The Three Pillars of Brand Strategy

What signals long-term value? Having brand strategy in place.

OK, I'm not here to teach you how to prep for your investor pitch.

But I’ve picked up a few things from talking to people who’ve done it—over and over again.

Connecting the dots is what I do.

So let’s get into it: Why do brand management skills actually get you further in any business conversation?

It’s often misunderstood or downplayed. Too many still see it as “the logo and the tone of voice.”

In reality, brand management is a business discipline.

In a nutshell, it’s about:

Done right, brand management is structured and repeatable. You work through three key phases:

1. RESEARCH

Look at what’s happened so far. Identify the gaps, misalignments, or blind spots.

2. STRATEGY

Once you know the sore spots, shape a plan that addresses them—and how to roll it out.

3. DEPLOY

Execute the right tactics to fix the pain points.

And then?

RESEARCH again.

See what’s working, what’s not, and refine.

If you break it down further, here’s what the actual work looks like:

Who usually does all this work?

Now, in most organizations, all of this sits across different roles: performance marketing, product marketing, brand, VP Marketing, sometimes growth.

What the most effective org structure looks like? That’s a whole post on its own.

But in early-stage or fast-growing companies, this work often sits with the founder or a senior marketing lead.

And investors expect the founder to have a handle on the full picture.

Because when you bring brand management into the room, you’re showing more than product vision-you’re showing you've got a brand strategy built for growth.

You're showing that you:

1. Have clear positioning

2. Think long-term

3. Know how to protect margin

4. Understand how value is created—and how to capture it

5. Know how to build a brand, not just burn through budget

That tells a very different story than “we’ve got traction.”

It tells them you know how to scale.

Here are four common things I hear from founders and business leaders when they’re raising funds—and what those things unintentionally communicate to investors:

1. “We just need 1% of the market to build a billion-dollar company.”

Sounds ambitious.

But it signals you haven’t done your segmentation work.

You’re skipping the hard part—figuring out who you’re for and who isn’t your potential customer. You can't be one-size-fits-all.

2. “We actually don’t have any real competition.”

What this often tells them is: you haven’t clearly defined your category. You haven’t mapped the customer’s alternatives.

Almost everything has a substitute.

And that substitute is your competition—whether you want to call it that or not.

3. “We have a premium product, so we can charge a premium price.”

When asked how you know that, you start listing features: high-end materials, great packaging, strong build.

That’s not what makes something premium.

What investors hear is that you haven’t validated pricing with your actual customers.

You’re assuming they see the same value you do.

4. “The product sells itself—we don’t need a plan.”

It might sound like confidence.

But what they hear is: you don’t have clarity on positioning, goals, or how the business gets to a net-positive return.

Even if you raise the money, there’s no roadmap to use it well.

Strong brand management helps you avoid these signals altogether. It shows you're not just building something functional—you’re building something valued. Something people are willing to pay for. Something they’ll remember.

And that?

That’s what gets attention in the room.