“Lauren, do I really need a brand strategy? Or can I just launch my website and start selling?”
I’ve heard this many times before – “I just need a logo and a website”, “I need to be super agile and just get something up”, “I need clients yesterday, can we just get a landing page up?”
Here’s where I make a subtle yet important distinction when it goes to building something – you can JUSt do those things and build a business, sure – Fiverr, Ionos, Squarespace, Canva, ChatGPT – all these tools are there to get you, at speed, to launch if you wish. And it can work for the short term.
BUT, if you want to build a long-term, sustainable brand, then you’ve got to put the work in. It doesn’t happen overnight. I don’t care what they say on TikTok.
So you want to launch a website, great.
How is it for? What are their motivations, desires, fears, obstacles? Who do you want to attract, work with, serve? Why?
What are you selling? How do you know it’s of value and there is an audience for it? What are they willing to pay?
What makes you stand out from all the others? Why you? Why do you and you or offer matter? Does it matter?
How are you creating value in what you’re doing? How are you communicating it? Why?
What do you need to look like to connect with your audience? Why? How are you going to align your business objectives with audience needs?
The list goes on. This is part of building a brand – that matters, that is of value, that’s wanted, needed and has an audience for you to captivate.
Our impatience in the process means steps can often be skipped.
I’ve talked about this before and I shall again – this is the Double Diamond process, from the Design Council 2005.
It shows our process and it’s made of TWO convergent and divergent parts – allowing for big thinking and exploration TWICE to ensure the outcome in delivery is solving for the right problem, to the right people, in the right way, for the right reasons.
Many want to jump and go from ‘problem’ to ‘outcome’. This is a costly mistake that will only have to be corrected down the line.
Take a beat. Ask some questions. Get a strategy. Design to it. Then deliver on that.
You’re far more likely to make it through those tricky first few years when you have clarity of vision and goals, when you understand your audience and how to connect with them, when your identity is unique and differentiated, when your brand experience is buttoned up and delightful.
Or you can ‘just’ launch – throwing spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.
This is an invitation to get curious about yourself, your own motivations for starting or rebranding, launching or pivoting. The process never fails to shine a light on areas that need work, to validate what’s working and unearth the true gold in your idea that can be the linchpin to your success.
I’ve seen it work, transforming both organisations and the people leading them.
So, long story short. “Do I need a brand strategy?”
Yes, if you want it to work.
Even the best spaghetti vongole needs time to perfect. Please don’t throw that against the wall.