Strategic foundation that defines who you are, who you're for, and what makes you different from competitors.
Brand strategy happens before any logo design or visual work. It establishes positioning that drives every decision about how you present yourself - from visual identity through to marketing copy and sales conversations.
Most businesses skip this. They commission a logo, build a website, and wonder why their marketing generates weak leads or why they're competing primarily on price. Strategic positioning solves this by defining clear differentiation that prospects care about.
Internal research examines your business: strengths, culture, what you do differently, and where you want to be in 3-5 years. We interview key people, review existing materials, and identify what makes you valuable to customers. For businesses entering the UK market, this often means translating existing international positioning into what resonates with UK buyers.
External research analyses competitors and market dynamics. What positioning do direct competitors use? Where are the gaps or weaknesses in their approach? What matters to your target audience - technical capability, reliability, speed, cost, sector specialisation?
Positioning extractionis where the work happens. Most business owners - particularly in B2B sectors -struggle to articulate differentiation. They know they're "better" or "more experienced" but can't explain why prospects should care beyond generic claims everyone makes.
We work through this systematically over several weeks: identifying genuine strengths (not claimed ones), testing what resonates with your market, and crafting positioning that stands up against competitor claims. For directors of small businesses, this often reveals strengths being taken for granted. For larger companies, it frequently uncovers positioning that's become vague or generic through growth.
Clear articulation of your market position relative to competitors. Not mission statements or corporate vision - practical positioning that informs marketing decisions.
Who you're selling to, specifically. Job titles, sectors, company sizes, problems they face, how they evaluate suppliers. B2B positioning requires understanding technical decision-makers, financial approvers, and end users.
What makes you different, specifically? Not "quality" or "experience" - real differentiators that matter to prospects. For manufacturers, this might be production capabilities that others lack. For professional services, methodology or sector expertise. For technology companies, specific technical capability or integration capability. For consultancies, frameworks or proven processes.
Core narratives that inform all communication. The main things prospects need to understand about you are structured so that everyone in your business (and anyone creating marketing) communicates consistently.
How you sound in writing and conversation - technical versus accessible, formalversus conversational, authoritative versus collaborative. This feeds into brand guidelines and all marketing copy.
Consider a B2B company positioning as "full service" in their sector - vague and crowded. If research revealed their actual strength was specialist work for regulated sectors with specific certifications and compliance capabilities, repositioning as specialists in certified work would attract higher-value prospects needing those exact capabilities rather than generic services.
The work doesn't change - positioning does. Instead of claiming "full service" like everyone else, marketing communicates verifiable competitive advantage that justifies premium pricing.
Strategic positioning drives logo design and visual identity decisions. Technical specialists need a different visual approach than creative agencies. Regulated sector businesses need a different tone than innovative startups. Premium positioning requires a premium appearance.
It also drives market positioning across all channels: what you say on your website, how the sales teams explain capability, what case studies emphasise, and which sectors you target.
Without a strategic foundation, visual identity and marketing are guess work. With clear positioning, everydecision has direction.
Brand strategy and positioning work typically runs over several weeks - there's no shortcut to extracting cleardifferentiation and testing it against market realities.
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