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To help shape your brand’s future success you need to start planning strategically. Asking the right questions isn’t just a good place to start, it’s vital.

Your most important brand strategy: action. Essentially, brand strategy comes down to two core elements: what you do, and why you are doing it.

There is a surprising fact about strategies that most organisations, large and small, have in common: they don’t have one. The sharper your strategy, the more difference you will see – especially to your profits.

When you think of a builders’ merchants, you probably don’t think of an advanced eCommerce website and digital marketing strategy. But why not? Everyone else in retail is using them.

Ironically, even people who work in branding often struggle to answer this question. That’s why, at CMDi, we have created a useful metaphor to help everyone in the built environment sector understand what is mean by a “brand”.

In its simplest form, your brand is your company’s reputation: the way it is perceived by people; specifically, by your target audience. Yet perception is anything but simple.

Builders’ merchants depend on one constant to survive: that their business continues to be the go-to supplier for builders in their area. Obvious? Yes. Easy? No.

Best-in-class retailers use personalisation to make purchases faster, easier, and more seamlessly intuitive for their customers at every touch point – maximising the value of the data available about their individual preferences.

Time’s running out. With digital-savvy buyers demanding the convenience online services bring, merchants must either make the switch to e-trading and marketing or watch their competitive power fade.

The right place to start 2019 is by creating a brand and communications strategy, based on customer needs and focused on delivering brand differentiation.