From a Copywriter to an Agency CSO: Brand Strategy Principles with Maureen Alves
Read time: 4.5 min
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What is Brand Strategy? Why does it matter? And what are the key principles to becoming great at it?
In this episode of the Healthy Brand Podcast, I had a lovely discussion with Maureen Alves (Mo), Chief Strategy Officer at Havas Health Plus, an integrated agency focused on healthcare. We talk about her journey from a copywriter to the top of her profession and her philosophies about brand building.
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In this episode, we cover off on a variety of topics on brand strategy, arriving at a solid list of the top 10 principles of brand strategy you need to know.
TOP 10 PRINCIPLES
Brand Strategy is…
(1) Leading with empathy
Mo was very candid about what she thought and what she believed:
One of the biggest traits we need as strategists is empathy. Let’s keep it real, I don’t like a lot of business talk. I hate words like utilize and I show up as a human being… I often tell my teams, we don’t take off our human skin when we come to work, we come to work as people.
Because the ultimate task for a brand is to influence human beings, we need to understand humans and be empathetic about what they (we) are facing.
(2) A state of mind
Brand strategy is not about writing briefs and making templates. It’s a way of thinking.
I’m not precious about strategy. If you can ask questions, you are curious, and connecting dots, you have the makings of a strategist
(3) Nature with nurture
When pushed on what really makes a strategist, Mo offers a perspective that starts with some natural qualities.
I think it can be trained, but it’s like you have some natural ability for it. If you love strategy, you are probably good at it.
There definitely needs to be an innate nature to be curious, an ability to see patterns and then the desire to build the skills on top of that.
(4) Starting with clutter, ending in clarity
We talk about our process as a strategist and it’s typically split into three phases. Phase 1 is the mess and the clutter, phase 2 is stepping away and disconnecting, phase 3 is getting a spark and getting to clarity. (I actually wrote a piece on insights for one of my newsletter issues).
You have to kind of go down a rabbit hole of a lot of things and then you're like, what am I doing? Where am I? And then walk away from it. And you know, it's rarely that I'm sitting at my desk that I have that aha moment first. It's always like, I've walked away or I'm in bed, or I'm on a walk or I'm on the airplane and all of a sudden I'm like, oh, it's that
(5) Seeing from different perspectives
Mo talked about an eye opening moment for her when she was teaching in Thailand. It helped her realize that we are often trapped in our own perspectives, but that is such a limiting view of the world.
I had one of my transformative life moments. Right out of college, I taught in Thailand for a year. I went on a field trip, Buddhist Saturday. There were like thousands of people there, there were alters and certain kinda things. I grew up Catholic. I had to go to church every Sunday. I was like, all these people don't believe in God the way that I was taught and I had this moment.
The logical teaching extrapolated here is that if you don't believe in God, you're gonna go to hell. All of these people here are going to hell? Like no. They believe in this other thing… My mind kind of just exploded. It sounds very obvious…but your perspective is not the only perspective. Someone else's view does not have to be wrong for your view to be Right.
(6) Multi-dimensional and evolving
There are many types of strategy and different sub-specialties have been evolving over time - content strategists, digital strategists, customer experience (CX) strategists etc. One thing is clear, strategists need to know a lot about a lot of things with a particular specialty, so they can connect the dots holistically for the business, but also deliver on a specific need.
Where does brand strategy end and CX strategy begin? The solutions are getting more sophisticated and more on the business side.
(7) Finding the hidden gem
With a background in copywriting, Mo shared a couple of stories in which following an instinct on a lead and an idea, it led to some amazing things happening. The linch pin of any brand strategy - uncovering the insight that leads to everything else.
It was a breast cancer awareness event. So these women were driving cross country on motorcycles to raise awareness for breast cancer. They handed me a flyer all about breast cancer. And the very last line, there was a bullet point that said 10% of breast cancer patients are men. And I was like, wait, what?
And then I dug in and I found out my uncle had had breast cancer. I wrote an article for the American Cancer Society, and the local hospital found a male patient. Maybe I saved somebody's life?
(8) Not being afraid of being human, being vulnerable
Most companies and brands shy away from what’s uncomfortable, but the truth is that human vulnerability is the thing that connects us. Mo said it superbly:
There’s great risk in doing great work. And you know what? Being afraid of failure is actually what connects…so if you are comfortable, you probably should have pushed it
(9) A team sport, not a solo endeavor
Brand strategists sometimes find themselves working alone. It might be a problem of budgets or simply just the mindset that the insights should just come from one person. Mo offers a different perspective:
As a brand strategist, sometimes we think we should do it alone. Don't go out there and struggle on your own. Take advantage of the fact that you have people who are down the road a little and always use people to balance your ideas.
I always like to encourage people to cross pollinate. Cause I think as strategists, we are sort of like writers where you have your five favorite writers and you take little pieces from people who I have worked for and people who have worked for me, from everybody.
(10) Honest and true
A great bit of wisdom from Mo nearing the tail end of our conversation was about being true to our values and our voice. While this is not specific to brand strategy, it relates to its practice and for the clients it serves.
Live your values and truth, not producing or doing things the way you think other people want it to be. And if you're really in a space where you feel like your genuine self can't be heard and you have to be different, you just need to change it.
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