Brand essence
This section of the canvas is your essence. It defines what your brand stands for and what feelings it evokes. You are looking to build an emotional connection with your customers. This can build trust and provide a competitive advantage. Think of a famous brand like Ferrari and consider how you feel about it. This is not easy to replicate. I could produce high-performance red sports cars, but this does not mean I can compete on an emotional level.
The essence can be defined with:
Brand values - These are your guiding principles that customers should recognise and resonate with.
Brand personality - How you connect with your target audience. Consider Haribo, the maker of sweets, they could be described as playful and fun. Imagine what would happen if they had a personality that was serious and informative. Would they resonate with their customers if they focussed on their ingredients and manufacturing processes? Your personality should match the expectations of your audience.
Brand positioning statement - The positioning statement provides the overall direction for your marketing and communication. The positioning statement describes how you stand out from the competition.
Brand Values
These are your guiding principles that customers should recognise and resonate with. Values are defined by what you believe in and stand for. Whether you are caring for the environment or pushing the limits of science. Just saying you have values is not enough, customers should recognise and trust these.
Customer alignment
There can be different levels of alignment, from none to strong.
A mismatched example
If I have an environmentally friendly clothing company and target people who care deeply about this, I am more likely to succeed. At its worst, I can create a mismatch. I decide to work with a famous celebrity who is known for travelling the world on private jets. This isn’t aligned with my environmentally friendly values, and I start to lose customers.
Brand values
To decide on your brand values you should consider the three following factors:
Brand values process
The following process will help you decide on your brand values. The process is designed to guide you. Ultimately, it is up to you what you prioritise.
Start by discussing why you exist. A good starting place is your organisation’s vision statement.
What do you want to be known for?
Each person should list out words they consider to be high-impact. Avoid buzzwords like game-changing and value-add. If you have a lot of people, consider asking each person to limit their words to a maximum of five.
Priority order the words based on how much they reflect who you are.
Map around 10 words onto the prioritisation grid:
Resonance with customers - This is where you get a good match to your customer’s values and expect to see increased revenue. For example, you are a clothing company and want to be environmentally friendly.
Overused values - This should take into account your competitors. For example, you could be a sweet company that is “fun”, but if everyone else is, it may not result in a major differentiator.
Demonstrable values - How easy is it to demonstrate this value? For example, if you put “creative” into an art company, this would just be a given.
Impact on the business - This is how much a value impacts your operations. For example, an environmentally friendly organisation may require a great deal of change to how it operates to meet this criteria.
Make a decision:
Each person should write a sentence that describes each brand value. Be specific, consider comparing to competitors and keep it clear. For example, if you have the value quality, “Watches whose fit and finish match the best in the industry.”
Create a finalised version of each value.
Test with your target customer group:
“Which of these matters most to you when choosing a brand?”.
“Would any of these affect the likelihood of you buying a product?” (this can be negative and positive).
Finalise your brand values, communicate and change your organisation to support them.
Perception of most customers
Values should underpin everything you do and result in consistent behaviour. The following maturity scale is on the canvas under the title “Perception of most customers”. The questionnaire provided gives a way of assessing this.
Trusted - Your target customers strongly believe that you represent your values and is a key reason why they support you.
Recognised - Your target customers strongly believe that you represent your values.
Unclear - Customers aren’t certain about your values but think they know them.
Invisible - Customers don’t know what your values are.
Customer perception questionnaire
What positive or negative words best capture what we stand for?
Highlight positive and negative, then order these by the customer’s level of certainty. For example, positive words - environmentally friendly, fun, high quality.
This maps to the canvas section “Perception of most customers”. Show the customer your actual brand values and these categories.
Overall, how clearly do you see our values?
Trusted - This value is a big reason I support this brand, and I believe they truly live it.
Recognised - I’ve noticed this value consistently across the brand.
Unclear - I’ve seen some evidence of this value, but it’s not clear.
Invisible - I haven’t noticed this value at all.
After you have surveyed enough customers, update the canvas section with your overall results. Score this where most customers
Gathering more in-depth insights.
For each value, for example, “environmentally friendly”, ask, “How clearly do you see this value in action?”
Trusted - This value is a big reason I support this brand, and I believe they truly live it.
Recognised - I’ve noticed this value consistently across the brand.
Unclear - I’ve seen some evidence of this value, but it’s not clear.
Invisible - I haven’t noticed this value at all.
What else would you like us to know about our brand values? (open question)
After the survey activity is complete, you may wish to create a plan to improve.
Brand personality
A brand personality treats a brand like a person with a set of human traits. There are many benefits to this:
Brand loyalty - It is designed to build an emotional connection with a target customer and build greater brand loyalty.
Differentiator - This is especially useful in a crowded market.
Focus - It can help you better define your target customer group. For example, Red Bull focuses on excitement, which won’t appeal to everyone.
Memorability - Personality, especially applied to visuals, tone and characters, can help a brand stand out. Consider Colonel Sanders and the strength of the KFC brand because of him.
A benefits example
Old Spice was rebranded in a campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa.
125% increase in sales in the first month after the launch of the campaign (Procter & Gamble internal data).
107% year on year sales increase of Old Spice Body Wash within six months.
This was especially effective as the associations people had with the brand were very negative.
Links to brand values
After setting your brand values, consider how a brand personality would best complement them. These should be in sync. For example, having a brand value of “expert” and applying a personality of “silly” wouldn’t make any sense.
Brand Personality Framework
This framework was developed by Stanford marketing and brand expert Jennifer L. Aaker. It considers five distinct characteristics of personality.
These personalities can be further described:
Sincere - This is about genuinely caring about customers. It can be further described as down-to-earth, honest, wholesome and caring.
Excitement - This is about the thrill a customer feels. It can be further described as daring, imaginative and spirited.
Reliable - This is about a customer trusting in your expertise as well as high-quality products. It can be further described as intelligent, successful and knowledgeable.
Sophisticated - This is about a customer wanting luxury and style. It can be described as elegant, charming and premium.
Rugged - This is about a customer wanting strength and longevity. It can be further described as resilient, durable and tough.
Creating a brand personality
This is best done with a group of people:
Start with your brand values. You are looking to compliment these. Inform people that the personality you chose should be a representation of your values.
Review the brand personality categories. Go through the descriptions above so everyone understands them. See if you align strongly with any of these. You can go outside of these categories, but you may not need to.
Brainstorm 3 to 5 words each that best describe your personality.
Bring together everyone’s words and prioritise these, taking into account your brand values.
Apply the personality to your:
Visual identity - For example, your colour palette, fonts and photography style.
Assets - Consider anything that impacts the customer’s experience. This can include digital assets such as websites, social media and emails or physical assets like packaging and store design.
Characters - Create a character or use a real person to represent your brand’s personality.
Tone of voice - Ensure all communication and content is written with this personality in mind.
Brand positioning statement
The brand positioning statement provides the overall direction for your marketing and communication. It is an internal summary that is not shared with customers and can, therefore, be more comprehensive. The positioning statement explains what you offer and how you stand out from the competition. It can also include how you are perceived. The organisational mission statement differs here as it is used internally to describe why the organisation exists.
There are two levels of positioning statements:
Brand positioning - The overall value you offer, including any differentiators. If you have multiple products, this will encompass them.
Product positioning - The same but at a product level.
The positioning statement in this canvas is to be used at the brand level. You are setting expectations for your customers, and it is important that you meet them. For example, if you claim to have the most efficient service, make sure you do.
Brand positioning strategies
Here are many differentiation strategies you can consider using. These should apply to every product. For example, when you decide your brand is to be known for its ease of use. Here are some examples:
Customer Service - Offering great customer service, such as being more friendly. This should be considered where products are complex. It can also be helpful in a mature market where there are few functional differentiators.
Ease of Use / Convenience - Taking less of a customer’s time and making it easier for them to get something done. Consider Apple’s products and their usability.
Low price - Pricing is a very large subject that is not covered here. In this positioning strategy, you are looking to provide the cheapest option. Consider low-cost airlines with their basic service.
High quality - Emphasising the quality of your products as a differentiator. You can aim to charge more in this instance.
Functional - Emphasising the strong functional differentiators of your products. Strongly consider using this if you have a new type of product.
Values - Emphasising aspects like environmental credentials or charitable contributions
Here are some examples:
Apple has an Ease of Use / Convenience-based strategy: “To bring the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware, software, and services. We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products, and that’s not changing.”
Nike has a Values-based strategy - “At Nike, we’re committed to creating a better, more sustainable future for our people, planet, and communities through the power of sport.”
Airhouse has an Ease of Use / Convenience-based strategy - “Airhouse helps direct-to-consumer companies get orders from factory to front door. Sync your shop, send inventory, and you’re all set.”
Creating a statement
It can help a great deal to study other organisation’s brand positioning statements. Large organisations, such as Amazon, will have this at a very high level. Where you aren’t very well known, your statement should be more detailed. Below are some considerations for your statement:
Who is it for?
What are the core benefits/differentiators?
What category of products do you offer?
What outcomes do you provide?
What reason should customers believe you?
Here is a made-up example:
SanctiTea is a wellness brand focused on creating healthy, calming drinks to support people who want a mindful, environmentally friendly lifestyle.