The BrandWerks Framework
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The BrandWerks Framework
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Learn how to create a compelling and actionable strategy with our brand strategy framework.
— Brand strategy framework overview
— Brand audit, DNA, Vision, Values, Personality, Mission
1. Brand Audit
A brand is a story told consistently over time
—Michael Beirut
Looking internally is a challenge for any size of organization. To do this effectively and together, we need to start from the fundamentals.
Our first activity is to audit our current brand. To do this, we first ask some fundamental questions:
When and where did our story begin?
What were our first products/ services?
What did we promise our first customers?
We have developed a simple, concise and actionable brand audit approach.
2. DNA
People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.
—Simon Sinek
To understand the brand's purpose we need to get to the ‘why’ behind it. We ask questions to start digging a little deeper.
What physical services/ products does the brand provide its customers?
—This is a simple, direct statement about what the brand is offering the world. Example: ‘We are nanofibre product specialists.
What are the problems that the company solves for its customers?
—Are you saving your customers their time like Amazon, offering low-cost products like Ikea, or promising fitness and the ability to level, or fast door-to-door, overnight delivery like FedEx. This question starts us thinking about the brand promise, but let’s get into that in more detail later.
Once we’ve gone through these questions, we can then use a service/ product map to visualise the core brand offer.
3. Vision
69% of Consumers Need to Trust Brands Because of Its Impact on Society
— Edelman
More than ever, consumers are looking for ‘human’ brands. Brands that truly stand for similar values that consumers can resonate with, and buy into. Consider the organization’s past and future.
What are the three key things from your past that got you to where you are today?
—We should first discuss the past, what are the key milestones in our history that have bought us to the position that we are in today?
What are the three key things you want from the next 50 years?
—Consider your ideal, blue-sky future. How big is your company, how do you help your customers, and what do you want people to say about your brand?
4. Values
89% of consumers stay loyal to brands that share their values.
— Fundera
Uncovering the core brand values and critiquing these into just three core values is one of the most time-consuming parts of brand strategy.
Begin by brainstorming your brand values. Then, using a ‘value map’ tool, plot values that interconnect. To help find your three core values, we use overlapping values.
5. Personality
94% of people said they’d be highly likely to recommend a brand they were emotionally engaged with.
— Gensler
We analyze into the personality of the brand and its competitors, using brand personality sliders.
To help understand the personality further, we consider the 12 brand archetypes to see where the business will sit.
Brand archetypes help to inform how the brand expresses itself in the world, and from what position and context the brand’s visual language will come.
6. Mission
The top 4 qualities people use to describe why they are loyal to a brand are cost, quality, experience, and consistency.
What does your business offer?
—The physical, the literal, the right here, right now.
How are you unique?
—What is it that you do differently, better, or faster? What can you do that your competitors cannot?
If not for profit, why should you exist?
—This should directly align with your values. This is your reason for being. This is your mission to the world, your calling card. Your emotional hook! This should convey your personality.
Your brand promise/ mission statement
Pull these three answers together into a mission statement you would be proud to shout from the rooftops, to have on the front page of your website. What would you want people to say about your brand behind your back? It must be authentic, honest, real, and communicate deeply and directly why you are in business, and why customers should take notice of you.
Conclusion
Once we have interviewed key stakeholders and built a good understanding of the company and project, we can start to diagnose, and formulate our solution in the brand strategy document.
This document will outline the new brand positioning through a pragmatic analysis of the interviews and research.
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About the author, Adam —
Adam is the founder of BrandCraft, a branding and design agency.
On top of our client-facing projects, our small team developed BrandWerks where we create brand strategy tools and templates to help you master brand strategy and the business of design.
Our actionable tools are fully editable and founded in a commercial approach that guides your clients through the brand strategy process.
Learn more —
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