How to create a brand manifesto for your company

Advertisements are everywhere. As a business owner, how can you market your brand so that it stands above it all? Evoking emotion is a good start because once you evoke emotion, you can influence behavior. Creating a brand manifesto can help you get there. 

Here are a few reasons a brand manifesto can be important to your business: 

To truly build this connection, companies often turn to a brand manifesto. A brand manifesto is one of the best ways to explain your company’s drive and dedication. 

A brand manifesto is your organization's purpose statement explaining why consumers should care about your product or service. Your statement should appeal to consumers' emotions in a way that gives them a favorable impression of your brand. A good brand manifesto will make consumers feel like they are part of your organization's purpose. Your brand manifesto should explain the "why" of your business's mission and vision statement. It should also echo your brand voice. 

A brand manifesto can be a rallying cry that pulls from strong emotions related to commitment, philosophy, hope, or excitement. These emotions serve as the driving motivator for your audience to take action. A brand manifesto tells your audience why they should care about your brand and subscribe to it. 

Here’s a checklist explaining a brand manifesto:

So, how do you create a meaningful brand manifesto that inspires action? You can expand on that idea if you have a good mission statement. As long as you know who your audience is, you can use your brand's purpose to build a story that connects people to your products and services, and by doing this, you also create a community of people who support your goals. 

TIP: Get the ultimate guide to brand strategy. 

An organization must look inward and decide the "why" of its purpose. The best way to get your audience's attention is to talk about why your company is operating. The "why" should ultimately reflect your selling products or services. Focusing on why you're selling instead of what you're selling. Speak to the consumer's need you’re helping. Learn how to build a brand purpose that resonates with your customers. 

You need to understand how people see your brand to understand how they can relate to it. An effective way to get to know your audience is through customer feedback. Momentive, the creator of SurveyMonkey, is an experience management solution platform that delivers insights. Momentive's AI-powered platform can provide real-time feedback about your products and services and, with the right questions, can also provide the "why" behind your customer's shopping and product experience. Track your brand’s performance and spot market trends.

People must feel that the brand mission resonates with who they are or want to be. Think about why you started your business. How did you think your product or service would change consumers' lives for the better? What are the values that stand behind that reasoning? 

Now, think about the kind of actions that align with those values. How does your product or service help consumers adopt and contribute to your company goals? Lastly, how can these answers create a story that will inspire consumers to become loyal customers? Merging a compelling brand story that succinctly aligns with your mission statement and your audience's values can help you write a brand manifesto that connects with people.

People must feel that they're part of the vision the brand is creating. When you appeal to your audience's wants, needs, and beliefs, you create a platform for people to share their common interests, and your brand will be the center of it all. This movement can provide a further reach in other communities than traditional marketing strategies. The community you create through your manifesto gives people a better understanding of the purpose behind your brand–and makes them more susceptible to buying products related to it. 

So what does a brand manifesto look like? We’ve chosen 3 examples from Arc’teryx, New Balance, and L’Oréal to provide unique brand manifesto examples:

TIP: Improve your brand awareness by efficiently surveying your target market.

A brand manifesto is about finding and establishing common ground with your customers. It could be shared values on culture, education, profession, or pursuits of wealth, notoriety, information, passion, or lifestyles. Using the right market research solutions can help you find those common interests. Learn about your brand perception while gaining insights about your audience using our brand tracker.