If you are building a brand from scratch, and want to create a strong strategy behind the company, today’s article is for you; we present you with essential business insights that you can apply to your project. 

 

In lifestyle and fashion business, managers often think about profit and growth, while the creative team develops the design and brand aesthetics, however, both paths are two sides of the same coin. The brand’s objectives must be aligned to achieve company objectives, whether they are financial or focused on image. 

Marketing author and management expert Peter Drucker defines strategic planning as embracing analytical thinking and measuring business resources to action. Drucker argues that strategic planning is “making present decisions systematically and with the greatest knowledge of their futurity”. To expand on this notion, Drucker explains the system requires  “entrepreneurial risk-takes to carry out these decisions and measuring the results of these decisions against the expectations through organized,[and] systematic feedback”. 

In a brand’s context, strategy means a set of ideas, routes, and procedures involved in the achievement of an objective. These decisions act interdependently, strengthening business management through time and thus other areas in the company. 

 

Key Aspects to Develop a Solid Business Strategy

As a new brand, having a strategic plan is mandatory if the goal is to enter and compete in the market and succeed. For Drucker, it all starts with the mission of the organization and the need for a strategic vision. 

The main characteristics of a strategic vision are: 

  1. It charts an organization’s future strategic course—defines the business composition in the short and medium-term (3-5 years).
  2. It identifies business activities to be pursued. 
  3. It defines the business’ future market position. 
  4. It defines its future customer focus. 
  5. It defines the kind of organization the business wants to become.

 

According to marketing and strategy expert Michael Porter, author of the five competitive forces framework, applied strategy is a “matter of working out your company’s best position relative not just to pricing pressures from rivals but to all the forces in your competitive environment”. For Porter, business strategy is a matter of benchmarking and adopting the best market practices, in addition to being focused on a few key success factors, such as core competencies, critical resources, and the capacity to respond to the ever-changing market shifts. 

 

Marketing Actions and Business Development: What Areas Should I Strengthen Inside My New Brand? 

These are three fundamental axes that will give us a useful framework of strategic operations, and will help us to decide the best strategy to follow depending on the nature of our brand. 

  1. Action: This area is active; it demands our brand’s expansion or a market conquest. This area is linked to the company’s operational marketing. For example, internationalizing the brand, launching new lines, opening new points of sale overseas, or developing a new sales approach.
  2. Analysis: This area is reflective; it demands to understand -deeply- the target markets. This area is linked to business units and the company’s strategic marketing. For example, if we want to analyze the feasibility of customizing our products, creating product licenses, outsourcing processes versus working in-house, and outlining competitive market communication strategies to do what everyone else does but reducing the allocated budgets.
  3. Culture: This area is linked to the mission and purpose of the business; it wants to highlight the internal business values and philosophy of the brand. This area is related to a corporate brand strategy as well as image and communication actions. For example, we can create a brand culture that goes beyond economic growth, as we can promote and link the brand with artistic and cultural activities. 

 

Strategy is planning; marketing is developing and setting actions on track. Your brand’s path must be as singular as your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to set you apart from the rest and do something no one else can do.

A solid strategic vision and a strong business operation are areas that must be aligned with purpose. Remember, this approach has nothing to do with profit, as Drucker states, “the purpose of a business is to create a customer”.

Business Marketing Strategy