How Is a Brand Strategy Born? Our Step-by-Step Methodology

“I want a beautiful brand, one of those that make people fall in love with the business.”. That’s one of the most common things we hear around here. And it makes total sense. After all, anyone running a business wants to enchant, connect, and make their brand unforgettable. But there’s something important in all of this: beauty alone isn’t enough to create that kind of connection. What truly makes a brand beloved, one that stays in people’s minds and hearts, is the brand strategy behind it. And that’s exactly what we want to talk to you about in this article.

A brand strategy is a core tool of branding. It acts as a bridge between the business plan and the way a brand shows up in the world. It’s what translates the essence of the company into something that feels accessible, clear, and genuine for everyone, inside and outside the business. More than just guiding communication, it helps drive key decisions: from tone of voice to the name, from logo to colors and graphic elements. In our projects, this is where we always begin. Before any visual decisions are made, we go deep into the strategy. Want to see how we do it? Let us show you, step by step.

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Step 1 – Clarity

Before any creation, we need direction. That’s why the first step in our methodology is to seek clarity about what your business does, what it believes in, how it positions itself, and what it wants to build going forward. For this reason, the information gathering happens directly with the people who lead the business. In our methodology, this step happens through an interactive questionnaire that we carefully and lovingly created. It’s called Clarity. Through it, you will tell the story of your company in your own words. If you already have a structured business plan, you can use it as a base. But don’t worry if you don’t have one yet. Many people organize their ideas as they answer the questions, and that alone is a powerful process. After that, we continue the conversation. We exchange ideas, clear doubts, and open space for listening. Because what we want is to truly understand your business, deeply and attentively. Only with this solid foundation can we move on to the next step of the strategy and begin building a brand that truly reflects what your company is.

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Step 2 – Brand Heart

With the information in hand, it’s time to look even closer. We organize, connect, and translate everything you’ve shared to build a material that reflects the most authentic part of your company. That’s why we call this phase the Brand Heart. Here, the focus is on what beats inside your business, the feelings, values, and commitments. All of this is put into words that resonate, that make sense to those who see your brand from the outside: clients, partners, suppliers, team members, and more. It’s in this step that we define the key points. Every little piece is written with care, thinking about how to make your brand understood, desired, and remembered.

Chef Josie came to us to create the brand for her new venture. She was returning to Brazil with a plan: to open a café in Blumenau called Botané, offering quick snacks, quality products, and an affectionate approach. She would also do catering, something she already did with care as a chef. During the process, we got to understand what moved Josie. That’s how we arrived at the company’s purpose: “To be an affectionate kitchen where root food is shared with heart, soul, and boldness.” The expression “root food” connected both to the chef’s origins and to the local ingredients Botané values. The brand strategy translated all of this into words full of feeling.

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Step 3 – Brand World

After looking lovingly inside your company, it’s time to open the windows and observe what’s happening outside. After all, it’s in the outside world that your brand meets the clients of your dreams, understands what it can offer to transform their lives, and chooses how it wants to be perceived. In this step, we help you organize and translate the information coming from your business’s surroundings, like products, services, clients, and competition. The goal is to build a clear positioning that guides future decisions and shows how your brand can stand out with authenticity. It’s like mapping the territory where your brand will operate and saying: “This is where it meets the right people, in the right way.”

Tartiner came to us ready for a complete transformation of their packaging. But before starting the visual part, we went to investigate: how is the world of Brazilian spreads doing? In the brand strategy phase, we dived into the market to understand how other brands present themselves. Do they use mascots on the packaging? Do they bet on special finishes? What do they value? What do they leave out? These questions helped us see Tartiner’s current positioning and understand the best way for the brand to stand out in this new moment. That’s how the new line of “jars of happiness” was born, a rainbow of flavors with minimalist labels, aligned with the clean label positioning. All designed to truly and affectionately reflect what the brand believes in.

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Step 4 – Brand Manifesto

After so much listening, reflection, and decision-making, it’s time to give shape to your brand’s soul in words. This is where we create the Manifesto, a moving text that brings together everything discovered so far and transforms it into a living narrative about what your company believes in, values, and wants to convey. This manifesto is more than just a beautiful summary. It is a heartfelt invitation for people to connect with your brand. It works like a letter of introduction, capable of touching the hearts of your dream clients, inspiring partners, and engaging everyone who works alongside you. Every manifesto is born in its own way, using the language that best suits the company. It can be more poetic or direct, more playful or reflective, what matters is that it sounds true and full of meaning for whoever reads it. It’s a strategic piece that communicates essence, purpose, and personality.

Le Petit Chéri is an artisanal bakery that wanted to express in a sensitive way the special manner in which it makes its breads. In the strategy phase, we understood that the care with every recipe, the fermentation time, and the love in preparation were more than just technique: they were conscious choices that called for a manifesto worthy of them. The text begins like this: “Our breads, rich in flavor, are made from scratch to be savored without hurry”. A phrase that reveals the calm and intentional style of production, without ready-made mixes, as is common among competitors, and without shortcuts. Then comes the invitation: “Do you also love flavorful breads? Then you will find your favorite bread here at Le Petit Chéri artisanal bakery”. The expression “favorite bread” re-signifies the brand’s name, which was created as a tribute to the founder’s grandfather, and puts the bread, now the protagonist, as a symbol of affection and care. With this manifesto, Le Petit Chéri began to present itself with more truth, awakening identification in people and standing out as the only bakery in the city with truly artisanal production.

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Step 5 – Creative Path

With the Brand Heart defined, the Brand World mapped, and the Manifesto ready to touch hearts, it’s time to transform all of this into a creative direction. This trio organizes the feelings, intentions, and unique qualities of your company, creating a solid foundation for your communication to take shape with coherence and emotion. The strategy built so far doesn’t stay on paper: it guides how your brand speaks, acts, offers products, and connects with people. If the next step is to create the visual identity, this is when we open the first creative paths. Based on what your brand truly is, we explore possibilities and choose the most fitting direction. When the visual is born this way, from the inside out, it’s not only beautiful, it’s meaningful and powerful.

Bangalô Ilhabela is a place with an unforgettable sunset, and this natural beauty became part of the brand. From the strategy we built, we created the visual concept that begins like this: “The bright, ever-present sun paints nature’s silhouettes with its rays of light”. This was the starting point to design the graphic elements that today make up the brand’s visual identity: silhouettes of the bungalows, birds, and foliage. Every detail is born from the essence of the place. The Bangalô Ilhabela project was recognized by the Brazilian Design Biennial in the category Brand Identity & Spirit, and we believe it’s because it truly conveys everything this space represents.

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Conclusion: How Does a Brand Strategy Come to Life?

Brand strategy comes from the world of branding and is a powerful tool, but that doesn’t mean there’s a one-size-fits-all formula. In practice, every brand is unique, and so every strategy needs to be too. What we’ve shared here is our way of doing things: a process we’ve carefully refined over time, with lots of listening on every project. What really matters is understanding that when a solid strategy is behind it, a visual identity stops being just a pretty design. It becomes full of meaning and ready to create genuine connections with the people your business truly wants to reach.

And what about your business? Do you already have a Brand Strategy? Have you ever invested in a brand that looked beautiful but didn’t quite say everything you wanted? Tell us your story in the comments or write to us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you. Do you feel like it’s time for your business to take the next step and invest in a Beloved Brand? Count on us, let’s create it together! Request a proposal.