Without question, creating a brand plan presentation is a powerful way to earn the trust of your leadership team. However, it’s unlikely anyone will read it a second time. Our one-page Brand Plan will keep everyone aligned with your brand strategy. In this article, I will share plenty of Brand Plan examples and show how to use our Brand Plan template so you can build your own plan.
Our streamlined one-page brand plan template ensures everyone involved is aligned and informed. It captures the vision, delves into analytics, addresses key issues, outlines strategies and goals, and marketing execution plans. We provide clear brand plan definitions to enhance your understanding and fluency.
One-page brand plan template
Does everyone on your team know their role and know how they contribute to building a successful brand?
I first developed this one-page brand plan template when I led a team with 15 brands. It helped me see the big picture quickly, rather than having to hunt through a big thick binder. Even worse is now looking through a confusing share drive to sort through a bunch of 50-slide presentations.
Most importantly, the sales team appreciated the ability to see the entire plan on one page. Many salespeople had the same 15 brands to manage with their customers. Unlike the brand team, they don’t want to work with binders or big PowerPoint decks.
Unquestionably, everyone who works on the brand should receive the one-page brand plan. As a rule, they should keep the plan nearby to guide day-to-day decisions. For example, below is the one-page brand plan template we use.
Your one-page brand plan template can align marketing, sales, finance, supply chain, product development, human resources, and outside ad agencies. Lastly, the one-page brand plan helps you stay focused on delivering what you said.
How to work the one-page Brand Plan template
The analysis section lays out the summary from the deep-dive business review. As a rule, you should conduct a deep-dive business review annually. Essentially, look at the market, consumer, channels, competitors, and the brand. First, what is driving your brand’s growth? Second, what is inhibiting your brand’s growth? Third, which threats could hurt your brand? Finally, what opportunities are facing your brand?
The key issues and marketing strategy section focuses on the top three issues getting in the way of achieving your vision. Importantly, put the key issues in question format. Furthermore, we introduce you to our Strategic ThinkBox which uses four questions to help you uncover the key issues facing your brand. First, what is your brand’s core strength? Second, how tight is the bond with consumers? Third, what is your competitive stance? Finally, what is the business situation the brand faces? In addition, the strategic solutions should be the answers that match up to each of those questions. Set goals to measure your brand’s performance against each marketing strategy.
The marketing execution plan section maps out the specific plans for each chosen execution area that line up with essential consumer touchpoints. For example, include execution plans for brand communication, product innovation, and sales.
To illustrate, click on the brand plan process we use as part of our one-page brand plan template.
To illustrate, click on the Brand Plan definitions we use as part of our one-page template.
If you are looking to go deeper on how to write each element of a marketing plan, click on the following link: Step-by-step guide for how to write a Marketing Plan.
Brand Plan template
Get the template designed by an ex-VP of Marketing who knows what your boss is looking for.
Altogether, we provide both a strategic brand plan template and marketing plan template. To clarify, our templates include the key definitions and marketing plan examples to inspire you to write each component.
We also have brand positioning templates, deep-dive business review templates, and creative brief templates. As well, all brand presentation templates are available to use for consumer brands, B2B, and healthcare brands. With each brand template, we include fully completed examples and blank slides and definitions that allows you to enter your own brand strategies.
For those who want all our brand templates, we offer a Brand Toolkit. You can get a consumer brand toolkit, B2B brand toolkit, or a Healthcare brand toolkit. If you are a brand consultant, check out our Consulting brand toolkit.
Back-to-back one pagers
Now, you can get everyone on the team to keep the one-page brand plan and some execution plan handy.
What I recommend is to laminate two documents back-to-back. For instance, your agency should get the Brand Plan and the Creative Brief. Your R&D could get the Brand Plan and the Innovation Plan. Your key salespeople could get the Brand Plan and the In-store Merchandising Plan.
To illustrate, click on the Brand Plan or Creative Brief we use as part of our one-page template.
The power of threes
I believe in “the power of threes.” Your one-page plan should force you to decide where to focus and allocate your limited resources. The other beauty of the one-page brand plan is that it forces you to focus on less. That helps focus your resources.
As a guideline, for an annual plan, I recommend you focus on the top three strategies and then focus on the top three tactics for each strategy.
That means nine significant projects for your brand to focus your limited resources against during the year. Compare the subtle difference with what happens when you try five strategies with five tactics: the plan quickly explodes into 25 projects and seven by seven leads to 49 projects. That would cripple your brand’s limited resources. What if you never got to the forty-ninth project, but it was the most important project? So, with fewer projects, you can execute everything with full passion and brilliance.
I see too many marketers with a long list of things they need to do. They end up so busy that they have no time to think about what matters to their brand. You will have little passion for any particular project, trying to get everything done. In short, all of the important projects need more resources to have the impact you hope.
You can purchase our brand plan template
Brand Plan Frequently Asked Questions
What are the major steps in writing a brand plan?
- To start, every brand plan must have a vision that acts as the guiding line to chase. Make sure you have a sales goal tied to that vision.
- Second, dig deep into a business review to focus on the strengths ,weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
- Third, use our Strategic ThinkBox to figure out the key issue questions that are facing the brand. Then, write strategies that answer the issues.
- Then, hold a brainstorm with your team on tactical ideas. Build plans to help steer the subject matter experts including brand communication, innovation, and sales/retail.
- Last but not least, create goals and measure performance. The goals should done at the end to make sure you measure the strategies and tactics.
Why is a brand plan important?
The main role of a brand plan presentation is to gain approval of your management team. This includes the C-Suite or CEO. Importantly, explain how you will you use your resources to drive growth on your brand. Essentially, the brand plan becomes the roadmap that everyone on your team will follow and help achieve your brand goals. Clearly, an effective brand plan will create the brand vision, purpose, key issues, strategies, and tactics. We love our one-page brand plan, and a presentation to support.
What makes a good brand plan?
First, the best brand plans present a cohesive story. That’s the reason you should have a good brand plan template. If you are standing at the front of the room make sure you keep the boss is following your story, and it will go very well.
Second, the best brand plans take a focused approach. Importantly, they do spread the limited resources across too many ideas. They make sure each idea has enough resources to make a difference. Otherwise, you will always be disappointed in the results.
Third, the best brand plans work to involve the other teams to ensure the team is aligned to the brand plan. Make sure you involve sales, operations, R&D, your ad agency. And, include all those who deliver on behalf of the brand.
Fourth, the best brand plan presentations seem in control of the conversation. Stay focused. You should have no more than 20 slides.
Finally, the best brand plans are highly organized. They tell a story. It all works together like an orchestra. Every tactic must line up with a strategy, or senior management will notice. And, a well-organized brand plan is much more likely to gain approval from senior managers.
What is included in a brand plan?
If you are looking for an ideal outline for a brand plan, here is our recommendation: vision, purpose, goals, SWOT analysis, key issues, strategy statements, marketing communications plan, sales plan, innovation plan, forecast, and financials. Our brand plan template uses this outline.
Marketing Excellence
We empower the ambitious to achieve the extraordinary.
Without a doubt, our role at Beloved Brands is to help the ambitious marketers who are trying to improve their marketing skills. Most importantly, we will prepare you so you can reach your full potential in your career. You will learn about strategic thinking, brand positioning, brand plans, marketing execution, and marketing analytics. As well, we provide a suite of marketing tools, templates that will make it easier to do your job, processes that you can follow, and provocative thoughts to trigger your thinking.
Have you gone through an assessment of the marketing skills of your team? Take a look below:
The fundamentals of marketing matter.
Our Beloved Brands marketing training programs cover different streams to suit the type of marketer you are. For instance, our marketing training covers consumer marketing, B2B marketing, and Healthcare marketing.
The marketing fundamentals that we show in this article are part of what we use in our marketing training programs. Ambitious marketers will learn about strategic thinking, brand positioning, brand plans, marketing execution, writing creative briefs, advertising decision-making, marketing analytics, and marketing finance.
Importantly, when you invest in our marketing training program, you will help your team gain the marketing skills they need to succeed. Without a doubt, you will see your people make smarter decisions and produce exceptional work that drives business growth.
Finally, I wrote our Beloved Brands playbook to help you build a brand that your consumers will love. If you are a B2B marketer, try our B2B Brands playbook. And, if you are a Healthcare Marketer, try our Healthcare Brands playbook.
We designed our brand templates to make it easier for you to do your job.
Moreover, we provide brand templates that help you run your brand. For instance, you can find templates for marketing plans, brand positioning, creative briefs, and business reviews. Altogether, we offer brand toolkits with all the presentation slides you need.
Beloved Brands video
Everything a Marketing must know about.
Importantly, Brand leaders need to know how to think, define, plan, execute and analyze with the best of them. Moreover, while the brand leaders don’t really know how to do anything, they are looked upon to make every decision. Have a look at our five minute video on everything a marketer must know. To read more, click on this link: Everything.
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If you are looking to make your marketing team smarter, we can help. To get started, email Graham Robertson at [email protected]