BRAND STRATEGY

Brand strategy is more than a logo and a color code. It is the foundation for every decision a brand makes, from product development to communication to pricing. As a branding agency in Berlin, we develop brand strategies that position brands and give them a direction that carries long-term.

According to the Havas Meaningful Brands Report (2025), attachment to dynamic, clearly positioned brands is 2.3x stronger than to brands without a clear stance. 78% of all brands could disappear without anyone caring. For fashion and beauty brands competing in an oversaturated market, a strong brand strategy is the decisive differentiator.

Our Brand Strategy Process

A good brand strategy does not emerge in a vacuum. It starts with honest analysis and ends with a framework your team can actually use. Our process follows four phases.

Discovery: We begin with a Brand Audit, analyzing your current market position against the competition, identifying strengths and gaps. In parallel, we develop Market Insights and a full Competitive Landscape Mapping. The Brand Sprint then brings your stakeholders together in a structured workshop to jointly define vision, purpose, promise, values and personality.

Strategy: Based on the audit, we formulate your strategic foundation. This includes Target Customer Definition, Brand Purpose, Brand Promise, brand attributes and brand positioning as the conceptual place in your target customer's mind.

Development: Strategy becomes tangible. Naming, Visual Identity, Art Direction and Tone of Voice are built on the strategic foundation. As a coherent system, not a collection of assets.

Implementation: From Brand Guidelines to social media templates to rollout planning. We ensure the strategy is experienced in every interaction. Corporate design and rebranding can be seamlessly connected.

Brand Development: From Idea to Brand

Brand development is the process of conceiving a brand from scratch or fundamentally evolving an existing one. At HY.AM STUDIOS, brand development covers the complete journey from initial orientation to a finished brand identity. It starts with naming and strategic positioning, moves through visual identity and corporate design and ends with a system that works across every channel. We build brands that claim a place in culture.

Vision & Purpose: Why does your brand exist? What is your mission beyond profit? According to the Havas Meaningful Brands Report (2025), attachment to the most dynamic brands is 2.3x stronger than to the least dynamic. Brands that listen, adapt, and respond to their audience's needs are rewarded with significantly higher loyalty.

Brand Values: The 3-5 values that define your brand and guide every decision. Not generic buzzwords, but differentiating principles that set you apart from the competition.

Audience Definition: Who are your people, and who are not? We go beyond demographic data to define psychographic profiles, lifestyles and media behavior.

Brand Positioning: The space your brand wants to occupy in your audience's mind, and the strategy to claim that space.

For gitti, we developed a brand strategy that defined "A Better Beauty Brand" as a strategic framework, with clear positioning, values and an audience definition that guided every decision from product development to social media.

Brand Positioning: Finding Your Place in the Market

Brand positioning answers the question: Why should your audience choose you and not the alternative? In a market where fashion and beauty brands compete for the same audiences, clear positioning is a matter of survival. Positioning is the conceptual place your brand occupies in your audience's mind. Strong brand positioning makes growth plannable because it aligns every decision, from product to campaign, toward a clear goal. Especially for fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands operating in culturally saturated categories, competitive differentiation is not optional; it is a prerequisite.

Our positioning process:

1. Market & Competitive Analysis: Who are your competitors? How are they positioned? Where are the gaps?

2. Strengths Analysis: What can your brand do better than any other? What is your unfair advantage?

3. Positioning Statement: A clear sentence defining who you are, for whom, and why it matters.

4. Differentiation Strategy: The concrete actions that make your positioning tangible in every interaction.

For Hugo Boss, we sharpened the brand positioning as part of the brand refresh: from a heritage luxury brand to a culturally relevant fashion brand that resonates with a younger audience without alienating existing customers.

Brand Management

Brand management is the ongoing stewardship of a brand. It ensures the brand strategy is consistently executed in every interaction. From social media posts to packaging to customer touchpoints. Brand management means your brand is well lived every day: through your team, your communication, your partners. In a social-first world, consistent brand management is more demanding than ever: channels multiply, tempos increase, expectations grow. Good brand management gives your team a framework that enables consistency without constraining creativity. We build these frameworks and anchor them with brand guidelines that actually get used. As a social media agency, we also handle ongoing brand management across your channels.

What brand management at HY.AM includes:

• Brand Consistency: Ensuring all touchpoints, digital and physical, speak the same brand language
• Brand Guidelines: Living documents (not PDFs nobody reads) that empower your team to implement the brand consistently on their own
• Social Media Brand Management: In a social-first world, brand management happens primarily on social media. Every post, every comment, every story is brand communication
• Brand Monitoring: How is your brand perceived? Tracking brand sentiment, share of voice and brand awareness

Brand Architecture

Brand architecture defines how different brands, sub-brands and products within a company relate to each other. Especially relevant for companies with multiple brands or product lines. The choice of the right architecture model is a strategic decision. It influences how marketing budgets are allocated, how customers perceive your brand portfolio and how you enter new products or markets. For fashion groups with multiple labels, beauty companies with various product lines or lifestyle brands that are expanding, a well-considered brand architecture is the foundation for scalable communication. We analyze your starting point, evaluate options and recommend the model that fits your strategy and resources.

Brand architecture models:

• Branded House: One brand, everything underneath (e.g. Google)
• House of Brands: Independent brands under one roof (e.g. P&G)
• Endorsed Brands: Sub-brands backed by the parent brand (e.g. Marriott)
• Hybrid: A combination of models

Brand Communication

Brand communication translates your brand strategy into messages that reach and move your audience. It is about the "how" of communication: tone, language, channels, formats. A brand can be perfectly positioned and still fail if it never learns to communicate consistently and recognizably. We develop Messaging Frameworks, Tone of Voice and social-first communication strategies that work across all touchpoints, from Instagram to press releases. Brand communication is the bridge between what your brand is and what your audience understands and feels. Closely connected to content strategy and social media strategy.

Our brand communication services:

• Messaging Framework: Key messages, elevator pitch, tagline, brand story
• Tone of Voice: How does your brand sound? Formal or casual? Expert or friend? We define a tone of voice that is consistent across all channels
• Content Strategy: What content communicates your brand best? From social media to blog to newsletter
• Campaign Communication: How do you tell your story in campaigns?

Case Studies

• gitti — A Better Beauty Brand: Brand strategy from scratch. Positioning, values, audience, visual identity. A beauty brand that conquered a crowded market with a clear strategy.
• Freunde von Freunden — Cultural Comeback: Strategic repositioning as a social-first cultural publisher. Brand strategy that carries editorial heritage into a platform-native future.
• Warner Music — Brand System: Strategic brand architecture for Warner Music Central Europe. Brand system that brings clarity and expression to a complex brand portfolio.
• The Hairoine Company: Brand strategy for a beauty startup. Differentiating positioning in the natural hair care market.
• noma noma: Brand building for a conscious accessories label. Brand strategy that unites sustainability with fashion ambition.
• Squarespace: Go-to-market strategy for a tech platform. Brand strategy that proves impact beyond fashion and beauty.