Brand strategy and brand identity are routinely sold together and are not the same purchase. Strategy decides who the business is for, what it claims, who it is competing against in the customer's mind and what it is prepared not to be. Identity is how that gets expressed in words and design. Commissioning the second without the first produces attractive work that says nothing in particular, which is the most common and most expensive outcome in this category.
The deliverable is a position somebody could disagree with
A strategy that says you are premium, trustworthy and customer-focused has committed to nothing, because no competitor claims the opposite. A real one names the customer you are for and the ones you are not, the thing you will be better at and the things you will be worse at, and the competitor you intend to take business from. If nobody in the room could argue with it, it is not a strategy.
It should come from research, not from a workshop alone
Internal workshops surface what the leadership team believes, which is useful and is not evidence. A credible engagement also talks to customers, including ones who chose a competitor, and looks at what the market actually does. Strategies built only from internal opinion tend to describe the company the founders wish they ran rather than the one customers experience.
It has to be usable by people who were not in the room
A salesperson deciding what to say, a writer choosing an example, a product manager choosing a feature, all need to be able to apply it without asking. That means short, concrete and full of examples rather than abstractions. A fifty-page document read once is a cost; a two-page statement everyone can recall is the thing that changes decisions.
Beware buying strategy from the firm that wants the redesign
When one supplier does the strategy and the identity, the strategy reliably concludes that a new identity is needed. That is not dishonesty, it is incentive. Either buy them separately, or agree the identity budget range before the strategy is written, so the recommendation is not also a quote.
Expect it to change what you sell, not just how you say it
A strategy engagement that ends with a new way of describing the same thing has usually stopped short. The useful ones change the offer, the pricing, the segments served or the way the product is packaged. Those are business decisions rather than marketing ones, which is why the engagement needs somebody with authority in the room and why it fails when it does not have them.
Questions people ask about brand strategy service
What is the difference between brand strategy and brand identity?
Strategy decides who you are for and what you claim; identity expresses it in words and design. Buying identity without strategy produces attractive work that says nothing in particular.
What should a strategy engagement deliver?
A position somebody could argue with: the customers you are for and not for, what you will be better and worse at, and who you intend to take business from. Short enough to be remembered and applied.
Should the same firm do strategy and identity?
It is convenient and it means the strategy is written by people who profit from a large identity project. Buy them separately, or agree the identity budget range before the strategy is written.
How do we know it worked?
By whether it changed decisions: what you sell, to whom, at what price, and what you declined. A strategy that only changed the wording has generally stopped short of the useful part.