Assessing and strengthening your brand involves asking the right questions. We’ve pulled together a brief guide to help you evaluate and enhance your brand's strength.

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Step 1: Evaluating Your Brand Foundations

Strength relies on foundations. The most successful brands have a clear and solid brand strategy that underpins everything they do.‍

1. How Clear is Your Main Proposition to Your Customer?

Your main proposition should be clear and straightforward. Simplify your proposition by focusing on:

• Reason to Believe: Why should customers trust your brand?
• Functional Benefit: What practical advantage does your product or service provide?
• Emotional Benefit: How does your brand emotionally resonate with your customers?

Each element should reinforce the others, making your proposition simple and credible.

2. Have You Defined Your Brand Belief?

Think about what part of culture your brand addresses:

• What does your brand stand for or stand against?
• What is the fundamental reason behind your brand's existence?

3. How Clear is Your Brand’s Vision for the Future?

A clear vision is essential for guiding your brand’s direction. 

Define your big audacious goal for the future. Your vision often reflects the flip side of your brand belief. For example, if you believe that ‘healthy food is not accessible enough,’ your vision could be ‘a world where everyone has access to healthy food.’

4. How Tangible is Your Brand's Mission in Achieving its Vision?

Your mission should outline how you will achieve your vision. Frame your mission with statements like:

• "We will get to our vision by..."

Your vision should be big, and your mission should make it actionable.‍

5. Do You Have a Concise Set of Brand Values Guiding Your Actions?

Your values are the principles and behaviours guiding your pursuit of your mission and vision. 

Try to define your values by listing statements starting with ‘we will always’ and ‘we will never’ to identify the most important principles to your business.

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Step 2: Communicating Your Brand Externally

Now that you’ve laid the internal strategic brand foundations, it’s time to evaluate how well you communicate them externally.

1. Does Your Tone of Voice Align with Your Brand's Position and Values?

Review your brand foundations to determine how you want to speak or sound to your audience. It can help to start with what you don’t want to sound like in order to define what you do what to sound like. ‍

2. Is Your Brand’s Personality Clearly Defined?

Imagine your brand as a celebrity or a friend. Identify the traits that define your brand’s character. This helps in shaping a brand identity that resonates with your audience.

3. Can You and Your Team Agree on a One-Word Essence That Represents Your Brand?

Summarising your brand in one word can create a focused brand identity. This word should be emotional if possible to help your brand evoke a consistent feeling. 

4. Does Your Brand Identity Reflect Your Brand Strategy, Personality, and Essence?

Ensure your brand identity embodies your strategy and resonates with your customers. 

Consider distinctive assets, colour palettes, photography guidelines and usage templates for social media and other applications.

5. Have You Developed Clear Brand Guidelines for Internal Use?

Brand guidelines are essential. They ensure everyone involved with your brand understands and maintains its integrity. Do you have comprehensive guidelines that distil all the information on your strategy and identity?

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Conclusion 

Evaluating your brand is an ongoing process. Regularly revisit these questions to ensure you stay aligned with your vision and mission. 

Need support? No matter where you are on your brand journey, ORCA is here to help!

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