe what targets worry about daily and what issues society as a whole is interested in. Finding the sweet spot where the company’s strengths and consumer interests overlap is the key from a PR perspective.

Convert into Words That Can Be Communicated via Media and Social Media

The discovered context must be converted into attractive words that everyone can understand. Rather than corporate logic full of technical terms, refine it into expressions that media reporters and social media users can understand intuitively. When creating words, check if they have objectivity even from a third-party perspective and if they form a story that people will want to share. The quality of this verbalization has a major impact on the success or failure of subsequent public relations activities and advertising developments.

Translate into Themes That Can Be Communicated Continuously

A brand strategy is not finished once it is created. It is important to translate the formulated message into daily communication activities and create a system to continue communicating it for a long time. Rather than ending it as a temporary campaign, set a robust theme that can be talked about for six months or a year. This completes a solid brand foundation that will not waver even if social trends change.

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Common Failures and Cautions in Formulating Brand Strategy

Even if you understand the importance of brand strategy and work on it, you will not achieve the expected results if you take the wrong approach. Here, we explain in detail typical failure examples that many companies fall into and their countermeasures.

Common Failures	Cause of Failure	Specific Countermeasures to Solve
Lack of Consumer Perspective	Building a strategy based only on the hopes or assumptions of management	Incorporate objective market research and PR perspectives to reflect customer voices
Changes in Appearance Only	Being satisfied with just changing the logo or website design	Instill the underlying message of why the design is being changed within the company
Message Fragmentation on the Frontline	Personnel in each department disseminate information based on their own interpretations	Create company-wide guidelines and establish regular opportunities for sharing

Creating Only from a Management Perspective, Missing the Consumer Perspective

A very common case is when the strategy is solidified based only on the thoughts of management or project employees. A strategy packed only with what the company wants to say runs the risk of deviating from market needs. To prevent this, it is important to always maintain a consumer and social perspective. It is necessary to listen to the voices of customers and build a strategy based on objective facts about how the company is perceived in society.

Ending with Only a Refresh of Appearance, Without Changing Communication Content

During rebranding, projects often end just by refreshing the logo or corporate site design. Even if the appearance becomes beautiful, the value of the brand will not increase if the content of the information disseminated does not change. Refreshing the design is merely one of the means. What is important is to continue refining the internal message of what kind of experience or value you promise to customers through the new design.

Messages in PR, Advertising, Social Media, and Sales Materials are Not Unified

Even if a magnificent brand strategy document is completed, it is meaningless if it is not correctly understood by the personnel on the frontline. Situations where each department—such as advertising, social media, public relations, and sales—acts separately should be avoided. After formulating the strategy, careful internal communication is necessary so that all employees can face the same direction. It is recommended to prepare specific guidelines so that anyone can disseminate the same message without hesitation.

It is difficult to judge whether your company’s current situation is healthy. If several of the following items apply, it can be said that the timing has come to review your current communication system and redefine your brand strategy.

• You find it difficult to explain your company’s strengths in a single sentence.
• What is being said in advertisements, social media, and sales materials is inconsistent.
• You are unable to communicate differences from competitors in areas other than price or function.
• You want to implement rebranding, but the axis of communication has not yet been decided.
• Even if PR measures are implemented, they end as one-off exposures and do not accumulate.

 

SUNNY SIDE UP’s “Strategic Planning” does more than just provide ideas; it builds a path to achieving goals. A major strength is the ability to fully utilize knowledge unique to a PR company, especially in the branding field. We propose a unique approach that amplifies the “invisible value” consumers hold for a brand and ripples it throughout the entire market. We are ready to support the cultivation of your brand value in an integrated manner, from market research to integrated marketing design. Please take a look at our service introduction page.

Strategic Planning « Service

 

Cases Where You Should Consult a Professional About Brand Strategy

It is possible to proceed with building a brand strategy within the company, but it becomes stronger with the inclusion of a third-party perspective. Here are specific cases where you should consult a specialized partner when you feel a deadlock with your company’s own efforts.

Company Concerns	Benefits of Consulting a Professional	Expected Results
Unable to verbalize strengths	Unearths unique value dormant within the company from an objective perspective	A persuasive message that can clearly differentiate from competitors is completed
Measures are not linked	Redraws the overall picture across PR, advertising, and social media	Each channel creates a synergistic effect, and brand awareness improves dramatically
New communication axis is not fixed	Proposes the optimal context based on social trends	Rebranding and new businesses are smoothly accepted by the world

Don’t Know How to Verbalize Your Company’s Strengths

When you have been in the same business for a long time, your company’s appeal can become something taken for granted, and it can become difficult to see what your special strengths are. Even if meetings are repeated only with internal staff, innovative angles are unlikely to be born. PR professionals are experts at aligning social context with corporate value. By bringing in an external objective perspective, you will be able to discover new charms of your company that you hadn’t noticed before, as well as words that resonate with customers.

Want to Link PR, Social Media, and Advertising to Increase Brand Value

If each department executes measures individually, both budget and effort will be fragmented. However, it is extremely difficult to change the internal vertical organizational structure on your own and integrate all communications. By involving a professional skilled in integrated communication strategy, you can link PR, social media, advertising, events, and more along a single axis. It is possible to increase the ripple effect of communication and efficiently improve brand value.

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Want to Create a Communication Axis for Rebranding or New Business

When refreshing a brand that has been loved for many years or launching a completely new business, the initial message design determines subsequent success or failure. If a wrong direction is shown here, there is a risk that existing customers will leave. By consulting a professional, you can accurately analyze market conditions and competitor trends and create an appropriate communication axis that is welcomed by society. Having a firm strategic foundation during a period of major change accompanied by anxiety will be a great source of reassurance.

 

Brand Strategy Support Available at SUNNY SIDE UP

SUNNY SIDE UP excels in PR communication that links corporate appeal with social interest. We introduce our practical brand strategy support that generates social empathy, rather than just creating a good-looking strategy.

Support Areas	Value Provided by SUNNY SIDE UP	Corporate Issues That Can Be Solved
Story Design	Build a unique story combining social context and corporate strengths	Wanting to escape competition based only on function or price and gain fans
Communication Planning	Formulate specific plans integrating media exposure, social media operations, events, etc.	Wanting to provide continuous brand experiences rather than one-off buzz-making
Value Visualization	Objectively verbalize the company’s true value through interviews with management and the frontline	The company’s “reason to be chosen” is not clear, and the internal team is lost

Brand Story Design That Captures Social Context

Even if you unilaterally push only the information the company wants to convey, consumers’ hearts will not be moved. SUNNY SIDE UP always keeps a close eye on the social context—what people are interested in now and what kind of issues they face. By carefully unraveling the facts dormant within a company and combining them with social interests, we design a brand story that many people can empathize with and want to support. This becomes the foundation for topics to spread naturally in the media and on social media.

Communication Planning Across PR, Events, and Social Media

Even with an excellent brand strategy, it is meaningless without a plan to put it into execution. SUNNY SIDE UP provides one-stop support, not just for formulating strategy but also for integrated communication planning to deliver information to the target most effectively. We optimally combine everything from the distribution of press releases to the planning of events that provide real brand experiences and continuous communication on social media. By linking each measure, we strongly impress the brand’s message.

Visualization of the “Reason to be Chosen” for Companies, Products, and Services

SUNNY SIDE UP conducts thorough interviews and situational analysis in the initial stages of a project. We collect not only the vision of management but also the voices of those working on the frontline and real market reactions to find value that even the company itself has not noticed. We visualize the discovered value in easy-to-understand and powerful words. The clarified “reason to be chosen” not only becomes a powerful appeal to the outside world but also turns into a major driving force for internal employees to move toward the same goal.

 

Summary: Let’s Increase Corporate Value with Brand Strategy

Let’s review the important points of this article. Brand strategy serves as an important foundation for clarifying the reason why a company or product is chosen. By incorporating a PR perspective, it becomes possible to create a communication axis that is deeply empathized with by society and customers. Furthermore, if the messages disseminated can be unified, it will lead to escaping intense competition over functions and prices. If you reach a deadlock in verbalizing your company’s strengths, consulting a professional is also an effective option. Through these efforts, let’s build an unwavering communication axis and realize long-term corporate growth and value improvement.

To build an effective brand strategy and grow your business, an objective and professional perspective is necessary. At SUNNY SIDE UP, we comprehensively support everything from strategy formulation utilizing PR strengths to execution. Consultations at the initial stage, such as “I want to review my current strategy” or “I am worried about specific measures,” are also very welcome. We will propose the optimal solution tailored to your company’s issues, so we look forward to hearing from you via the inquiry page first.

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