Brand Foundations
What a brand actually is, and how to build one that survives contact with a market.
What you will learn
- Say what a brand is without using the word “logo”
- Write a positioning statement that a competitor could not also claim
- Choose an archetype and know what it commits you to
- Tell the difference between a brand problem and a marketing problem
- Brief a designer so you get identity work you can actually use
About this programme
Most people who ask for "a brand" are asking for a logo. This programme is the argument for why that is the wrong order, and the practical work of doing it in the right one.
You will leave with a positioning statement, an archetype, and a one-page brief good enough to hand to a designer — for your own business or for a client.
Who it is for
Founders about to spend money on identity work, marketers who inherited a brand they did not build, and designers who want the strategy that should come before the artwork.
How it runs
Five short lessons, a worked example running through all of them, and a quiz at the end. About ninety minutes, at your own pace.
Curriculum
6 lessons · 56 min1What a brand isThe definition that makes the rest of the work make sense.2 lessons
- A brand is a promise someone remembersReading · 8 minFree preview
- Brand problem or marketing problem?Reading · 7 min
2PositioningThe one sentence the rest of the brand hangs from.2 lessons
- Writing a positioning statementReading · 12 min
- Archetypes without the astrologyReading · 10 min
3From strategy to a briefTurning the decisions into something a designer can build.2 lessons
- The one-page brand briefReading · 9 min
- Check what you haveQuiz / exam · 10 min
Your instructor
Pawan Samarakoon
Founder & Brand Strategist, LOOM Brand Designs
Builds brands and the systems that carry them — identity, websites, search and the analytics that prove any of it worked. Works across Sri Lanka, Sweden and the UK.