The Elements of a Brand Pyramid
Building a brand, one brick at a time.
At the core of any good, recognizable, sticky brand is an idea. A simple idea that hooks their consumers and keeps a brand top of mind when it counts. We call this a Capstone because it’s the idea that tops your Brand Pyramid, similar to the golden and bejeweled capstones found on ancient pyramids. But once the idea is in place, how does a business go about turning that idea into a reality?
Our Brand Pyramids are more than a gimmicky framework to fill in over a Leadership Seminar, they’re the foundation for communicating your brand internally and externally as you successfully grow and scale your business.
Using a Capstone idea to guide execution, we “build out” the brand by thinking of each project as an individual “brick” within the Brand Pyramid. Each brick has its own unique needs, be it technical specs, budget constraints, or production implications, but the purpose of the brick’s existence is to elevate and communicate the Capstone idea to the public.
Every brick—touchpoints and opportunities to directly connect with the audience—is a chance to impress or convert a consumer, from the smallest display ad to a highly anticipated experiential moment. The most critical brand executions sitting closest to the Capstone at the top of the Brand Pyramid, while further down you get smaller brand executions that are more functional and specific to the format required.
These bricks help define your brand and can be paired as needed with the capstone.
Foundational Bricks
- Naming
- Brand Architecture
- Customer Journey Map
- Brand Voice
- Brand Identity
- Brand Book
- Photo Strategy
- Video/Motion Strategy
- Packaging System Design
- Packaging Production Design
- Packaging Testing
- Website
- Social Media Strategy
- Ecomm Merchandising
- Asset Production
- Pitch Deck
- Campaign Concept
- Social Strategy
These bricks help sell your brand and come after foundational work.
Activation Bricks
- Retailer Strategy
- Shopper Marketing Plan
- Sales Collateral
- Launch Plan
- DTC Strategy
- PR Support
- Paid Media Support
- Social Media Support
- Email/SMS Marketing Support
- Search Marketing Support
- Packaging Effectiveness Test
- Annual Planning
- Quarterly Strategy
Recommended Essentials for CPG Brands
Identity & Naming
Logo is often the first thing that comes to mind when people talk about brand as a whole, making it an essential piece to any emerging business. Whether it’s itty bitty or scaled up big, the logo is the primary vehicle for a whole bunch of brand elements like name, colors, and personality (Which is why, while not every branding project needs a new name, when it does, naming and identity should always be done together.
Packaging System
Whether you’re working with three highly curated products, a system of hundreds of SKUs, or skipping the shelf entirely and selling DTC, a cohesive packaging system is a blank canvas to tell your brand story. Good package design will do more than just get people to convert in the aisle, it will make a shopper’s choice so easy, so obvious, that they don’t even think to look at other product options.
Brand Story
Who are you, anyway? It’s a good sign if consumers are looking at your brand story because they’re open to building affinity with your brand. They’re looking for authenticity, consistency and, above all, a brand who just gets them. How that gets communicated is critical to building long-term brand loyalty.
Website
The internet is not just for eComm and DTC brands. A branded website is a unique opportunity to execute your brand with essentially no limitations. This is where your Capstone ideas can truly come to life and connect with consumers where they already spend a whole lot of their time. Even at the very least, a strong brand website can provide a positive customer experience that doesn’t leave them with a bad taste in their mouth.
Campaign Concepts
When growing your audience or brand awareness, campaigns are a fun way to flex the Capstone idea for short or medium durations and focus on communicating a specific, timely message. Campaigns, no matter how short or long they run, don’t replace the brand-building and positioning work achieved by a Capstone, instead it’s like a riff on the idea. Campaign concepts should still relate to and support a Capstone idea while promoting whatever is relevant at the time.