Let’s start with a reckless, absurd comparison, shall we? Creating a brand—designing a brand—can feel like sculpting a human being from the ground up, from a void so vast it would make you believe in vacuum physics, except here, there aren’t even any chromosomes to start with. It’s not like building a clone where you have a genetic blueprint, some rough edges, and a few predetermined quirks. No. It’s pure tabula rasa—an open, yawning, white noise-filled nothingness where you, the designer, have to invent not just what this brand looks like but who it is.
Brand creation, then, is as much about constructing an identity as it is about design. It’s learning how this being will learn to speak, how it will move in the world, what its internal logic will be. It’s understanding what will make it walk a certain way, talk in a voice people recognize, wear the cultural equivalent of the right shoes. You don’t just pick colors and fonts. You create a belief system, a worldview, a personality that has preferences, habits, and tastes. You’re not just setting up a strategy and calling it a day. Oh no. This is Frankenstein’s lab, but instead of one weirdly stitched-up monster, you’re making a creature that can function seamlessly within the cultural ecosystem, fit into society without getting chased by villagers with pitchforks.
And this is where narrative enters—because, look, all those other things: brand strategy, brand management, brand design, are not the heart of it. They’re more like the limbs, the body mechanics. But what animates the whole thing is the narrative, the story that courses through its veins. Without that, you’ve just got a walking shell, which might look great in a suit but is effectively a mannequin. The narrative is its DNA.
The Narrative is Everything (Or Almost)
Imagine trying to define a human being—just try it—without giving them a narrative. You’d have an empty bio with some bullet points: “Name: Bob. Profession: accountant. Hair: brown.” This tells you nothing about Bob, not who Bob is or why Bob gets up every morning. It doesn’t tell you what Bob dreams of when he stares out of his window at the skyline at 9 p.m., or why he secretly roots for the underdog in every movie he watches. In the same way, brands need a story to become real. Without it, they’re just a name slapped on a product, like a store mannequin wearing a fancy jacket. It might get your attention for a second, but it doesn’t stick.
Now, let’s get one thing clear: Brand Narrative is not the same as Brand Strategy, Brand Design, or Brand Management. They’re all different, but the narrative is the soil from which all these things grow. Brand strategy tells you where to walk; the narrative tells you why. Design gives you a wardrobe; the narrative informs how you wear those clothes. Management ensures you don’t trip over your shoes while walking; the narrative makes sure that walk has purpose. All those things, in a way, are secondary to the fundamental heartbeat of what this brand stands for.
A Lesson from the Classroom and Beyond
At this point, we veer off into a pedagogical side street (stay with me) to talk about a course, a very specific one: the “Design of a Brand” course taught by Paolo Iabichino at the Scuola Holden in Turin. Now, why is this relevant? Because courses like these teach you that building a brand isn’t about slapping together a logo and a tagline and calling it a day. It’s about forging an identity from the molten core of ideas—ideas about culture, style, how to communicate, how to fit into the broader tapestry of society. And there’s a certain rebellion in doing this well, in creating brands that don’t just exist to fill a market gap, but to be a force of their own.
You’ll also find a lot of this in my new book, The Brand Revolution – How Purpose is Evolving (yes, that’s a plug, and yes, it’s on Amazon. It’s all about how brands are more than just the sum of their strategy parts. The revolution comes when you realize that purpose, storytelling, and identity drive everything. A great brand narrative doesn’t sit there passively waiting for people to care. It charges forward, announces itself, insists you pay attention. It’s not just a supporting character in the strategy; it’s the protagonist.
The Anatomy of a Brand (A Breakdown)
Let’s break down this whole mess—this chaotic Frankenstein’s anatomy of branding—into digestible chunks:
- Brand Narrative: The essence of the brand’s identity, the story it tells, the reason it exists. This is not just a marketing message; it’s the fuel for every interaction, every decision. It’s why Apple isn’t just selling phones, but “Think Different” as a core belief system.
- Brand Strategy: The map that tells you where to go. This is your GPS for competitive positioning, market targeting, and how you’re going to crush your rivals (or, at least, outlast them in a digital death-match for attention). But the narrative is what fuels the strategy; otherwise, it’s just a destination without meaning.
- Brand Design: The visual and sensory layer—what your brand looks like, sure. But also how it feels, how it communicates. If your brand is a person, design is how that person dresses, walks, speaks. But again, the narrative informs these choices.
- Brand Management: This is the execution. How you control, maintain, and evolve the brand’s presence. You don’t want your carefully constructed creation to start deviating into chaos, right? Think of management as the stage direction that makes sure the actor hits their marks. But guess what? Without a compelling narrative, you’re just managing empty gestures. Like herding cats in a room full of laser pointers.
Re/Defining a Brand
At the heart of every brand’s journey—whether you’re creating one from scratch or redefining an existing brand—is the narrative. What are you saying? Why does this brand exist? In a world where consumers are increasingly sensitive to inauthenticity, the brand narrative is your truth serum. Every time you pivot or rebrand, the narrative needs to drive the process. Is it still relevant? Does it still speak to people? Brands, like people, need to evolve, and the narrative is both the root and the leaves of that evolution.
In conclusion, think of brand creation as less of a spreadsheet or task list and more like teaching a person how to be a person. That’s how all those components—strategy, design, management—stay cohesive. The narrative isn’t just a story you tell about the brand; it’s the story that is the brand. If you lose that, you lose everything.
