Mastering Brand Strategy with Allison Bran

by Glynis Tao | Jul 25, 2023 | Business

Unlock the Power of Effective Brand Strategy: Insights from Allison Bran

What usually comes to mind when you think of the word “brand”? A logo? A company name? Products? While those elements are associated with brands, “brand” is actually a relationship, according to brand strategist Allison Bran. “Brand is like a third entity that exists between the business and its customers,” explains Allison. “It’s the relationship between the company and the customer.”

If you want to build a successful business, it’s crucial to create loyal customers and motivated employees who will be agents of your brand. And having a brand strategy will help!

Allison Bran is the Founder & CEO of REX Marketing + Design Inc., based in Vancouver BC. She works with companies that have typically been in business for 3-5 years, ranging from solopreneurs to large enterprises, to clarify, refresh and revitalize their brands.

Today we’ve enlisted her help to teach us about brand strategy.

In this interview with Allison, she will briefly tell us about how she got into the field of brand strategy, then she will explain:

The differences between brand, marketing and branding
The importance and benefits of consistently communicating your brand to both employees and customers
The brand strategy process that Rex Marketing clients undergo

Let’s get started!

How did Allison become a Brand Strategist?

Allison: I never started out to become an entrepreneur, I just always loved the vision of the entrepreneur and wanted to support them to succeed.

I started in marketing in 1999, during the dot com boom. As a web designer, I worked with a lot of business owners from every industry such as furniture manufacturing and design, to software developers, to fashion retailers.

During that process I discovered a problem. When I was working with companies to communicate why somebody should buy from them online—when there wasn’t this in-person experience that was so magical—a lot of business owners were stumped.

Businesses were stuck wondering, “How do I get this magic across about how much I care about my customer, and the amount of love, thought and innovation I’ve put into my product? How do I let them know that through this inanimate object called a website?

So my business started out as a solution to help create meaningful connections between companies and their customers through the online sphere. And over the years, it has evolved to serve all types of companies, not just e-commerce.

By nature I’m a story-teller, I like to understand the human experience. So I help people translate their bigger strategy and their product, and turn it into a story that people would feel in their heart and their gut.

What is the difference between Brand, Marketing and Branding?

Brand = Relationship

Allison: A brand is the experience you want people to have, the impression you want on people. It isn’t a logo, name or product. It’s what people BELIEVE about your company, product, or service. It’s not what you say it is. It’s what your customers and employees BELIEVE it is.

Brand is like a third entity that exists between the business and its customers—it’s the relationship between the company and the customer.

Marketing = Mechanics

Allison: Marketing is the mechanics or the technical aspects of getting the brand message out.

Branding = Memory Hooks

Allison: Branding is memory hooks—your name, logo, design, colours, and sounds that show up consistently. We have all six senses, so even the smells associated with your brand can be part of your branding.

What is Allison’s Brand Strategy Framework and Process?

The clients

Allison: I typically work with clients who have been in business for 3-5 years. These brands have already undergone a period of what I call “guess marketing” to see if their product sells, and have proven their product-market fit. They already have a logo, branding, marketing, and strategies, but they have now come against a problem or a goal.

For example, a client might be wondering:

Why am I not getting the leads that I want?

Why is my brand feeling all over the place?

How do I figure out the best touch points with my target customers?

Or they have a goal, such as:

I really want to enter a new market.

I’m really successful in Vancouver and I want to go to Seattle.

The client realizes that all of the strategies that got them here won't get them to where they want to go next. They either don’t know the answer to their problem, and they’ve asked a ton of marketers, gotten a bunch of answers, and feel like they're still “guess marketing”. Or they realize that they are at the limits of their understanding of brand, marketing and strategy.

Stage 1: Discovery

Allison: In the discovery stage, we do customer interviews, and market and competitor research in order to compile insights towards crafting the strategic narrative of the client’s brand.

The brand narrative is a powerful tool that has the power to inspire customers to be loyal and employees to become agents of the brand. It impacts everything from sales, culture, recruiting, operating procedures, to brand experience.

These are 5 key elements that all businesses must get clear on and communicate to the world:

Why their business exists—the problem they want to solve for the customer. Companies often get this part wrong. Remember that it’s not about the owner’s “why”. Their “why” of the business should satisfy a deep need in the target audience. It should make their audience feel validated.

The impact that the business wants to make on the world—their North Star.

How the business goes about creating that impact—their secret sauce.

What their business sells—in simple memorable terms.

Core values that drive the company forward

Stage 2: Branding

Allison: The next stage is to examine the client’s branding. For example, we look at revitalizing and refining their visual identity, if necessary.

Stage 3: Implementation

Allison: After doing the deep work of investigating and getting clear on the client’s brand narrative, what’s the roadmap? Because we can’t do everything all at once, we prioritize. We define the first step that will make the biggest difference in their business over the next 3-6-12 months. Then we assess the results and come up with the next plan.

What is the importance and benefit of consistently communicating the brand to both employees and customers?

Allison: Brands create fans. With a well-crafted distinct brand narrative—one that clearly resonates with your audience and employees—you will save money in the long-run from less reliance on ads. Your customers will spread the word for you. And your employees will be motivated to create the brand experience for the people they serve.

Unless you want to keep working 20 hour days and be there at the till micro-managing, you need a brand strategy. Don’t forget that as business owners we have the responsibility to train people. It’s easy to dismiss and say, “The employee just doesn’t get it, it’s obvious what the customer needs, why can’t I find good people to work in my business?” The first thing we must do is market the brand to our employees.

Allison’s final thoughts

Allison: I believe in businesses being engines of change for our societies and our communities. I have worked with fashion apparel business owners, and have seen first hand how their willingness to think outside the box can shape the world. So if you’re creative, don’t let the world diminish your idea, and never lose sight of how important creatives are in making an impact.

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Thank you Allison for teaching us about brand strategy today and encouraging apparel business entrepreneurs to think deeply about the story and vision they want to share with the world.

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What’s next?

Now it’s time to reflect on your brand! What’s your brand’s “why”? Is it clear, and does it resonate with your staff and your target customers? If you’re not sure, then perhaps it’s time to do some investigating. Gather your team together to collect feedback, and reach out to your customers to understand what they believe about your business.

As Allison explained, brand strategy requires deep work, but it’s worth it if you want to create fans of your brand through fostering a meaningful relationship between your business and your audience.

If you’d like to hear more about brand strategy from Allison Bran, check out the full interview on IG Live.

The power of niching: How I got Google as a client

by admin | Dec 3, 2018 | Business

Do you want to learn how to target your best customers without coming across as salesy and pushy?

Do you need clarity around what specific product best represents what you actually do or sell?

Are you conflicted about which product to focus on that you’ve actually built two separate businesses, complete with multiple business cards, and even multiple websites?

Well, then you’ve come to the right place. In this informative and action-packed article, you will learn:

What is niching and Why you’re insane if you don’t niche
Some myths on niching and why niche-phobia is a common problem of start-ups
How to pick your niche

I’m Glynis, a clothing brand owner turned business coach with 20 years apparel industry experience. Before launching my coaching practice, I ran a clothing design company called Punch Brand. I started my business in 2005 as a hobby while I was working full time as a Product Manager for Reebok Canada. That hobby eventually turned into a full-time business for me that led to creating and selling my products globally. At one point, I caught the attention of the Google campus merchandise buyer and we collaborated on several official Android apparel and accessories for the Google merchandise store. I ran Punch Brand for an amazing 10 years!

Who’s your ideal customer? You know that saying, “If you’re everything to everyone, then you’re nothing to no one”. Knowing who you help and how you help them is a big part of an effective marketing strategy. I personally find it so frustrating when clients cannot choose what business they’re in. Many business owners with a product they don’t consider to be niche, resist the idea of narrowing the focus of their marketing, fearing that they will lose business. However, choosing a niche and targeting it can actually increase sales. Here’s how it worked for my business.

I started out creating character inspired headwear for anime fans. Pretty niche right? I was predominantly selling my products at anime and comic conventions, because that’s where my customers hang out. Everything I created was designed for this one specific customer. And guess what? That’s how Google found me. They were looking for someone to design and produce Android mascot hoodies and beanies for them. I guess I showed up on the search engine… they are Google after all.

Niching also helps with becoming known as the expert in your field. When your business is niched very finely and you’re always talking about and writing about the same pain point, you become regarded as an expert. Tired of competing on price? Niching is the best way to command a higher price point. Once you’re perceived to be the only person for that specific job, nobody will blink at or haggle about your prices ever again. Niching brings higher quality clients. When you increase the quality of what you offer in terms of value, the clients you attract will be of the same quality. It’s the law of attraction. Like attracts like.

If your strengths and passion lie in knitwear, then do that.

If your intent is to educate and lessen the impact of fast-fashion on the environment, then focus on sustainable design.

If you love cosplay and Japanese pop culture, then start a brand that’s entirely devoted to fans of anime and cosplay. That’s what I did!

To help demonstrate the importance of picking just one type of Client and one thing you sell, I’ve broken it down into 4 different examples:

The Generalist
The Product Specialist
The Client Specialist
The Perfectly Niched

So what is a niche exactly? I’ll demonstrate these models using clothing brands:

The Generalist: The GAP

The GAP’s client type are men, women, children, babies, Anyone, and everyone. They sell casual and work apparel, denim, fleece and even yoga and workout wear and whatever trend they jump on. And what kind of pricing does the GAP have? It’s pretty affordable, it’s for everyone. They always have a discount rack with markdowns for those discount shoppers. It’s pretty middle of the road, certainly not a place you would shop for something that’s good quality or unique. This business caters to every client type and features everything to sell. It’s not niched at all that’s why I call them the generalist.

The Product Specialist: Lululemon

Lululemon caters to every type of client type from men, women, teens, people who want to appear fashionable. What’s different about them is their focus on the “thing they sell” and that’s all about Yoga. Because Lululemon was essentially the first to bring yoga clothing to the mainstream market they can charge a premium for their brand name but because they cater to every client type, they’re still not as narrowly niched as other businesses. This is the product specialist type of business model.

The Client Specialist: Mr. Big & Tall

In this business model which I’ve called the Client Specialist, things are flipped from the Lululemon model. Mr. Big & Tall only has 1 client type, tall men but things they sell are varied. You should be getting an idea of where this niching model is going.

The Perfectly Niched

The last and ideal model of business niching is demonstrated by the fourth clothing brand type and that’s my brand crazyheads. We create animal-inspired apparel for fans of anime and Japanese pop culture. When we started out we were able to command a pretty high price point because we were the only ones producing this type of product for this market. The competition was relatively low and we could sell upwards of 100 hoodies at 1 weekend show at a $65 price point, not to mention several hundred hats at $25 each. Our customers loved our products and would come and hang out with us at the shows.

Still on the fence about whether to niche your business? Even if you could move from a generalist to any kind of specialist, you’ll be better off than you are now.

So, how do you pick? Let me take you through the process of picking your niche.

Step 1: Make a list of all the client types you’d like to work with.

Step 2: Make a list of all the different things that you sell

Step 3: Match up each client type and the thing you sell, then give yourself a score out of 1 to 10, being the most desirable for you. Rate them based on the following criteria:

Fit for you, your personal preference, skill set, experience, and background
Fit for the income you want- how many of this group x how much you would charge per person
Access- your ability to reach your target and how accessible they are to you in large numbers
Add up the scores for each client/ product combo
Which has the highest score?

CONGRATS! You found your niche!

In conclusion, niching helps you get very clear on your marketing message. When you serve two target markets, whose trade show do you invest your very limited marketing funds to? As a small business owner time and money are your most valuable resources. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day, or money in the bank for any business to be able to afford to have a multitude of products, services as well as target markets to wow. Picking one or two just makes economic sense.

Do you have niche phobia? Please share in the comments section below.