Services | AD Brand Design

OUR SERVICES

Branding & Strategy

Our approach to B2B branding extends beyond the brand guide. We conduct extensive research, uncover actionable market insights and produce an authoritative brand strategy for your business.

Elevate your brand and Connect with your audience

What story is your brand uniquely positioned to tell? Working with Walker Sands on a branding and strategy project is all about answering that question. Once we collaboratively define your brand story, we develop the visual, narrative and tactical framework through which you can tell it most effectively.

AD Branding and Strategy Process

Through more than a decade of working with B2B and professional services brands, we have developed an efficient and collaborative branding and strategy process that is also flexible to your unique situation and goals. This is an overview of our branding process, but we encourage you to get in touch with our branding experts for a more customized, in-depth perspective.

Goals and Needs Assessment

We need to know where you are, and where you want to go. To find out, we conduct a goals and needs assessment, in which we work with your team to:

Define your business goals and objectives
Outline your business challenges and opportunities
Analyze your internal marketing structure, capabilities and assets
Assess your overall marketing strengths and weaknesses

This information will be gathered through stakeholder surveys, customer interviews, competitive analysis, market research and a marketing audit.

Buyer Persona Creation

For the most effective marketing strategy possible, we design it around the characteristics, goals, pain points and buying processes of your prospects. To understand your buyers and target audiences, we conduct surveys and interviews of your internal stakeholders, current customers, past customers, representative prospects and industry authorities. The diligence and effort we put into the buyer persona process result in reliable, unimpeachable personas that provide a solid foundation and a clear direction forward for your branding and marketing strategy.

Customer Journey Mapping

After developing personas, we map out your B2B buyer journey by outlining how your prospects’ priorities change during each stage of the decision-making process. A customer journey map serves as the basis for the marketing strategy by aligning prospect needs at each stage of the buyer journey with the right channels, messages, content and calls to action.

Comprehensive Audit

We assess your current messaging and visual identity as a starting point for the refreshed brand. The audit includes a thorough review of your existing marketing collateral and content resources (white papers, case studies, etc.); digital footprint, including your website, blog, search rankings, PPC keywords and social media accounts; and PR presence, including press coverage, media link profile and thought leadership visibility. This audit analyzes how well your messaging aligns with your target audiences and identifies important gaps — as in, "we don't have materials catering to this audience" or "our materials don’t emphasize this key message."

Messaging and Positioning Framework

Building off of our discovery and research, we will identify areas of messaging alignment and close gaps where there is divergence. We first create a set of messaging recommendations and present them to internal stakeholders for feedback before refining and finalizing the brand narratives and messaging frameworks.

The messaging framework includes an overarching brand narrative, market position and primary messaging pillars each supported by additional key messages and supporting messages. In addition to the umbrella brand messaging, we will also craft audience-specific messages that outline your value propositions and audience challenges.

Visual Brand Identity

While the messaging framework guides how we talk about the brand, the visual identity dictates the corporate look and feel. As part of the new corporate design, we will develop a new logo, color palette and brand standards.

Ongoing Marketing Consulting

Our branding and strategy services don't have to end with the delivery of your brand guide. Because every element of your brand is designed with the future in mind, we often help our clients maximize their investment in their brand as we support the execution of an integrated marketing and PR strategy. Our B2B marketing consulting services provide your team with the support, alignment and expertise they need to successfully tell your brand story across every relevant channel.

AD B2B Branding and Strategy Services

Whether you’re building your corporate image, launching a new product, refreshing an existing product or appealing to a new target audience, we provide three major branding and strategy service offerings that can be customized to your business needs.

Marketing Strategy

Goals and Needs Assessment
Buyer Personas
Customer Journey Mapping
Marketing Plans
Creative Campaigns
Measurement and Reporting

Branding

Message Development
Brand and Product Personas
Brand and Product Positioning
Visual Identity and Brand Bibles
Brand and Product Naming
Brand and Product Logos

Marketing Consulting

Business Goals Alignment
Marketing Strategy and Spend Effectiveness
Marketing Infrastructure Assessment
Marketing Technology Implementation, including marketing automation and CRM
Marketing and Sales Alignment
Lead Flow Process Development
Analytics and Attribution, including closed-loop conversion tracking

When you work with Walker Sands on branding and strategy, you receive a customized, collaborative experience that supports your brand's long-term success. Get in touch with our team today to find out how we can uncover your brand's story and ensure that it reaches the audiences who matter most.