Company direction · Team decisions · The owner's capacity
A brand platform is a decision-making system
How to release the owner from everyday hands-on supervision while keeping the business aligned.
As long as every decision waits for one person, the company's scale is limited by that person's capacity. The team waits for approval, opportunities pass and momentum slows. This is often precisely because the owner is highly competent: everyone turns to them with every question.
Set the course instead of fighting fires
Markets change faster than an annual plan. To act in time, the team needs clear reference points: meaning, goals, values and shared decision criteria.
The brand platform becomes the business's internal constitution: a set of criteria that enables the team to make independent decisions in the direction set by the owner. It supports both marketing and company management.
A shared direction
Marketing, the product and the team draw on common business principles and meaning.
Faster decisions
Clear criteria help people act without constantly waiting for approval.
Oversight without constant involvement
The owner sets the course and returns to strategy and company development.
How I work
I bring together business strategy, marketing and the psychology of decision-making. I identify the owner's vision, goals and values and turn them into a practical management-oriented brand platform, so the company can make hundreds of decisions while staying on course, without the owner's constant hands-on involvement.
Let's discuss how a brand platform could work in your company.
More about brand platforms and the brand checklist
The core elements of a brand platform and questions to help you assess your own brand.
What is it?
Why does a business need it?
Different brands offering the same product can hold very different positions in the market. Some receive thousands of orders a day, while others struggle to compete even when they offer customers more favourable terms.
In such cases, the reason often lies in an insufficiently developed brand platform. Developing it is an important part of any company's growth strategy.
A brand platform is a document describing the company's key characteristics, including:
Purpose
Advantages
Values
Company personality
These, in turn, inform:
The target audience
Employee requirements
Pricing policy
The growth plan
Market objectives
This helps a company:
Improve financial performance
Make strategic decisions quickly and accurately as the economy and markets change
Adapt to change and be among the first to benefit from it
Attract and retain talent more effectively
Increase customer lifetime value (LTV)
Brand checklist
A brand is an image in the consumer's mind: a world people want to belong to or be associated with.
Branding is therefore the set of activities used to shape that image.
The purpose of branding
is to increase the perceived value of a product, service, company, place or person in the minds of the target audience.
Purpose
The company's overarching purpose.
A reference point for decisions that defines the company's direction of development.
What does it offer?
Growth in company value and revenue
Attracting and retaining talent
What can happen without it:
Unstable revenue
Staff turnover
Has the brand's purpose been articulated?
Yes
No
Is the purpose distinctive?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Is the purpose expressed convincingly?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Does the purpose distinguish the company from its competitors?
Yes
No
Expert help is needed to assess this
Does the purpose motivate the target audience to act?
Yes
No
Expert help is needed to assess this
Advantages
Competitive advantagesare the unique combination of characteristics that make a brand appealing to its target audience.
What does it offer?
Increase brand loyalty
Increase customer lifetime value
Help build relationships with new audience segments
Differentiate the brand from competitors
The brand's three key advantages
Have been articulated
Expert help is needed to assess this
Do the advantages align with the values of the target customer persona?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Do the advantages resonate with the customer rationally?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Do the advantages resonate with the customer emotionally?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Do the advantages encourage people to choose the company over competitors?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Do the advantages help increase customer loyalty?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Do the advantages help increase customer lifetime value (LTV)?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Do the advantages help define the company's direction of development?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Do the advantages help reach new audience segments?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Values
The company's core values
answer the question:
What matters to us?
Important:
They should align with all the other
elements of the brand platform.
Aligning values with the other elements of the company's positioning
provides the foundation for
customer trust, because together
the messages you communicate
remain consistent
and therefore look and sound authentic.
This increases customer lifetime value
when the company's values align
with those of the target audience.
Attracting talent
and retaining it through turbulent periods
(when recruitment processes
take these criteria into account).
Retaining the customer base
as the company expands or changes
its product range,
up-sale
and even changes its business
direction.
The company's core values The answer to the question: what matters to us?
Have been articulated
Expert help is needed to assess this
Do the values conflict with the advantages?
Yes; this may need further work
No conflict
Uncertain
Do the values conflict with the company's strategic goals?
Yes; this may need further work
No conflict
Uncertain
Do the values conflict with the company's purpose?
Yes; this may need further work
No conflict
Uncertain
Do the values conflict with the brand personality?
Yes; this may need further work
No conflict
Uncertain
Are customer-facing employees aware of the company's values?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Are customer-facing employees assessed during interviews for alignment with the company's values?
Yes
No
Uncertain
Which colour represents your company on Graves' spiral of values?
Beige
Purple
Red
Blue
Orange
Green
Yellow
Turquoise
Not determined; expert help is needed
Company personality
If the company were a person, what personality, appearance and other human characteristics would it have?
Why is this needed?
It informs most aspects of advertising:
Brand positioning
Tone of communication with the target audience
The choice of brand representatives, bloggers and advertising channels
Used effectively, it increases customer loyalty and lifetime value.
Has the brand's personality been articulated?
Yes
No
Expert help is needed
If the brand were a person, what would that person be like?
Describe a set of recognisable human traits.
Do the brand's personality and advantages conflict?(Could a person with this personality offer the target audience these advantages?)
Yes
No
Expert help is needed
Do the brand's personality and values conflict?
Yes
No
Expert help is needed
Do the company's personality and brand correspond to the same colour on the spiral of values?
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