BRAND THE UNBREAKABLE FRAME

THE BRAND PLAN PYRAMID
SECTION I
Starting with a strongly differentiated brand essence and purpose and working
downward, we find this diagram helpful when understanding and prioritizing
the key components of your Brand Plan.
1
DEFINE A PLATFORM
BRAND
IDEA
BRAND PERSONA
2
MAKE A PLAN
BRAND STRATEGY
COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
3
EXECUTE THE STRATEGY
TACTICS
4
CREATE THE EXPERIENCE
OVERALL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
1 Your Essence and Purpose
define why you do what you do,
and what makes you inherently
you. This is what requires true
differentiation. Your Brand
Persona is what your company
is doing and saying about what
they do. These building blocks
uncover true Corporate Character
and help set the stage for the
meat of your Brand Plan.
2 Next, we have Brand
Strategy. This is about bringing
your persona to life in order
to achieve a set of goals
or specified outcome. Your
Communications Strategy covers
what you want to say, and how
your company should say it.
These are fundamental to ensure
you are aligning Brand building
blocks with the capabilities, goals
and needs of your company.
3 The logistics and the
requirements to execute
the strategy are your Tactics.
There is often great pressure
put on marketing departments
to think tactically; and to
make matters worse, most
organizations are really good
at doing so. The result is that
they often jump straight to this
step. Without understanding
how your brand is defined at
every stage of the pyramid, the
resulting tactics will often feel
as though they are coming from
many different brands instead of
one. It’s important to ensure your
Brand Idea, Brand Persona, Brand
Strategy and Communications
Strategy are all building upon
each other and working to inform
your overall tactics.
4 The only thing that really
matters is the experience your
clients and customers have
with your brand. If there is
misalignment between who
think you are and the way your
clients are feeling, your brand
will only crumble. Allow everyone
within your organization to tell
a different story, and you’ve
just made matters much worse.
Proper flow of brand equity relies
on a central narrative that is
played out across every single
touchpoint.
7