From Bland to Brand - Creating a Winning Brand Strategy

Explore ten types of brands, including product, service, corporate, ingredient, and personal brands, and learn how to identify which brands exist in your portfolio to guide strategic decisions.

Endorsement brands boost credibility by stamping trust on products, services, and destinations through well-known endorsers and awards like the Red Dot Award, Michelin Guide, and Fortune's list.

Explore brand types through Apple Inc. as a case study, illustrating product, service, personal, and endorser brands, and learn to inventory your brand portfolio for growth.

Learn how to build a robust brand strategy with a solid foundation and blueprint, crafting a unique brand identity through vision, mission, values, personality, and positioning for your target audience.

Develop a clear brand vision to define the future, set goals, and guide decision making across all aspects of brand development, illustrated by Ikea and Slack examples.

Frame the brand mission as a concise, one-sentence statement that explains what the brand does, how it delivers value toward the vision, and is guided by democratic design and affordability.

Develop a clear brand vision and mission to guide decision making, engage employees, and attract like-minded customers, while aligning actions with the brand’s values and impact.

Study the brands you admire to inform your brand vision and mission. Ideate with your key team members, draft three concise statements, and refine them for alignment and resonance.

Brand values act as a moral compass, guiding behavior and decisions to build an authentic identity, while the lecture explains core versus brand values and parent-brand alignment.

Explore four guiding questions to develop non-negotiable brand values that define your identity, align actions with your mission and vision, and ensure internal buy-in.

Explore brand personality as a differentiating asset. Learn how personality stems from visual and verbal cues across touchpoints—websites, logos, tone of voice, packaging, and service style—to shape a memorable brand.

Explore how brand personality shapes emotions and drives loyalty in B2C and B2B markets, and how three value adds: traits, self-expression, and enduring appeal guide branding with archetypes.

Position your brand by amplifying its unique strengths and focusing on a precise niche that resonates with your target audience, not trying to be everything to everyone.

Identify your brand differentiators by brainstorming strengths, ranking them, and proving three top advantages with evidence. Iterate with data to strengthen your competitive advantage and brand strategy.

Explore eight brand positioning strategies, including value for money, problem–solution, heritage, lifestyle and emotional appeal, leadership, usage occasions, sustainability, and personality, and learn to combine them for a strong position.

Six-step process to choose the top three positioning strategies from eight, align with your brand's vision, analyze competitors for white spaces, and secure internal buy-in for a distinctive, resonant brand.

Craft a six-part brand positioning statement that defines your target segment, needs, category, core benefits, and differentiators to align the team and brief external partners.

Align your brand internally by engaging stakeholders and hosting a brand workshop, then map key touchpoints across the customer journey to activate the brand with a practical activation plan.

Wrap up by reinforcing a winning brand strategy and invite learners to connect on LinkedIn and explore the author's book from brand to brand on Amazon.