Brand platform - what it should contain

The easiest way to summarize your company's brand strategy is to create a brand platform that contains all the important components that together make up the brand's identity and clarify your profile. At Navigator, we have extensive experience of developing brand platforms for companies, brands and concepts in a wide range of industries. Here we describe some of the ingredients that are important to include in the work.

Strategic document

It is important to remember that the brand platform is often a strategic document that is primarily for the company's management and marketing organization. If you want to make it accessible to more people, it is smart to highlight selected parts in a more accessible brand manual that all employees can use as part of the implementation work to learn to live the brand.

Brand purpose model

An important ingredient in the brand platform is to use a clear and well thought out model. There are many different variants, Brand Pyramid, Brand Circle, Brand Matrix etc. We at Navigator use a proprietary model called "Brand Purpose Model". The model is based on the brand's purpose (Purpose) in the center and consists of an inner and an outer circle (Halo).

Purpose

In the middle is the brand purpose. Purpose should contain both heart and brain. It encompasses the deepest elements of your brand and reflects the impact you have on your employees, customers and the surrounding community. Here are examples of questions that can help you define your purpose:

• Apart from making money, why do we do what we do?
• What is it that we value above all else?
• What is our greatest passion?
• What are our drivers as an organization?
• What values are our activities based on?
• What does the world need that we alone can deliver?

Vision

The vision is about describing where your brand is going. What do you want to achieve with your brand and in an ideal world, how would you like your brand to be perceived? Your vision should be formulated as an inspiring phrase that managers or leaders can use to really get everyone on board. A good vision is both clear and simple and does not contain any platitudes or elaborate words. Here are examples of questions that can help you develop your vision:

• What change do we hope to bring to the world?
• Who are we for?
• What problems do we want to solve?
• What is our preferred final destination?
• What does success look like for us?

Mission statement

Think of your mission as a map of your brand. It shows the way to your vision by describing in more detail what you are going to do, how you are going to do it, who you are doing it for and why you are doing it. Your mission describes your business's greatest driving force, a motivational statement that gives your brand confidence. Your mission is your brand's promise to your customers and it defines the quality of your product or service as well as your commitment and drive. Here are examples of questions that can help you develop your mission:

• What are we doing?
• How do we do it?
• Who are we doing it for?
• What values do we bring with us when we do so?

Core values

Your core values are the foundation of your brand and consist of the norms on which your company culture is based. Your core values should sum up what is really important to your organization. Here it is fundamental to think about the whole business, what is important to management, employees and above all customers? Your core values should take into account all levels and capture the whole company. Here are examples of questions that can help you develop your core values:

• What do we stand for?
• What are we most proud of?
• Which norms could we never abandon?
• What matters most to our customers?
• How do we want to be perceived by others?

Objective

Your strategic objectives are the real business goals of your brand. Unlike purpose, vision and mission, these are more concrete and aim at more real milestones that need to be passed. Think of your strategic goals as ambitious aspirations and let them serve as guideposts on your path to success and growth. Here are examples of questions that can help you develop your strategic objectives:

• How can we shape clear objectives based on our vision and mission?
• How do we know we have achieved our objectives?
• What milestones do we need to pass along the way?
• How can we strategically prioritize our milestones?
• Is there a common thread among our objectives?

Customer promises

Your customer promise is what you promise to achieve for your customers. It makes clear what added value your brand brings. Your promise must be genuine and based on your purpose and values, it should also be inspired by your mission and vision. The promise should promise something important to customers and also solve their problems in an unexpected way. For the promise to be effective, it is important that it is unique, clear and at the same time stands out from the competition, it should also be easy for customers to remember. Of course, the most important thing is that the promise matches reality, that the business actually lives up to what is promised. Here are examples of questions that can help you develop your customer promise.

• What problems do we help our customers solve?
• How can we create something memorable?
• How can we create something measurable?
• How do we make the pledge easy to understand?

Value proposition

Your value proposition is your ice breaker and helps you connect with new potential customers. Your value proposition should explain how you solve their problems. It should include what benefits you offer and why they are better than those of your competitors. A good value proposition is clear, measurable and concrete. Simply a promise to customers about what they will experience when they interact with your brand. Here are examples of questions that can help you develop your value proposition:

• More specifically, what is it that our brand does?
• Who is our target audience?
• What are their pain points?
• How does our brand solve their problems?
• What benefits can they expect?
• Why should customers choose us over our competitors?

Personality

Your brand's personality contains the wide range of unique thoughts, feelings and behaviors that form the core of your business. Personality is what your customers connect with, and it's also the reason why they stay and build a strong relationship with your brand over time. For a brand's personality to stand out from the competition, it is important that it feels human and identifiable, that it engages and at the same time stands out from the crowd. Of course, the personality should also feel authentic and clearly connected to the other elements of the brand. Here are examples of questions that can help you develop your personality:

• What are our most personal qualities?
• What do our customers identify with?
• How are we unique?
• What characterizes us?

Positioning

Brand positioning refers to the overall strategy that tells you what position your brand wants to take in relation to competitors and customers. To make the positioning clear, it's important to explain it in a way that includes the market, needs and benefits. Draw your position on an actual map to get a clear picture of where the brand is. Here are examples of questions that can help you find your positioning:

• Who are our competitors?
• What does our primary target audience need?
• What is our main advantage over the target group?
• How do we stand out from the crowd?

Long experience in branding strategies

At Navigator, we have extensive experience of working with brand strategies for companies in B2B, B2C and Healthcare. If you want to see examples of what we have done for different customers, browse through our cases. You can find more inspiration and knowledge on our blog. Feel free to use the filter function to search your way around.