An effective brand strategy is a vital step to solving key challenges with how your business is developed and perceived in the marketplace. In our previous blog, we examined the work that brand strategists do. To summarize, we identified that brand strategists work to understand a business, product or service, examining its composition, audience and competitive landscape to develop a plan for best positioning that entity for success that aligns with its goals. Initially, I intended to make this post about the tools a brand strategist needs to accomplish their work. However, it made more sense to first write about the skills a brand strategist needs to do their work to help grow your business. 

Brand strategists are problem solvers, relying on innate ability as well as learned and practiced methodologies to deliver brand solutions in service of the brand. No two brand-related problems are the same, and as such, brand strategists must rely on a diverse and ever-expanding set of skills and approaches to meet the many brand challenges they might face in today’s marketplace. 

Of course, brand strategists are diverse in terms of their backgrounds (they may be designers or not), experience (they may be independent or have in-house/agency experience) and areas of expertise (B2B, retail, products, etc.), but there are some things, namely skills and tools, that almost all brand strategists have in common. 

With these basics in mind, let’s discuss the skills you need in order to be effective at brand strategy. I’ve identified 10 basic skills that are pretty common. This is a list, not a ranking and the skills are listed in no particular order. It goes without saying that this list is subjective, though I’ve tried to give a wide angle lens of skills that most strategists would agree are key. Special thanks to Juliana Spaven of Magnetic Current who provided some great feedback on the list.

1. Storytelling
   

   A brand strategist must be able to weave together disparate pieces of data and information into compelling narratives that achieve many brand-related goals, such as conveying a brand’s origin story or expressing its unique values and culture. Brand storytelling also helps give clarity to the meaning of data and provides context to designers and other creatives who use the brand strategy to develop deliverables. 

2. Synthesis and Pattern Recognition
   

   Any brand strategy process involves lots of data. Brand strategists break things down, but also put things together, and they must be able to see connections and relationships where others may not. When patterns emerge, they must be able to draw them out and “connect the dots” so that hunches and assumptions can be supported by facts and truths. 

3. Curiosity & Thoughtfulness
   

   Brand strategists are problem solvers, but they are also question askers. They are explorers who don’t just accept what is told to them but want to look into it for themselves. They don’t make blanket statements or decisions without considering how everything connects and also how others think, feel, and respond to what they create.

4. Empathy/People Skills
   

   Brand strategists work at the behest of companies, large and small. What all those companies and corporations have in common is customers. Brands are created and exist to serve people. Brand strategists understand that the work they do is in service of people, people with real needs and pains and frustrations.

5. Organization and Clarity
   

   A brand strategist must be able to process and parcel a number of interrelated ideas, terms and information points, maintaining distinction. Mission, vision and purpose are similar, but not identical, so keeping them clear and distinct is important. As brand work becomes more complex and interdependent with other aspects of a business, this ability to organize data of all kinds is increasingly valuable.

6. Reading & Writing
   

   This one sort of goes without saying, but a brand strategist needs to be able to go through a lot of information. Some of the inputs will be visual, but a lot will be in the form of the written word. This goes hand in hand with communication.

7. Communication (Every Kind)
   

   A brand strategist must be able to communicate not only the decisions they make in developing brand strategies, they will at different times be required to communicate their rationale and process for why certain decisions were made.

8. Critical Thinking
   

   It is vitally important that brand strategists are able to think about brands not just in terms of how they appear on the surface, but also in light of what is happening beneath the surface. These include understanding how causes turn into effects, how actions lead to consequences, and how certain decisions create gaps and opportunities, among many others. Brand strategists are asked to make weighty decisions, specifically judgments and assessments of value, so they need to be able to process at a deep level.

9. Research
   

   Brand Strategists must be able to make use of many different kinds of research methodologies and tools. Sometimes the research is images, sometimes it is reference books or articles. It could be anything. They must be able to parse data and references to find relevant information. Exploration yields explanation. 

10. Listening
    

    A brand strategist will sometimes have strong inclinations and hunches about a particular direction. But, like a good detective, they must follow the clues, the evidence revealed through discovery and dialogue with clients and stakeholders. They must go where this evidence leads. Active listening to clients needs and goals is what will help them develop solutions that truly serve their clients’ needs, not just their own creative ambitions or aspirations.

Bonus Skill: Open-mindedness/Restraint

Strategists, particularly those with a design background, may at times want to impose clever, creative ideas on a strategy engagement. A helpful skill in this case is restraint, the ability to not force concepts or ideas that truly do not fit or serve the situation, and instead to trust in their strategic process to yield the best results.

These are a few of the most important and universal skills that a brand strategist needs to deliver their solutions.  We welcome and invite your feedback on this list. What skills make your top 10? Be on the lookout for our next blog, which will discuss the top tools that brand strategists use to deliver their results.