Tailoring Brand Strategy to Different Business Stages

Brand strategy isn’t just a day one thing. It’s not something you do and tick off the list to never revisit. A good brand strategy evolves because your business should be evolving too. What worked when you launched might be holding you back now. And what works today? That might need ripping up and rewriting in 18 months. Don’t think of it as failure, think of it as growth.

And before you ask … yes every business needs a brand strategy.

At co&co, we know this because we’ve lived it. We’ve spent years building brands with bite – and we practice what we preach. The heart of co&co hasn’t changed since day one. We knew who we were from the start, and we’ve stayed true to it. Strong brands stay solid at the core and keep levelling up around it. The goal is for you to know what you are, own your sh*t, and lean into it.

Whether you’re starting out, scaling up, or sitting comfortably (dangerous, by the way), your brand strategy needs to move with you. There’s always room to grow, refine, and do sh*t better. So let’s talk about what brand strategy is and what it should look like at every stage.

1. The Startup Stage: Build the Bones

Welcome to the chaos. You’re in startup mode, where cash is tight, time is tighter, and you’re probably doing three people’s jobs with half the energy. Sound familiar?

This is where most people wobble a bit. They ignore brand completely. Nothing. Nada. They think it’s something to “sort later” once they’ve made some money, hired a team, and magically found free time (spoiler: you won’t). If you don’t know what your brand stands for, why should anyone care? That’s why you’ve got to invest in brand strategy early.

At co&co, we always start with your brand DNA. This is the core of your strategy. The guts. The bit everything else hangs off. It covers your mission, vision, values, tone of voice and proposition. Here’s how we break it down:

• Mission - Why do you exist? And this goes way beyond ‘to just make money’. This is your reason for being. The deeper, more human answer to why you get out of bed and do what you do.
  
  

• Vision - Where are you going? We ask every client the same thing: what do you want to be famous for? Because people buy into belief long before they buy your product. Give them something to believe in.
  
  

• Values - The rules you live by. Now these drive your behaviour, shape your culture and show up in everything you do. But you have to make sure they’re sustainable. Don’t promise the world something if you aren’t going to be able to consistently deliver. Empty promise tank trust … and fast. If you can’t live your values day in, day out, don’t write them down. Simple as that.
  
  

• Tone of voice: What you say, what you don’t say and how you say it. Whatever it is, it needs to be you. Own it.
  
  

• Proposition - What makes you different and desirable? In other words: why should anyone give a sh*t about your brand?* What’s the impact you’re going to have, and why should people care?

After this, we move onto a bigger deep dive – because once we know who you are, we need to know who else is out there, what they’re doing, and how you’re going to do it ten times better. If you want the full picture of how we tackle this, check out our Ultimate Brand Strategy Guide.

Competitor & Industry Research

This is where we roll up our sleeves and see who else is playing in your space – and how you can outplay them. We’re not here to copy anyone, but we are here to learn what’s working, what’s stale, and where the gaps are. We look at tone, messaging, visuals, engagement tactics, the lot. Who’s smashing it? Who’s not? It all helps us find your space – and then get you to a place of owning it. There’s nothing surface-level about this. It’s deep-dive, no-fluff, no bull research with one goal: to make sure your brand doesn't blend in with the rest of the noise.

Say you’re launching a new sports product – let’s keep it simple, a gym wear line. A sh*t move would be to only look at other fitness brands. Sure, it’s useful to see what the big players are doing, but if you’re just copying what Nike, MyProtein and Lululemon are up to, you’re not building a brand.

The truth is, culture drives brands just as much as category does. Look at Lululemon – half the people wearing it haven’t even set foot in a gym. It’s not just about fitness, it’s about identity and belonging. That’s what good brands tap into.

So don’t limit your research to one box. Look at streetwear. Look at wellness. Look at gaming, fashion, music. Where are the crossovers? Who’s influencing your audience outside of your industry bubble? At co&co, we always zoom out before we zoom in because that’s how you create a brand that reshapes a space.

Visual Elements & Assets

Only after the thinking’s nailed do we touch the visuals. This is the part everyone wants to jump to – but without the brand DNA in place, you're just building a house with no architect plans.

Your visuals need to express your strategy. Every choice – colour, type, logo, photography, motion, should ladder up to that core identity we built earlier. If your tone is bold and unapologetic, your look better match. If you’re soft and human, the design should show it. Simple.

We don’t do pretty-for-pretty’s-sake. We do visuals that attract attention, build recognition, and drive consistency across every touchpoint. This is where your brand becomes real.

2. The Scale-Up Stage: Don't Let the Growth Kill You

You’re getting traction. People know your name. Sh*t’s moving fast – and your brand is starting to crack under the pressure.

Sound harsh? Well we’ve seen it too many times: scale-ups who cling to their startup branding like it’s a security blanket, even though it stopped fitting two rounds ago.

Here’s the deal. As your business grows, your brand needs to grow up too. What once made you look nimble and fresh might now just make you look like you don’t know what you’re doing or who you are.

This is where co&co’s brand strategy gets more layered:

Brand stretch

Can your current brand hold the weight of your growth plans? Or is it already wheezing under the pressure? What felt tight and mega when you launched might now feel small, confusing, or totally disconnected from where you're headed.

We look at how elastic your brand really is – can it flex across new products, markets, channels? Can it scale without losing clarity? We make sure your foundations are strong enough to carry the bigger picture, without you needing to rebrand every time you launch something new.

Internal alignment

Your brand is only as strong as the people delivering it. If your team can’t clearly articulate what you do, what you stand for, or how to talk about it, you’ve got a problem – and it’s probably bigger than a broken logo.

We sort the chaos. We get your people speaking the same language, rowing in the same direction, and actually living the brand. This is strategy meets culture. When your team’s aligned, the brand shows up stronger at every level – from pitch decks to customer service scripts to Slack messages. The whole lot.

Audience shift

You're not just talking to your mates and early adopters anymore. You’ve got a broader, more complex audience and if your brand voice and visuals haven’t evolved to meet them, you're gonna get left behind.

We re-evaluate your audiences, their behaviours, their expectations, and how they perceive you now. Not when you launched. Not in theory. Now. And then we shape your brand strategy to speak directly to them in a way that actually resonates with your audience.

At this stage, our strategy work at co&co digs deep. We’re mapping audience journeys, building detailed brand frameworks, pressure-testing positioning, and making sure your brand doesn’t just survive growth – it owns it.

You’re levelling up. Your brand has to as well. We’ll help you pivot without losing your soul. Keep the gutsy energy of your early days, but sharpen the edges.

Online, that means making sure your socials, content, and community-building still pack a punch and actually reflect where your business is now – not where it was. Offline, it’s your events, packaging, in-store experience, and every face-to-face interaction carrying that same evolved identity. Every touchpoint, digital or physical, should tell the world you’ve grown – without losing what made you worth following in the first place.

3. The Established Stage: Don't Get Boring

You’ve made it. You’ve got clients, revenue, maybe even an office plant that’s still alive. Congrats.

Now comes the bad part: complacency.

It’s easy to let your brand go stale once you’re established. Once you're established, it's easy to let the brand coast. Messaging gets lazy, engagement drops off a cliff, and suddenly you're getting outpaced by younger, hungrier brands doing what you used to do – only better.

The cure? Evolution. Not revolution. You don’t need to torch everything and start again. You just need a strategy that keeps your brand relevant, recognisable, and razor-sharp.

This is where co&co steps in:

Brand strategy audits

What’s still landing? What’s lost its edge? What’s straight-up dead weight?

We dissect your brand with zero bias and no fluff. Everything goes under the microscope – your messaging, your visuals, your tone of voice, even your internal comms. We’ll tell you where you’ve still got firepower, and where you’re holding on to sh*t that should’ve been killed off two years ago. Think of it as a health check for your brand.

Repositioning

The market’s shifted. Your audience has evolved. New players have entered the game. Are you still relevant? Are you still wanted? Or have you become a forgotten brand?

We dig deep into how people perceive you now – vs. how you want to be seen. If the gap’s too wide, we help you close it. Repositioning doesn’t mean losing your roots. It means sharpening your edge and shifting your focus to match where your audience is now, not where they were when you first launched.

This is how you stop being “that brand we used to like” and start being “that brand that still f*cking gets it.”

Engagement Strategy

Here’s the challenge: how do you keep people excited when they already know your name?

The answer isn’t “more content.” It’s better content. Smarter campaigns. More intentional interaction. Less broadcasting, more connection.

We rethink how your brand shows up across everything – social, events, partnerships, and wherever else your audience hangs out. We build strategies that reignite attention, deepen loyalty, and keep your brand feeling fresh without losing who you are.

Being known is easy. Staying interesting? That’s a different ball game.

We’ll make sure you’re not just “that company that’s been around a while.” We’ll make sure you’re still the one making waves, commanding attention, and owning your space. And yeah, we’ll do it without turning you into some cringey try-hard brand chasing trends on TikTok. We don’t mess about. We just get sh*t done.

Your business evolves. Your brand strategy has to as well. Whether you’re fresh out the gate or five years deep, co&co brings a no fluff, no bull approach to get your brand strategy working as hard as you are.

We’re not here to stroke egos or pander to stakeholder nonsense. We’re here to build a brand strategy that really connects with people. Sound good? Let’s work together.