How to Increase Your Margins and Market Share with Brand Strategy

In this cutthroat game of capitalism that entrepreneurs play, we all have finite dollars, bodies, and supporting resources at our disposal. So why would we spend those precious reserves on brand strategy when products need innovated, operations need streamlined, and sales need closed? Because you win the customer’s heart before you win their wallet.

By Jared Frank | 7 min read
Last Updated: June 10, 2025

For many small business owners, brand strategy is an afterthought. It’s difficult to appreciate something that doesn’t physically exist when there are many other pressing priorities to consider. And most entrepreneurs are product-driven first… as you should be. The best brand strategy in the world will not save a product (or service) held together with pipe cleaners and duct tape.

But let’s assume your product is well-oiled and fits a market. That’s not enough to thrive or even survive. A strong brand strategy differentiates your company from its competition, relates intimately to the wants and needs of your ideal customers, and builds a moat around your business.

If you’ve ever wanted to make your small business feel bigger, more cohesive, and undeniably “you”, you’re in the right place.

Key Takeaways

A successful brand increases the perceived value of the product or service sold by a company. Assuming the cost of production or delivery remains constant, when perceived value increases, so do margins and/or market share.

A company brand must be different from its competitors, relevant to its ideal customers, and sustainable through deep moats. And it must be all three of these things to be a successful brand.

People don’t just buy products or services. They buy feelings. And brand strategy taps into those feelings to create emotional bonds with customers and increase the price they are willing to pay for your wares.

Why Brand Strategy Matters

Brand is an abstract belief associated with a company and its products or services. Imagine you walk into a store or visit a website and immediately recognize its logo, colors, and even the way its salespeople communicate with you. That feeling of familiarity and trust is no accident. It’s the result of a strong brand rooted in the limbic system of your brain. It just “feels right.”

If I’ve lost some of you already, maybe this will reel you back in… While brand evokes an intangible feeling, brand strategy transforms that intangible feeling into tangible and measurable results.

A successful brand increases the perceived value of the product or service sold by a company. Assuming the cost of production or delivery remains constant, when perceived value increases, a company can do two things:

Increase its prices, growing margins (profitability).

Hold prices steady, growing market share.

Regardless of your business strategy, brand helps you win. Here are two frameworks to consider when creating your brand strategy:

Brand Strategy Framework #1: Consider Where Customers Touch Your Brand

When most people think brand, they think advertising. But brand strategy encapsulates much more than ads. It accounts for the three places customers touch your brand – pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase.

Pre-Purchase Branding
Developing awareness, intent, and consideration through:

1) Advertising
2) Trade Shows
3) Events
4) Sponsorships
5) Social Media
6) Public Relations

Purchase Branding
Introducing physical contact through:

1) Distribution
2) Packaging
3) Store Design
4) Website UX
5) User Reviews
6) User-Generated Content

Post-Purchase Branding
Creating a sense of security through:

1) Customer Service
2) Loyalty Programs
3) Warranties

It is nearly impossible for a company to invest in all three places, or even two of them, because capital and headcount are limited. To identify where your business should allocate its focus, answer the three questions of brand building.

Brand Strategy Framework #2: Consider What’s Stopping Them from Touching Your Brand

Are we different from the competition?
Relevant to customers?
Able to own the brand?

A business must answer “yes” to all three questions to build a successful brand.

Because resources are finite and creative options are infinite, look for points of differentiation first. How do you stack up versus other companies with similar offerings? Find your opportunity to stand out and invest there.

Next, ask yourself – do my customers even care about this? Your brand must be relevant to their lives.

And finally, can you protect and maintain the brand, or is it easily replicable by the competition? Build moats around your brand (patents, copyrights, trademarks, brand names, human talent, intellectual property).

A Step-By-Step Guide to Create Your Brand Strategy

Internalize Your Three V’s (Vision, Values, Voice)

Your brand vision should be simple, aspirational, and evoke a strong, positive feeling in your customers when they first think about your company. This vision is the brand boiled down to its essence. Examples are Walmart (lowest prices), Google (truth/knowledge), Netflix (limitless entertainment).

Your brand values are also the core values of your organization. They are the guiding principles that define who you are, why you exist, and the rites of passage into your company. They govern every decision your team makes, from its behaviors to communications, its hiring/firing decisions to its vendor selections, its advertising partners to its distribution channels. In doing so, brand becomes a short-cut for decision making.

Your brand voice is not only the words, but the colors, logos, and even sounds that represent who you are (and who your customers are) and who you want to be.

Establish Your Brand Purpose

Decide who you are and who you serve… and only be that company with that audience. Nothing more. It was Confucius who once said, “When you chase two rabbits, both will escape.”

Develop Your Unique Selling Points

Answered as part of framework #2, what are your points of differentiation? List out everything that makes you unique, then narrow it down to the most impactful three things. A competitor might also do one or two of your unique selling points. But no one can do all three, else you’re not different.

Understand Your Best-Fit Customers

Define your ideal customers – their demographics, geographics, and psychographics. Again applying framework #2, your brand must be different, relevant, and sustainable for those ideal customers.

Create a Quality Cue

A quality cue is a product characteristic that signals value to your customer. Quality cues can be pricing related (a $400,000 Ferrari), packaging related (a Tiffany’s jewelry box), totem related (fresh-baked cookie at DoubleTree hotels), and location related (wine from Napa Valley).

Document All Information in a Brand Guidebook

Brand guidelines don’t need to be hundreds of pages long. Don’t get the lawyers involved. The longer your documentation, the less likely your employees, vendors, and other stakeholders are too read it and live it. A succinct one or two pages is the goal here.

Multiply Your Market Value

Brand building goes beyond a pretty logo or a warm and fuzzy tagline. It’s a means to increase margins and market share for your business.

People don’t just buy products or services. They buy feelings. Human beings want to feel understood, appreciated, and heard. And brand strategy that taps into those feelings creates an emotional bond with your ideal customers, increases the perceived value of the products or services they buy from you, while increasing the price they are willing to pay for them.

Don’t just have a brand strategy because it feels good. Have one to multiply the market value of your business.

Are you interested in a brand strategy workshop with Seat 36?
Write to Jared at jared@seat36.com.