Key takeaways
- Brand strategy is not a one-off exercise, it’s an operating system that guides decisions, behaviour, and execution over time.
- Clear positioning and audience insight reduce internal friction and help teams make faster, more confident choices.
- Consistency isn’t about sameness; it’s about applying a shared strategy coherently across every channel and moment.
- The strongest brands treat strategy as a commercial tool, not a creative layer driving differentiation, trust, and long-term value.
What is brand strategy?
Brand strategy is the long-term plan that defines how your brand is built, expressed, and experienced. It shapes how your organisation communicates with the world and how it behaves internally and externally.
Your brand strategy shouldn't be owned by one team. From leadership to design, UX, sales, and marketing, everyone should understand the brand’s direction and know how to apply it in their day-to-day work.
At its core, a brand strategy brings together:
- Your vision and mission
- A clear understanding of your audiences and competitors
- Your brand identity — verbal and visual
- A defined approach to execution across channels
- Active involvement from your people
Your brand strategy should not remain static. As organisations grow, markets shift, and audiences evolve, your strategy should adapt. Regular brand audits, typically every one to two years will help ensure your assets, messaging, and guidelines remain accurate, relevant, and usable. They also provide an opportunity to remove outdated messages and materials, introduce new ones, and improve how brand resources are organised and shared.
Why a strong brand strategy matters
A clear, well-executed brand strategy will create alignment and momentum. It'll ensure your brand shows up consistently and meaningfully — for customers and employees alike. Read more about this on our dedicated page, 'Big ambitions need even bigger branding'.
Improving internal alignment and consistency
When values, positioning, and brand principles are clearly defined, teams will have a shared reference point. This alignment will help everyone work toward the same goals and communicate with confidence, resulting in a more consistent and coherent brand experience.
Building customer loyalty
Brands that clearly articulate what they stand for, and consistently deliver on it, create stronger emotional connections. When your customers feel aligned with a brand’s values, they are more likely to trust it, return to it, and choose it over competitors.
Standing apart from competitors
A strong brand strategy clarifies what makes your organisation distinctive. By understanding the competitive landscape and defining your unique value, you can focus on what you do best.
Empowering internal brand advocates
When people understand a brand and feel connected to it, they'll represent it more confidently.
Examples of strong brand strategies
AFG: brand strategy with purpose and clarity
Alternative Futures Group (AFG) is a leading health and social care charity supporting people with learning disabilities and mental health conditions across the North West of England. While AFG’s work had deep impact and reach, its brand no longer reflected the organisation’s leadership, confidence, or ambition.
Courts partnered with AFG to develop a refreshed brand strategy and identity that expressed both the organisation’s purpose and its readiness for the future. This began with reshaping AFG’s vision, defining a clear strategic direction, and articulating a brand personality that balanced warmth with authority — befitting a charity working in a complex, competitive sector.
A vibrant, engaging colour palette brought energy and optimism, while a serif headline type introduced gravitas and credibility. Photography and film of real support workers and the people they care for became core elements of the new identity, emphasising genuine human connection rather than staged imagery.
The outcome was a brand built for what comes next. AFG’s new identity gives the organisation greater clarity, confidence and consistency in how it communicates with stakeholders. Internally, teams are more aligned around a unified strategic narrative. Externally, the brand now stands out more distinctly within the health and social care landscape — supporting future growth while faithfully reflecting the organisation’s ongoing mission.
You can read the full case study for Courts' work with AFG here.
Embryo: sharpening positioning in a competitive market
Embryo operates in a crowded and fast-moving digital landscape, where many competitors offer similar services and speak in similar ways. For Embryo, the challenge was differentiation — clearly articulating its expertise, personality, and ambition in a way that felt credible and distinctive.
Courts partnered with Embryo to develop a brand strategy that clarified its positioning and refined how it communicates value. This involved defining a confident brand voice, aligning messaging to its audience’s expectations, and creating a visual identity that supported a more distinctive presence.
By grounding the brand in a clear strategic framework, Embryo was able to express itself more consistently across channels, strengthen recognition, and create a stronger emotional connection with its audience.
Why these examples matter
Both AFG and Embryo show that strong brand strategies aren’t about surface-level change. They’re about:
- Creating internal alignment and shared understanding
- Clarifying positioning and value
- Enabling consistency at scale
- Supporting long-term growth and confidence
When brand strategy is treated as a foundational business tool, it becomes a driver of focus, efficiency, and trust.
Five key elements of a brand strategy
1. Mission and vision
Your mission and vision should define why your brand exists and where it is heading.
- Mission: what you do today and why it matters
- Vision: the future you’re working toward
These statements should be concise, clear, and visible, both internally and externally — so they can guide decision-making at every level.
2. Target audience understanding
A strong brand is built on a deep understanding of the people it serves.
To define your audience:
- Identify common pain points through research, reviews, and conversations
- Gather demographic, behavioural, and attitudinal data
- Develop clear audience or buyer personas
- Use these insights to tailor messaging and experiences
The better you understand your audience, the more relevant and meaningful your brand becomes.
3. Brand positioning
Brand positioning defines how you want to be perceived, and more importantly why customers should choose you.
Effective positioning:
- Clearly articulates your unique value
- Differentiates you from competitors
- Guides tone, messaging, and visual expression
Consistency is critical. Every touchpoint should reinforce the same positioning, helping your brand become recognisable, credible, and memorable over time.
4. Brand values and personality
Your values guide behaviour; your personality shapes how your brand feels.
Together, they influence your tone of voice, visual language, and overall presence. Whether your brand is bold or understated, playful or serious, clarity here will ensure your communications feel intentional and authentic.
Define these elements clearly and share them across your organisation so everyone understands how the brand should show up.
5. Competitive analysis
Understanding your competitors helps sharpen your strategy.
A strong competitive analysis looks at:
- Products, services, and pricing
- Messaging and positioning
- Visual and verbal identity
- Customer perceptions and reviews
These insights will help you identify gaps, opportunities, and areas where your brand can lead, rather than follow.
Start building your brand strategy
A strong brand strategy aligns teams, sharpens focus, and creates long-term value. With a clear vision, deep audience understanding, distinct positioning, and consistent expression, your brand becomes more than a logo — it becomes a trusted experience.
Building or refining a strategy works best as a collaborative process. Bring together stakeholders from leadership, brand, marketing, and beyond. When the right people are aligned, the brand has the foundation it needs to grow with confidence.
And that’s where meaningful brand building begins.
