REPRISE - 4 Common Brand Strategy Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

09/15/21 • 20 min

Food Business Marketing | Brand Strategy Tips to Build Real Food Brands

This week, we’re revisiting episode 49 from last year that is still super relevant today. We’ve been talking through brand strategy our last few episodes, and this refresher on common brand strategy mistakes and how to fix them is worth a second look. Enjoy!

Brand strategy is an essential part of building a business that will grow, but we see a lot of food businesses make the same mistakes when it comes time to actually put it into action. On this episode of the Real Food Brands Podcast, host and Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva goes over the four most common brand strategy mistakes, and what to do if you think you might be making them.

In This Episode:

The resources Real Food Brands is offering to help you build your brand.
How to differentiate your brand in the market.
The question you need to ask yourself about how to make your brand stand out.
Why consistency is so important in all of your brand’s materials.
How to use the “one-room test” to see if your brand is showing up consistently in the marketplace.
Why “I” and “we” are dangerous words to overuse in your marketing copy.
Why many founders forget to communicate their brand strategy to their team, and what to do about it.

Resources:

In This Episode:

The resources Real Food Brands is offering to help you build your brand.
How to differentiate your brand in the market.
The question you need to ask yourself about how to make your brand stand out.
Why consistency is so important in all of your brand’s materials.
How to use the “one-room test” to see if your brand is showing up consistently in the marketplace.
Why “I” and “we” are dangerous words to overuse in your marketing copy.
Why many founders forget to communicate their brand strategy to their team, and what to do about it.

Resources:

Previous Episode

Does Your Food Brand’s Personality Shine Through?

If your food brand were a person at a party, what sort of person would they be? The loud, bold life of the party? Or the more relaxed, reserved, and clever person? Just like with people, our brands can take on personalities based on our vision and positioning in order to connect with the right people. It’s important to let your brand’s “true colors” shine through to help set your brand apart. Having a clear idea of what personality you want for your brand and how your brand will show up consistently in the world is a key deliverable of our brand strategy work.

Today on the Real Food Brands Marketing Podcast, host and Food Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva shares three questions to help define your brand personality to help you build connections and stand out from the crowd.

In This Episode:

How her most recent trip to Sedona helped Katie get grounded and centered again. Katie wants to know...where do you go to recharge?
Why your brand personality is a key outcome of creating a brand strategy and should support with your purpose and positioning.
The importance of leaning into your brand personality to attract the right people.
Why brand personality comes so late in Katie’s Brand Strategy StreamlinedTM process.
Why you should describe your brand as if it were a person at a party.
Why it’s also important to define what your brand is not.
How to contextualize your brand personality to see if it makes sense.

Resources:

Next Episode

Brand Strategy FAQ: Setting Priorities and Building Your Team

After you invest time developing your brand strategy to position your brand to stand out then you’re ready to put your plan into action. You see all the opportunities to make changes but there are so many opportunities that it can be intimidating. So the big question at this phase is typically what “what should I do first and who can help me?!"

Today on the Real Food Brands Marketing Podcast, host and Food Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva addresses one of the most frequently asked questions during the Activation phase of her one-on-one work with food business owners: what should I do first and who can help me?

Katie walks through prioritizing actions, identifying capabilities needed, and finding the right people for the right roles as you build your team.

In This Episode:

Next steps after defining or refining your brand strategy.
How to organize and prioritize your efforts to implement your new strategy.
How to identify where you might need help based on capacity and capabilities.
Examples of prioritizing marketing efforts and finding people to fill marketing roles.
How your brand strategy helps guide copywriters and designers so you can delegate the details and focus on approvals.
The hidden cost of doing things yourself instead of building a team.
How Katie’s new on-demand Brand Strategy StreamlinedTM course can help you get started defining, or refining, your North Star.

Resources: