Writing a Brand Manifesto

I got a challenge last week via email from someone seeking information on how to write a brand manifesto. I did a quick search on Google and didn't come up with much, so I thought it would make a great topic for a blog post. I may ramble a bit, but here goes...

First, a few definitions. A manifesto is "a public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially of a political nature." It comes from the Latin word manifestus, which means "clear or evident."

I define brand as the idea about your company in the minds of stakeholders. And just as actions speak louder than words, the brand idea is created more by operations than by marketing.

So I see a brand manifesto as a declaration of 1) the core intention of the brand, 2) the guiding principles of the brand, and 3) the policies that guide each department to effectively realize the stated intention. So unlike brand visions or missions (which only focus on intention), a brand manifesto should get into the nitty gritty of turning the intention into reality. Bridging the gap between rhetoric and experience is so critical in building strong brands... I've done a number of B2B customer research projects in the last year in which "delivering on promises" was one of customers' top issues when dealing with vendors. A brand manifesto is both a promise, and guidelines to the corporate team on how to deliver that promise.

I think the big idea here is that it's a public declaration, not something that's limited to employees. Everyone sees it. Customers, investors, partners... everyone. It doesn't feature vague, self-serving statements about being the "leading provider" or "market-share leader." Your intentions are written in clear and friendly language, and the manifesto contains proof that you're putting your intentions into action. A great example is Chipotle's "Food with Integrity" manifesto. It clearly outlines their brand intentions and how they're setting out to achieve it. And this example brings up one more point about brand manifestos. They're ambitious. They're revolutionary. If you read the Chipotle manifesto, you'll see that they're setting out to change the way Americans eat.

Today our size allows us economies of scale. It helps us influence the decisions of suppliers. And it lets us shoulder our way into the consciousness of the American eating public. Like we’re doing now. Our size means we can change for the better the way people eat. What does all this mean for you? In the short term it means better-tasting tacos and burritos. If you have been with us for several years you will have already noticed a difference. Looking forward, it means encouraging growers to pursue humane and healthy practices, and rewarding small farmers who eschew mass production in favor of quality. It means new and higher expectations from all of us about what we consume every day. Have we achieved our mission? No. Will we ever accomplish it? Never, because Food With Integrity is a constant process of searching and improving. But the changes will be noticeable, positive and significant. And you’re part of making it happen, every time you come in. Thanks.

To be revolutionary, you've got to have passion. The manifesto must be something not only worth reading, but worth acting on. Can your company create a movement? Can it improve people's lives in some small but important way? I wrote a couple posts (here and here) about Ikea that included the following quote from a Guardian article:

In 1976, (founder) Ingvar Kamprad crystallised his thinking in a hyperbolic tract entitled The Testament of a Furniture Dealer, setting out Ikea's "sacred concept", and waxing evangelical on the necessity of salvation. It was, he wrote, "our duty to expand ... Those who cannot or will not join us are to be pitied ... What we want to do, we can do and will do, together. A glorious future!"... Ikea's moral crusade extends uncompromisingly to the customer. Whether you like it or not, it intends to teach you the value of good, honest, simple hard work. Self-assembly, viewed from this perspective, is more than a cost-cutting measure: it's a tool of evangelism, designed to make you sweat for your own edification.

So a brand manifesto crystalizes and clarifies the revolutionary intention of an organization, and it asks others (employees and customers) to join together and make it a reality. Powerful stuff. Not easy, but powerful.

Comments

[Sean Moffitt]

Jennifer,

Thanks for your inspiring post here...it caused me albeit three years later to write about the Seven Reasons why Manifestos trump Mission and Vision Statements...have a read

http://buzzcanuck.typepad.com/agentwildfire/2007/06/brand-manifesto.html

Long live the Mantra!

[Amolegbe Michael]

I really enjoy your article on Brand of Manifesto, but I would have love to read more class governor manifesto. i.e to be a candidate in class governor contestation and how to write a manifesto for the class to be voted for.

Amolegbe Michael

[Jeff Barson, Nimble]

It's either the manifesto or the shot and pithy sayings of 37 Signals.

[john edelson]

I just blogged this and started to revisit the idea of my brand - Time4Learning - see http://learn-to-market-online116.blogspot.com/2006/01/time4learning-brand.html .

Of course, a start-up branding exercise is sooo different than the management of an existing brand.

[vimax]

There has to be an unguarded, human quality to it that compells you to believe. It somehow has to raise the metabolism, cause the organizational molecules to spin differently.

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Thanks!

[pETER]

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[TOM LUKE]

Enjoy the posts in this forum, very thoughtful and provocative.
Would like to add that after having written several manifestos for organizations, there are elevated expectations implied by "manifesto" as something you will respond to more emotionally than a mission or vision. There's a bias for action in a manifesto. I've had the most success with challenging language, provocations that directly encourage stakeholders to do something, believe in or be motivated a certain way. For me, if a manifesto doesn't disarm me, it doesn't work. There has to be an unguarded, human quality to it that compells you to believe. It somehow has to raise the metabolism, cause the organizational molecules to spin differently.
One of my favorites is Bruce Mao's "Incomplete Manifesto for Growth". While it pre-dates blogging, it's "incompleteness" has a foreshadowing of extendability, a story that's never completely told.

http://www.brucemaudesign.com/manifesto.html

[Jean-Marie Le Ray]

Hi Jennifer,

Congratulations for your post. Very well said.
Would you autorise me to translate it in French into my blog?
Kind regards,

Jean-Marie Le Ray

[Keying]

I have written many manifestos when I took the election. Personally, the good manifesto comes from your passion. Try to love it before you let other people love it

[salika]

Very valuable info

[Will Keller]

Great post. Others may refer to this process as defining your company's vision and/or mission. Whatever the term, the point is that a company with a strong shared vision does not have to be tightly managed--- it tends to manage itself. Everybody's on board. Nevertheless, as you say, defining it is very hard work. I recently took a shot at writing a brand manifesto for my accounting company and tried to think big. Many drafts later, here's what I came up with (if anyone's interested): http://www.vanilla-accounting.com/blog/archives/000041.php

[jennifer rice]

Damon, to answer your question...

A manifesto, as I defined it, should outline both the brand vision AND the tactics to make the vision a reality. Therefore, a manifesto should guide employees to create the 'direct experience' that matches the brand vision. The manifesto doesn’t change customer's experience directly; it changes it indirectly by guiding employees along the brand path.

[Damon]

"I define brand as the idea about your company in the minds of stakeholders."

If that's true, how can a manifesto change or influence anyone's opinion? Aren't those ideas formed via direct experiences with the company?

[Bill]

Thanks for one of the best bits of writing I've come across recently. It raised a few questions for me related to some of what I've experienced.

The thing that often doesn't get addressed is how do you go about maintaining the spirit of the manifesto through growth? On the practical level, once a company reaches a certain size, once it has shareholders to answer to, the vision expressed through the manifesto is often lost, or at least overshadowed by the immediacy of quarterly earnings etc.

While the manifesto may inform a smaller company, especially a new one, how do you maintain it when a company is dealing with 10,000 or more employees, a broad customer base, and when it's trading on the market?

Perhaps it's not possible; I don't know. I think Seth Godin has written about this (though I don't recall where - and I could be wrong). But in the situations I've seen where companies are quite large, vision is the first thing that goes in the pursuit of process.

So I wonder what everyone's thoughts on this might be.

[Shafeen Charania]

Hmmm... what's the difference between a brand manifesto and a statement of the organization's values and raison d'etre?

I think that successful (and lasting) brands are those that embody the organization's essence and represent the "truth" of how they really operate. Lexus comes to mind as a great example of this.

And I like your premise that this is what turns words into reality; one reason why this manifesto must be authored by the CEO.

[David]

Great post!

Once again, you are breaking new ground.

Keep it up. I really enjoy your ideas.

[Kiran Max Weber]

Although it's a not a brand manifesto per se, check out Damien Newman's "The Designer's Guide to Brand Strategy."

About the Guide

In writing this Guide, I've tried to outline the basic elements to the process of design and development of brand strategy in a way that would best support the people involved in actually designing brands.

This is not to say that designers can't read eight hundred paged books on Managing Brand Equity, but that there are some very simple elements of developing the attributes of business behaviour and that all designers should understand their vital role in improving business behaviour.

To date the PDF has been downloaded just over ten thousand times. I figure it's been read once or twice because people still enjoy pointing out smelling mistakes. If that's all you get in touch about - please do, I'd like to one day release a version that is lean and clean.

Download it here: http://www.mdnstudio.com/dgbs/index.html

Great site Jennifer.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Nice post ... well written and well said. The folks over at Change This recently published their Manifesto on Manifestos. Good stuff too.