What Is a Brand Strategist (& What Do They Do?)

Every business has a specific “problem” to target and provide a solution for. Therefore, there’s a specific audience that each business has to reach in order to grow as both a business and a brand. 

Growing as a business requires customer acquisition and expanding and tackling more problems within its designated industry. Growing as a brand requires modifying customers’ perceptions of a business in order to influence their needs and purchase decisions. Brand growth happens when dedicated market research is conducted, and a strategy is created based on that research to propel the brand forward. 

The person who does this is known as a brand strategist. To learn more about what a brand strategist is and what they do, keep reading.

What Exactly Is a Brand Strategist?

A brand strategist is someone who assists marketing managers in increasing a brand’s visibility to its audience. You can think of them as your bridge to future trends as they base their marketing strategies on rising customer wants and needs according to the market research available and the analysis and statistics of that research.

Essentially, a brand strategist is someone adept at:

• Research and analysis
• Problem-solving
• Storytelling

The job of a brand strategist requires someone who has a solution-oriented mindset, as they are there to perform the market research and analyze it, noting existing problems and trends within the industry. From there, they need to present their findings to the marketing team and clients in a way that tells a story based on future predictions.

What Does a Brand Strategist Do?

A brand strategist is responsible for aligning a business with the ongoing trends in its industry for optimal brand growth and customer attraction. Therefore, a brand strategist’s job is to become the chief planner in identifying a business’s target audience and their pain points so the business can properly leverage its products or services to said audience as the perfect solution.

To do this, the brand strategist has to find out exactly when and where customers will be engaging with a business’s products or services to learn more about them or make a purchase decision. They’ll also have to determine the limitations of the products or services as well as other critical factors in ensuring that trust is built and purchase decisions are made.

In nutshell, here’s what a brand strategist is responsible for:

• Researching and collecting consumer and market trends
• Analyzing consumer and market trend data
• Formulating reviews of the data analysis
• Strategize and create attractive brand stories
• Conducting target audience research 
• Conducting frequent audits to analyze the brand’s position in its market
• Curating methods to strengthen the brand’s position in the market
• Evaluating the challenges and opportunities based on market research and trend analysis for each product or service
• Presenting all the research and strategies to the marketing team and clients
• Working with creative teams to come up with productive outcomes
• Leading in idea generation via brainstorming sessions with creative teams
• Rebranding existing products or services
• Creating a brand architecture, which includes brand messaging, logo, campaigns, and other creative materials and content

7 Skills a Brand Strategist Needs for Success

Brand strategy is varied in nature. It requires a lot of skill and experience to achieve success with different businesses and marketing teams in different industries. 

However, the best brand strategists out there will possess the following skills:

1) Creativity 🎨

Brand strategists must be creative, which is both an inherent and learned skill. Creativity is what allows them to find unique and effective ways to market their clients or employers in a more exciting and appealing way to the target audience. 

For example, they’ll need to come up with catchy slogans, exceptional messaging, and other strategies to enhance a brand’s image — and they’ll need to be creative on a consistent basis.

2) Research 📚

Brand strategists rely heavily on research to get to know a business’s target audience and how to effectively engage with that audience. Therefore, having top-level research and analytic skills is essential to ensuring a business’s brand identity sees growth and that its branding budget remains cost-effective.

3) Empathy ♥️

Aligning a business’s brand with its target audience is a psychological undertaking. Brand strategists are often excellent with people as they understand the big and little factors that influence a customer’s purchase-making decisions throughout the entire customer journey. 

Empathy is the skill that allows a brand strategist to put themselves in a customer’s position to better understand the questions they may have, their limitations, excitement, and satisfaction with the products or services. They should also be able to develop a deep understanding of a business’s goals and values and echo those goals and values through each branding strategy.

4) Organization ✔️

Brand strategists have to deal with entire teams and varying branding initiatives — all at the same time. Therefore, it’s essential to be extremely organized to ensure that the brand plan they deliver is consistent, and holistic, and arrives by the deadline every time.

5) Communication 💁

Brand strategists must also be excellent communicators. They’ll need to translate complex topics, data analytics, ideas, and messages to both clients and consumers. This is often where storytelling comes into play; however, being able to address the concerns of clients and consumers in a clear and concise manner is essential to the positioning of the brand and its success.

6) Problem-Solving 🤔

Not every branding strategy will go according to plan. This is something that is expected, which is why a brand strategist must be an adept problem solver who can help pivot a business’s brand identity should something go wrong to protect the brand’s reputation. 

7) Leadership 👑

Brand strategists must work alongside marketing managers, creative teams, stakeholders, and other experts. However, a brand strategist sits at the top as they are responsible for creating a structure for everyone else to follow.

As such, a brand strategist must be able to lead, motivate, and inspire other teams and employees to work together toward the goal at hand.

A brand strategist is an essential component of any business looking for a well-rounded marketing and branding initiative. However, it requires a specific set of skills, experience, and knowledge to ensure success, which is why finding the right brand strategist for the job is so important.

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