Positioning yourself successfully as a brand is essential today. But where should you start and which strategy is the right one to position yourself successfully? We would like to introduce you to our self-developed brand model and show you how we develop a brand disruptively in 4 steps.
What is a disruptive brand?
But first – what does disruptive actually mean? If we look at the current market, we can see how there is an oversupply in almost every industry. As a consumer, this not only gives me a huge choice, but also makes it difficult for me to find the right provider or make the right decision about where to buy which product or service.
The answer seems simple. We need to differentiate ourselves. Have a USP. This is often the well-intentioned advice that very few people can relate to. Or they find it difficult to actually put this into practice.
That’s why we talk about disruptive brand development, because we want to encourage you not just to differentiate, but to radically differentiate. In other words, disruptive. This means that you and your company become a brand that stands out and is innovative in such a way that you clearly stand out for your own target group from the oversupply described above.
But how can you go about it? In our 4 steps to a disruptive brand, we show you how to become a living, disruptive brand. You’ll find out why „alive“ at the end of our 4 steps. The 4 steps how we develop brands are the basis of our Brand Strategy Sprint®.
Step 1: Insights & Feedback.
The most important question you should ask yourself first is: who exactly is your target audience? It is often difficult for companies to answer this question accurately. Ask yourself who exactly your product or service is for. Who would benefit most from your offering?
Once you can clearly describe your ideal customer, you should interview 4-5 people. Try to find out what their everyday life is like, what challenges and what needs accompany them. Your goal is to get a lot of insights about what is important to your own target group and what they really want.
Step 2: Differentiation and relevance.
See the insights and feedback you receive as a valuable opportunity to develop or enhance your brand. Because not only do we need to differentiate ourselves as a brand, we also need to be relevant to our own target audience.
Because if your product or service doesn’t improve lives or solve a problem, it’s simply, not relevant enough to them. That’s why direct exchange is so important to get new ideas and to innovate. You could evolve your offering, improve the customer experience, and so much more.
Now this may sound pretty simple and logical, but you’d be surprised to know that many companies don’t take the time to engage with their own target audience or ask themselves what they really want.
So the question is: How can you clearly differentiate your offering and be relevant to your target audience at the same time? Differentiated or different doesn’t just mean USP. It means being different about your offering, your communication, the customer experience, etc.
Step 3: Identity and experience.
Try to look at your brand like a person. What are its goals, what values does it live by, and what attitude does it adopt? The question is deliberately asked because in real life we have a clear answer about all these points in most cases. The next point would be friendship. We are not friends with everyone, but only with people who fit us, whom we like and with whom we share common ground.
But how does that fit with your brand? Become aware of your brand’s vision, mission and purpose (brand purpose). Once you have an answer to this, derive the values that you represent with your company and how you want to communicate internally and externally as a brand.
Because if you are clear about your own personality and identity, you will also differentiate yourself again and thus be visible to your target group.
Let’s look again at the brand as a person and the friendship with other people, so that you can now derive this to your target group.
By this we mean that if your identity is similar to that of your target audience, because they share the same values and views as you, they will feel attracted to your brand. Even if your competitor has a better offer, in many cases consumers prefer the brand with the better feeling or that matches their own identity.
Consumers today don’t just buy a product from a brand. They are joining a family. When I, as a consumer, want to buy new shoes, I also look at other people who are wearing those shoes. Who are these people who are fans of that brand? Why are they cooler than other people? What we’re trying to make clear is that consumers today are asking themselves what group of people or family they want to belong to.
„If I buy these shoes, I belong to the Nike community“ would be one thought. „When I wear these shoes, I become or already am an athlete and feel part of a community among like-minded people.“
You realize your brand’s identity can bring you together with your target audience, like a real friendship. These customers choose you because you’re different and you fit in with them.
As a result, your brand becomes a lifestyle brand, increasing its value and your success. Because the more people have a similar and positive experience with your brand, the more they will tell and recommend your brand to others who will also want to become part of this family.
Step 4: Test and validate.
You now know that a disruptive brand is radically different in everything it does. It doesn’t swim with the current, but against it. This requires a lot of courage and also represents a risk or threat for many companies.
This is the reason why many companies do not dare to take the step to become a disruptive brand. And we understand that. That’s why the last step in our brand model is even more important. Let’s assume you have a clear picture of exactly who your ideal target audience is, have obtained insights and developed new solutions for them, and created a clear differentiation in combination with your brand identity. Then you should now test your new brand strategy.
We do this in the context of brand prototypes. We test the message and communication of a brand and what relevance it has for the target group. For example, you can use a website design as a prototype. This contains your message, identity, solutions for the problems of your target group as well as your brand design.
The goal is to understand whether your target group feels understood and addressed by your brand. Would they want to buy your product? Would they want to commission your service? Would they tell others about your brand, and if so, how?
Or is it simply not relevant. This feedback is also valuable because it shows you that you need to adjust your strategy. You can test bold ideas without taking a risk, because if they fail in testing, it was just a prototype after all. You saved time and a high investment before you would have misinvested both over a long period of time.
Because if you’re not relevant, no otherwise good marketing strategy will do you any good, as you’ll just burn money.
These 4 steps to becoming a disruptive brand will help you become a living brand. Your brand is never finished and never stands still. It continues to evolve, as shown in our graphic. You’ll get feedback on a test and new insights. What ideas were well received and what didn’t work at all?
You realize you’re starting over again. Your brand is in an agile loop, becoming clearer, more focused, more differentiated and therefore more relevant round by round. This process helps your brand become a lifestyle brand with a strong community behind it.
It also keeps you one step ahead of your competitors as your brand continuously evolves and grows in a target group-centric way.
Here’s how you can implement the 4 steps to disruptive brands.
To simplify our process for you, we have put together a free program for you. You get 4 days, every day a step more in detail prepared.
For example, on the first day in the step „Insights and Feedback“ you will get more details on how to clearly define your target group as well as methods on how to develop them using prefabricated frameworks.
On the following days you will receive the same for step 2 „Differentiation and Relevance“, step 3 „Identity and Experience“ as well as step 4 „Test and Validate“ conveniently via email from us.
Each day allows you to have enough time to deal with each step or module.
Sounds exciting?
