Brand & Content · Brand Strategy & Identity

Brand Strategy, Positioning and Visual Identity

A brand answers the question of why people choose you, even when cheaper options exist. We find that answer in audience research, define the insight and value proposition and turn them into a brand platform, tone of voice and visual identity. Then we spell out how the brand sounds in every digital channel.

The problem

Your brand looks like your competitors’, so customers pick whoever is cheaper.

What you get

  • An insight and value proposition grounded in research
  • A brand platform the whole team understands
  • Positioning that sets you apart from competitors
  • A tone of voice with rules and examples
  • A visual identity and brand guidelines
  • A communications strategy with channels and a customer decision journey

Who it’s for

When You Need This Service

Customers choose on price

When your brand doesn’t stand out, all that’s left is competing on discounts. Strong positioning gives people a reason to pay more.

Your company has outgrown its brand

Products, markets and audiences have changed, but the brand is still the one from launch. We rebrand based on research, not taste.

You’re launching a new product

The cheapest time to build a brand is before the first ad campaign. The name, positioning and identity work together from day one.

Scope

What’s Included

Take the full scope or only the parts you need. We agree on what you’ll get before we start.

Discovery and audit

An in-depth look at the business problem, your current brand, competitors and category.

JTBD research

In-depth interviews, the four forces of choice and motivation-based segments of your audience.

Insight and brand platform

The insight, value proposition, mission, values, personality and positioning.

Tone of voice

How the brand talks, a tone matrix for different situations and sample copy.

Visual identity

Logo, colors, typography, graphic language and guidelines with usage rules.

Communications strategy

The customer decision journey, the role of each channel and the balance between brand and performance.

In detail

How We Do It

What happens at each stage of the work and why.

Research Instead of Guesswork

A brand strategy written in a conference room rarely works in the market. We run JTBD interviews with customers to find out what job they hire your product to do, what pushes them to switch and what keeps them on their old solution.

  • Recruiting respondents and running in-depth interviews
  • The four forces of push, pull, habit and anxiety
  • Motivation-based audience segments
  • Validating hypotheses with a quantitative survey

Insight and Value Proposition

An insight is a non-obvious truth about your audience that a brand can be built on. The value proposition grows out of it and explains why you specifically. We draft several options, test them and choose the strongest.

  • A description of the audience and its real motivation
  • An insight that resonates with the audience
  • The value proposition and positioning
  • Brand architecture if you have several products

How the Brand Sounds and Looks

A brand platform comes to life through how the brand talks and looks. Tone of voice sets the rules for copy, and identity sets them for everything visual. We make both documents practical, with examples, so designers, writers and contractors can actually use them.

  • A tone of voice matrix for different situations
  • Do and don’t examples for copy
  • Logo, palette, typography and graphic elements
  • Guidelines with templates for social, presentations and ads

The Brand in Digital

Today most brand touchpoints happen online. We map your audience’s customer decision journey, define the role of each channel and balance reach-building communications with performance, so the brand drives sales instead of competing with them for budget.

  • A customer decision journey with digital touchpoints
  • The role of social, ads, content and PR
  • The balance between brand and performance
  • Awareness, recognition and branded search metrics

Process

How We Work

Clear stages, weekly reports and decisions based on data.

  1. 01

    Brief and research

    We define the problem, study the category and interview your audience.

  2. 02

    Strategy

    We define the insight, value proposition, brand platform and positioning.

  3. 03

    Identity and voice

    We create the tone of voice, visual identity and guidelines.

  4. 04

    Rollout

    We carry the brand into the website, social and ads and write the communications strategy.

What You Keep

Documents, setups and reports that stay yours after the project.

  • JTBD research report
  • Brand platform and positioning
  • Tone of voice with examples
  • Logo and visual identity
  • Brand book and guidelines
  • Communications strategy and customer decision journey

What We Track

We agree on targets at the start and send a report every month.

  • Brand awareness and recognition
  • Branded search demand
  • Share of direct traffic
  • Website conversion rate after the rebrand
  • Willingness to pay and average order value
  • Sentiment of brand mentions

Tools We Use

If your tools do the job, we work in them. We suggest replacing only what gets in the way.

  • Figma
  • Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Miro
  • Typeform
  • Notion

Brand Strategy & Identity FAQ

Don’t see your question? Email us at [email protected].

How is brand strategy different from a logo?

A logo is just one part of the visual identity. Brand strategy defines who the brand is for, how it’s different, how it talks and what it promises. The identity puts that strategy into visual form.

How long does brand development take?

Research and strategy take four to six weeks, and the identity another three to five. The full cycle usually fits into two to three months.

What is JTBD, and why does it matter for a brand?

Jobs to be Done is an approach that uncovers what problem a person is solving when they choose a product. It reveals the real motivation behind a purchase, which demographics often hide, and gives you a foundation for strong positioning.

Can we refresh the brand without a full rebrand?

Often it’s enough to sharpen the positioning, rewrite the tone of voice and refresh the identity while keeping the recognizable elements. We decide what to change after the audit.

How do you measure the impact of a brand?

Through branded search demand, direct traffic, website conversion rate, average order value and surveys of brand awareness and perception. We compare the numbers before and after.

Launch This WithIntrobloom

Request a free audit. We’ll dig into your product and send a plan that shows what to do first.