Without brands or products I wouldn’t even be talking about marketing strategy. So the first thing I want to look at in more detail, is branding and different ways to develop one.

A brand is a definite statement of what an organisation or collective stands for and what products it brings to market. A good brand is recognisable, consistent and that is exactly why brands are developed and defined by strategists. It needs to be a solid strategy output towards selling more. Create an emotional connection with your customers or leave them feeling cold.

Compare brands to a rocket. You need a massive amount to launch it, but less to sustain the enthusiasm and energy.

But before that, you need to know what customer will match best with your brand, love you and thus spread the word?

In this first series of Stratonauts: Branding, I’ll cover the following topics

1. Brand: How to develop it

2. A positioning statement

3. Launch strategy: how to tell the world about it

4. Brand management: the morning after

When will you be able to use this?

· To develop brand guidelines for your clients

· If your client develops a new product and wants your help with the brand architecture

· If your client is aspiring to extend their offering

· If your client is acquiring another company

· If your client is a start up and wants to launch

· If your client is entering a new market ( you might need a different name and position)

· If the market has changed and your positioning is obsolete, you might need to rebrand

In each section I will discuss how you can develop the strategy and what kind of research you will need to cover off and some of the tools you can use to structure the research to distil clear insights out of it.