When we talk about branding, we always start with the name and the logo. This is how the human brain is wired to rationale something we have just scratched the surface of. And while some of us hack the recipe for what goes behind building a brand identity worth remembering, most of us remain oblivious to the fact that a brand is nothing but its strategy.
And strategy is but a clever game of utilizing the resources in hand to manipulate your environment in a way that favors you and gives you an edge over everyone else on the chessboard.

The first step to branding is to put that brain to work and land on a concept for your identity that is relevant- both to your business and to the consumer at the other end of the spectrum. This is where strategy plays a big role, as you can pick the best name out of a hat, only for the audience to be unimpressed. There is a lot that goes behind birthing a virtual identity into existence.
Name, positioning, promise and design language are the basic pillars that, not implemented with a good strategy, can lead to a weak impact on your TG, converting a hammer strike to a gentle love tap on the competition.

After you have an identity in place, market penetration strategy is of paramount importance. This is where you shall differentiate between going viral or being remembered. To make a quick sale or a long-lasting impact. This is the stage where, if you don't have a well-defined strategy, you can go wrong in many ways, with the most common being the confusion of going in one direction, for example, peppy or classic. More often than not, this is where brands destroy themselves by doing a little bit of everything, leading to one brand and multiple voices.
And just like a cat who would meow, bark and chirp, that makes less and less sense to the audience with more and more exposure.

With any brand's communication strategy, the biggest challenge is to play the hand that the market trends and business circumstances deal you from time to time, there might be a change in consumer behaviour or affinity, corresponding to changes in the market or trends. There might be a shift in buyer perspective due to a recent event/series of small shifts in the market, more buying options, a rise of competition, so on and so forth.
Like all things sweet and mushy, a good strategy is always malleable, adapting to challenges in the market and constantly evolving to favour you.