The Brand Pyramid

We see this image almost every day walking to and from our office. From Sizzle Pie's point of view, the entire food pyramid is made up of pizza, meaning you should consider nothing but pizza when you think about eating. Only today did it occur to me how closely the image aligns with the work we do.

“In many ways, building a brand is like building a pyramid.”

In many ways, building a brand is like building a pyramid. There needs to be a fundamental base, and each row above is dependent on the solidity of the one below. All of the pieces need to be exactly the right shape in order for them to converge to a single point at the top.

The typical bricks in a brand pyramid are: name, product, perception, experience, promise, vision, positioning, personality, messaging, tone of voice, editorial style, symbols, typefaces, color palette, style of imagery, and component relationship. These brand elements reach their audiences through a variety of applications, such as corporate literature, product packaging, buildings, vehicles, retail signage, advertising campaigns, and websites and digital media. If one (or several) of these pieces is missing, or has not been thoughtfully considered, the overall structure is not as solid and functional as it can potentially be.

At Counterform, experience has taught us that by offering an array of strategic services, we gain a deeper understanding into our clients' larger communication strategy. From that position, we’ve built unique and repeatable, client-specific processes for creative problem solving and budget management. Ultimately, our goal has been to build a process tailored to complement their corporate culture, structure and long-term communication needs. As we’ve refined this idea over the years, we’ve been able to apply more timely and targeted resources in partnership with our clients, working collectively toward a common goal and as part of a larger set of objectives. In short, it has changed our business, diversified our assignments, created organic growth and solidified client relationships.

It’s not the whole strategic pie, but a good slice. And for the time being, we’ll work at getting better at what we do and look to evolve with our clients as they respond to the demands of a rapidly evolving global marketplace. For Counterform, opportunity lies in continuing to build and maintain a mutual trust mixed with an equal measure of accountability. If we’re lucky, we’ll learn something new every day.