brand business plan example

Branding Plan

As a company that wants to continuously thrive, you need to make sure you find good and effective ways to market the products and/or services of your company. With that in mind, you need to immediately plan out the steps you need to take in order to have a successful market and sell what your company offers. Making a plan as to what you need to do will set attainable goals and help you keep track of your progress so far. Furthermore, it will also help you make sure you do precisely what steps are needed in order to achieve your goals.

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Aside from that, you need to make sure you establish your brand to your target demographic and make it known to potential customers. As you continue to make sure your business survives, making sure your brand becomes easy to recognize and well-known to the customers is essential to the process. With that in mind, a plan is important and helpful in advertising and keeping your brand alive. This article will help you plan for your brand as well as other important matters you should remember when you want to push your brand further.

What Is a Brand/Branding Plan?

As mentioned earlier, in order to ensure the survival of the company, it is important to assert and advertise your brand anywhere and anytime possible. However, you still need to choose specific strategies to use in doing so; otherwise, your effort will be futile. You need to have a thorough plan outlining which specific strategies should be done when so that it will be easier for you to execute them as well as measure your progress.

With that in mind, a brand or branding plan is a document that contains the strategies and tactics the company will use to do the direction they want to go for their brand as well as achieve the goals they have set. The brand plan is basically an umbrella that which encapsulates the marketing sales and product development plans . It puts into details what each aspect needs to perform in order to help the brand at the same time setting objectives that operations and finance need to support.

It is basically a plan that helps you utilize your brand’s limited resources to drive the biggest return. In this sense, a branding plan is a significant document that holds steps, actions, and procedures needed to accomplish in order to ensure the success of the brand. And since the brand is the most valuable asset of the company, a branding plan aligns, steers, and inspires all other functional areas of the company. Through this plan, the company has a guide on what steps to take, how and what the areas are supposed to do in order to support the branding efforts.

Elements of a Brand Plan

In order to make determine which strategies should be prioritized, you need to have a clear understanding of what you need in order to set and achieve the goals and objectives of the brand. Afterward, you can immediately start planning for the brand; this is when you start drafting a brand plan. However, it is important to remember that there are important aspects you need cover in your brand plan in order for it to be effective. With that, here are some of the most important elements of a brand plan you need to include:

1. Situation Analysis

A situational review is a deep-dive business review assessing where you currently are in the business or industry. In order to have an effective situational analysis you have to look at factors connected to your business such as the category, consumer, competitors, channels, and the brand. You have to determine what is driving your business as well as what is preventing you from fulfilling it. You also need to include the risks that may arise and the opportunities that has still to be tapped into.

2. Key Issues

After a summary is made from the situation analysis, you can determine what issues you are facing or about to face. With this in mind, key issues are basically the inhibitors that are preventing you from achieving the goals and objectives you already set. In this section, you will determine the inhibitors and the risks your brand is exposed to. At the same time, you will also need to include what effects these inhibitors and risks will cause your brand, how they can affect your growth, sales, etc.

3. Vision/Purpose/Goals

This section will contain of the branding plan contains the vision you have for the brand. You can only plan out the strategies you want to apply if you have a good reason behind it. In this case, the vision you have for your brand is basically where you want your brand to be after a certain period of time. You have to clearly define the purpose of your brand so that it will be easier for you to make a plan. In addition to that, you can also set measurable goals or objectives that will be what drives your plans as well as your strategies.

4. Strategies

In your branding plan, it is essential to include specific strategies and tactics, mostly marketing related, that you need to do in order to achieve the vision and goals you have for the brand. However, you need to remember that the strategies that should be included in your brand must be studied and tested. It is important that these strategies have ample data that supports their effectiveness; otherwise, resources will be wasted. In this case, it is important to remember that the strategies you use help you get to where you envisioned your brand to be on a certain period of time.

Since you have already identified and determined the strategies that you need to do in order to achieve you vision and goals, you need to be able to execute them according to the provisions or procedures of the said strategies. The way you execute your plan will be heavily influenced by the strategies you have included; this means that you have to be able to create a bond with your target customers in order to establish your brand’s reputation based on a distinct positioning and influence them to change how they feel, think, and act toward your brand.

In order to know if your efforts have borne the fruit you desire, you need to measure their effectiveness. Depending on how you want to measure your progress and growth as a brand, you need to assess whether there are significant changes brought about your shift in your old branding plan. You can conduct a survey , interviews, and so on in order to gather data you can measure and compare to your previous progress or growth. Measuring your progress will help you determine whether the strategies you have in place have been working or not.

Strategic Questions to Answer When Making a Branding Plan

In order to make an effective branding plan, you need to be aware of certain aspects and factors in your brand that can affect your overall growth. You need to know the current status and be aware with the current situation your brand is currently at. This will help you make better choices and make better decisions in order to help your brand grow even more or maybe penetrate new market, whatever you purpose may be. With that in mind, here are strategic questions you can use as guide when making a branding plan:

1. Where could we be?

This question refers to the vision/purpose/goals you have for your brand. You need to know and determine what you want to achieve in order to make moves that will help you get there. In order to answer this question effectively, you need to assess where you currently are and envision where you want your brand to go. In addition to that, you need to set a practical timeline of when you want achieve your goals. Doing this will ensure you set goals that are achievable and measurable. Answering this question will help you put specific vision and/or goals in your branding plan.

2. Where are we?

This pertains to your current situation. A thorough situational analysis will help you understand and be aware of where you are at in terms of growth and progress. When you started your brand you have already set goals and visions you need to achieve within a period of time, that will help you assess your current situation. In this case, you need to determine what has driven your brand to continue until such day, what inhibitors have prevented you to do certain things, the risks you have faced and may arise, and the opportunities you have yet to dive into.

3. Why are we here?

In order to answer this question, you need to figure out your current competitive position, the main strength your brand has, the connection your customers have with your brand, and the current business situation that your brand is facing. If you have figured out the mentioned aspects, you will have a better picture of why your brand is currently in the position it is now. Since you are aware of your current situation, you should also be aware why you are there. Figure out why you have grown so much from your first few months or why you have shown little progress so far.

4. How can we get there?

This is where your strategies and tactics come into the picture. However, in order to come up with suitable strategies, you need to think back to your vision. Your strategies will highly depend on the numbers, progress, etc. you want to achieve. You need to make sure that your strategies will help you pursue and get to the point where you want your brand to be; otherwise, the plan will have to be subjected to major improvements and changes. In addition to this, make sure that the strategies you use have been tested out prior to it being included in your branding plan.

5. What do we need to do?

This question is related to the fourth question. In order to accurately answer this question, you need to determine how to properly execute your strategies. This is where the testing of strategies comes in hand since it will give you of an overview of how the strategy can be effective, which means the most effective execution of such strategies have also been tested out. It is important to remember that although you tested the strategies, the market continuously changes and you need you make decisions to help you adapt. In addition to the strategies, how to measure their effectiveness as well as your overall progress should be included.

A branding plan is an essential document that will help you establish a connection with your customers. It can either make or break you brand. With that in mind, it is why it is important to study your market and plan accordingly. Although a branding plan will serve as your guide as you establish your brand in the market, make sure you are able to adapt to changes along the way. We hope you find the topics discussed in this article informative and useful.

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18 of My Favorite Sample Business Plans & Examples For Your Inspiration

BUSINESS PLAN TEMPLATES

Free templates to draft effective business plans.

Updated: 07/01/24

Published: 11/08/18

Updated: July 01, 2024

Published: November 08, 2018

I believe that reading sample business plans is essential when writing your own.

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As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, it’s easier for you to learn how to write a good one.

So what does a good business plan look like? And how do you write one that’s both viable and convincing? I’ll walk you through the ideal business plan format along with some examples to help you get started.

Table of Contents

Business Plan Types

Business plan format, sample business plan: section by section, sample business plan templates, top business plan examples.

Ultimately, the format of your business plan will vary based on your goals for that plan. I’ve added this quick review of different business plan types that achieve differing goals.

For a more detailed exploration of business plan types, you can check out this post .

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1. Startups

Startup business plans are for proposing new business ideas. If you’re planning to start a small business, preparing a business plan is crucial. The plan should include all the major factors of your business.

You can check out this guide for more detailed business plan inspiration .

2. Feasibility Studies

Feasibility business plans focus on that business's product or service. Feasibility plans are sometimes added to startup business plans. They can also be a new business plan for an already thriving organization.

3. Internal Use

You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals.

4. Strategic Initiatives

A strategic business plan is another business plan that's often shared internally. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan.

5. Business Acquisition or Repositioning

When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. These types of business plans expand on a company's acquisition or repositioning strategy.

Growth sometimes just happens as a business continues operations. But more often, a business needs to create a structure with specific targets to meet set goals for expansion. This business plan type can help a business focus on short-term growth goals and align resources with those goals.

I’m going to focus on a startup business plan that needs to be detailed and research-backed as well as compelling enough to convince investors to offer funding. In my experience, the most comprehensive and convincing business plans contain the following sections.

Executive Summary

This all-important introduction to your business plan sets the tone and includes the company description as well as what you will be exchanging for money — whether that’s product lines, services, or product-service hybrids.

Market Opportunity

Information about gaps in your industry’s market and how you plan to fill them, focused on demand and potential for growth.

Competitive Landscape Analysis

An overview of your competitors that includes consideration of their strengths and how you’ll manage them, their weaknesses and how you’ll capitalize on them, and how you can differentiate your offerings in the industry.

Target Audience

Descriptions of your ideal customers, their various problems that you can solve, and your customer acquisition strategy.

Marketing Strategy

This section details how you will market your brand to achieve specific goals, the channels and tactics you’ll utilize to reach those goals, and the metrics you’ll be using to measure your progress.

Key Features and Benefits

This is where you’ll use plain language to emphasize the value of your product/service, how it solves the problems of your target audiences, and how you’ll scale up over time.

Pricing and Revenue

This section describes your pricing strategy and plans for building revenue streams that fit your audiences while achieving your business goals.

This is the final section, communicating with investors that your business idea is worth investing in via profit/loss statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets to prove viability.

Okay, so now that we have a format established, I’ll give you more specific details about each section along with examples. Truthfully, I wish I’d had this resource to help me flesh out those first business plans long ago.

1. Executive Summary

I’d say the executive summary is the most important section of the entire business plan. It is essentially an overview of and introduction to your entire project.

Write this in such a way that it grabs your readers' attention and guides them through the rest of the business plan. This is important because a business plan can be dozens or hundreds of pages long.

There are two main elements I’d recommend including in your executive summary: your company description and your products and services.

Company Description

This is the perfect space to highlight your company’s mission statement and goals, a brief overview of your history and leadership, and your top accomplishments as a business.

Tell potential investors who you are and why what you do matters. Naturally, they’re going to want to know who they’re getting into business with up front. This is a great opportunity to showcase your impact.

Need some extra help firming up your business goals? I’d recommend HubSpot Academy’s free course to help you set meaningful goals that matter most for your business.

Products and Services

Here, you will incorporate an overview of your offerings. This doesn’t have to be extensive, as it is just a chance to introduce your industry and overall purpose as a business. I recommend including snippets of information about your financial projections and competitive advantage here as well.

Keep in mind that you'll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. The executive summary should be clear and brief, only including the most important takeaways.

Executive Summary Business Plan Examples

This example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template . What makes this executive summary good is that it tells potential investors a short story while still covering all of the most important details.

Our Mission

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels offers gluten-free bagels, along with various toppings, other gluten-free breakfast sandwich items, and coffee. The facility is entirely gluten free. Our team expects to catch the interest of gluten-free, celiac, or health-conscious community members who are seeking an enjoyable cafe to socialize. Due to a lack of gluten-free bagel products in the food industry currently, we expect mild competition and are confident we will be able to build a strong market position.

The Company and Management

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels was founded in 2010 by Maria Jones, who first began selling her gluten-free bagels online from her home, using social media to spread the word. In 2012 she bought a retail location in Hamilton, MA, which now employs four full-time employees and six part-time employees. Prior to her bagel shop, Maria was a chef in New York and has extensive experience in the food industry.

Along with Maria Jones, Gluten Free Bagel Shop has a board of advisors. The advisors are:

• Jeni King, partner at Winding Communications, Ltd.
• Henry Wilson, president of Blue Robin, LLP.

Our Product

We offer gluten-free products ranging from bagels and cream cheese to blueberry muffins, coffee, and pastries. Our customers are health-conscious, community-oriented people who enjoy gluten-free products. We will create a welcoming, warm environment with opportunities for open mic nights, poetry readings, and other community functions. We will focus on creating an environment in which someone feels comfortable meeting a friend for lunch, or working remotely.

Our Competitive Advantages

While there are other coffee shops and cafes in the North Shore region, there are none that offer purely gluten-free options. This restricts those suffering from gluten-free illnesses or simply those with a gluten-free preference. This will be our primary selling point. Additionally, our market research [see Section 3] has shown a demand for a community-oriented coffee and bagel shop in the town of Hamilton, MA.

Financial Considerations

Our sales projections for the first year are $400,000. We project a 15% growth rate over the next two years. By year three, we project 61% gross margins.

We will have four full-time employees. The salary for each employee will be $50,000.

Start-up Financing Requirements

We are seeking to raise $125,000 in startup to finance year one. The owner has invested $50,000 to meet working capital requirements, and will use a loan of $100,000 to supplement the rest.

Example 2 :

Marianne and Keith Bean have been involved with the food industry for several years. They opened their first restaurant in Antlers, Oklahoma in 1981, and their second in Hugo in 1988. Although praised for the quality of many of the items on their menu, they have attained a special notoriety for their desserts. After years of requests for their flavored whipped cream toppings, they have decided to pursue marketing these products separately from the restaurants.

Marianne and Keith Bean have developed several recipes for flavored whipped cream topping. They include chocolate, raspberry, cinnamon almond, and strawberry. These flavored dessert toppings have been used in the setting of their two restaurants over the past 18 years, and have been produced in large quantities. The estimated shelf life of the product is 21 days at refrigeration temperatures and up to six months when frozen. The Beans intend to market this product in its frozen state in 8 and 12-ounce plastic tubs. They also intend to have the products available in six ounce pressurized cans. Special attention has been given to developing an attractive label that will stress the gourmet/specialty nature of the products.

Distribution of Fancy's Foods Whipped Dream product will begin in the local southeastern Oklahoma area. The Beans have an established name and reputation in this area, and product introduction should encounter little resistance.

Financial analyses show that the company will have both a positive cash flow and profit in the first year. The expected return on equity in the first year is 10.88%

Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary

• Start with a strong introduction of your company that showcases your mission and impact, then outline the products and services you provide.
• Clearly define a problem, explain how your product solves that problem, and show why the market needs your business.
• Be sure to highlight your value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential.
• Keep it concise and support ideas with data.
• Customize your summary to your audience. For example, you might emphasize finances and return on investment for venture capitalists, whereas you might emphasize community benefits and minimal environmental impact for progressive nonprofits.

For more guidance, check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary .

2. Market Opportunity

This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market. Ask and answer: Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will my product fill that gap?

To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you'll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, SOM analysis , a SWOT analysis , and perform market research on your industry to get some insights for this section. More specifically, here’s what I’d include.

• The size of the market
• Current or potential market share
• Trends in the industry and consumer behavior
• Where the gap is
• What caused the gap
• How you intend to fill it

Market Opportunity Business Plan Example

I like this example because it uses critical data to underline the size of the potential market and what part of that market this service hopes to capture.

Example: The market for Doggie Pause is all of the dog owners in the metropolitan area and surrounding areas of the city. We believe that this is going to be 2/3 of the population, and we have a goal of gaining a 50% market share. We have a target of a 20% yearly profit increase as the business continues.

Tips for Writing Your Market Opportunity Section

• Focus on demand and potential for growth.
• Use market research, surveys, and industry trend data to support your market forecast and projections.
• Add a review of regulation shifts, tech advances, and consumer behavior changes.
• Refer to reliable sources.
• Showcase how your business can make the most of this opportunity.

3. Competitive Landscape Analysis

Since we’re already speaking of market share, you‘ll also need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are. After all, your customers likely have more than one brand to choose from, and you’ll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another.

My favorite part of performing a competitive analysis is that it can help you uncover the following:

• Industry trends that other brands may not be utilizing.
• Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle.
• Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points.
• The unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers.

Competitive Landscape Business Plan Example

I like how the competitive landscape section of this business plan shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are. It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location. This demonstrates useful experience in the industry, helping to build trust in your ability to execute your business plan.

Competitive Environment

Currently, there are four primary competitors in the Greater Omaha Area: Pinot’s Palette Lakeside (franchise partner), Village Canvas and Cabernet, The Corky Canvas, and Twisted Vine Collective. The first three competitors are in Omaha and the fourth is located in Papillion.

Despite the competition, all locations have both public and private events. Each location has a few sold-out painting events each month. The Omaha locations are in new, popular retail locations, while the existing Papillion location is in a downtown business district.

There is an opportunity to take advantage of the environment and open a studio in a well-traveled or growing area. Pinot’s Palette La Vista will differentiate itself from its competitors by offering a premium experience in a high-growth, influential location.

Tips for Writing Your Competitive Landscape

• Complete in-depth research, then emphasize your most important findings.
• Compare your unique selling proposition (USP) to your direct and indirect competitors.
• Show a clear and realistic plan for product and brand differentiation.
• Look for specific advantages and barriers in the competitive landscape. Then, highlight how that information could impact your business.
• Outline growth opportunities from a competitive perspective.
• Add customer feedback and insights to support your competitive analysis.

4. Target Audience

Use this section to describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience? I’d recommend building a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear about why you're targeting them. Here are some questions I’d ask myself:

• What demographics will most likely need/buy your product or service?
• What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
• Why are your offerings valuable to them?

Target Audience Business Plan Example

I like the example below because it uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this audience.

The Audience

Recognize that audiences are often already aware of important issues. Outreach materials should:

• Emphasize a pollution-prevention practice
• Tell audience a little about how to prevent pollution
• Tell audience where they can obtain information about prevention.

Message Content

• Focus the content for outreach materials on cost savings, such as when and where pollution prevention is as cheap as or cheaper than traditional techniques. Include facts and figures.
• Emphasize how easy it is to do the right thing and the impacts of not engaging in pollution prevention.
• Stress benefits such as efficiency or better relations with government, for businesses not primarily concerned with public image.

Tips for Writing Your Target Audience Section

• Include details on the size and growth potential of your target audience.
• Figure out and refine the pain points for your target audience , then show why your product is a useful solution.
• Describe your targeted customer acquisition strategy in detail.
• Share anticipated challenges your business may face in acquiring customers and how you plan to address them.
• Add case studies, testimonials, and other data to support your target audience ideas.
• Remember to consider niche audiences and segments of your target audience in your business plan.

5. Marketing Strategy

Here, you‘ll discuss how you’ll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy . I think it’s helpful to have a marketing plan built out in advance to make this part of your business plan easier. I’d suggest including these details:

• Your brand positioning vision and how you'll cultivate it.
• The goal targets you aim to achieve.
• The metrics you'll use to measure success.
• The channels and distribution tactics you'll use.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example

This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler. In my opinion, it works because it offers a comprehensive picture of how they plan to use digital marketing to promote the community.

You’ll also learn the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.

This business plan guide focuses less on the individual parts of a business plan, and more on the overarching goal of writing one. For that reason, it’s one of my favorites to supplement any template you choose to use. Harvard Business Review’s guide is instrumental for both new and seasoned business owners.

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