Parliament | Beyond the Rebrand: Your Brand as Mirror, Compass, and Catalyst
One of our frequent collaborators shared this great framing with me — a framing for how she thinks about the transformative power of the process, post-rebrand.
“The brand becomes more than just a visual identity or a marketing tool—it transforms into three powerful instruments of organizational change: a mirror, a compass, and a catalyst” - Elissa Bertot
I love this framing. Let's explore how your newly defined brand can serve these crucial functions in your ongoing journey of transformation.
The Mirror: Reflecting Your True Self
"It's hard to read the label from inside the jar."
Your brand, when properly articulated through the Brand Being process, becomes a crystal-clear mirror reflecting your organization's authentic self. This isn't about how others see you—it's about how you see yourself. Taking the time to identify this and put it in writing provides clarity for your entire team (and AI).
How Brand Being Makes This Possible:
Brand Heart Development: The combination of vision, values, and purpose creates a reflection of your organization's soul
Values Mining: Through our rigorous value-definition process, we uncover not just what you say you value, but what you truly demonstrate through action
Purpose Articulation: By diving deep into your "why," we help you see your own motivations with unprecedented clarity
By defining a Vision you may never live to see, you give your team something to aim for (forever)
Using Your Brand as a Mirror:
Reference your Brand Heart during team meetings to check alignment
Use your defined values to evaluate team behavior and fit
Let your purpose statement guide difficult decisions
The Compass: Guiding Your Journey
Your brand becomes a strategic compass, helping you navigate decisions both big and small. This is where the Brand Being Methodology truly shines as a decision-making framework.
How Brand Being Creates Your Compass:
Market Position Mapping: Understanding where you sit in your market landscape
Brand Advocate Journey: Knowing exactly who you serve and why
Brand Tension Point: Having a clear and unique personality north start that guides all content creation
Navigating with Your Brand:
Use your Brand Tension Point to evaluate marketing opportunities
Let your Brand Advocate profile guide product development
Allow your positioning to inform partnership decisions
Use your personality to guide campaign creation
The Catalyst: Driving Meaningful Change
Perhaps most powerfully, your brand becomes a catalyst for transformation—both internal and external. This is where Brand Being transcends traditional branding to become a change management tool.
How Brand Being Enables Catalytic Change:
Operationalized Values: Through specific, measurable behaviors
Clear Vision Components: Legacy, Long Game, and Short Game alignment
Defined Personality: Voice traits and visual guidelines that speak to your Brand Advocate
Activating Your Brand as a Catalyst:
Use your operationalized values in performance reviews
Reference your vision components in strategic planning
Let your personality guide cultural initiatives
Use your brand guidelines to inspire innovation
Moving Forward: The Brand Being Impact
The true power of Brand Being lies not in the initial process, but in how you use these tools afterward. Your brand should be:
A Daily Tool: Not a document that sits on a shelf
A Living System: Evolving as your organization grows
A Change Agent: Actively shaping your future
The Bottom Line
Post-Brand Being, your brand becomes more than just who you are—it becomes a powerful instrument for organizational transformation.
As a mirror, it shows you your true self. As a compass, it guides your journey. And as a catalyst, it drives meaningful change.
Remember: Brand is the being, marketing is the doing. When you use your brand as these three tools, you ensure that your doing always aligns with your being.
Artwork by Nya McClain, article by Senior Art Director, Bri Thomas
Consistency Doesn't Mean Boring: Why brand consistency is about intention, not limitation
The Persistent Myth
"We need to be more creative, let's break away from the brand guidelines." "Brand consistency is holding us back." "Our guidelines are too restrictive for social media." "We need something fresh - let's ignore the system just this once."
These are the justifications used every time someone wants to prioritize short-term creative impulses over long-term brand building. But here's the thing: consistency isn't your enemy - it's your secret weapon.
The Reality Check
The most innovative brands in the world are also some of the most consistent. Think about:
Apple's product launches - always minimal, always powerful
Nike's advertising - decades of "Just Do It" finding fresh expressions
Coca-Cola - evolving within their brand world for over a century
Google - playful while maintaining clear system principles
These brands aren't consistent because they lack creativity. They're consistent because they understand that consistency creates recognition, and recognition builds trust.
The Freedom of Framework
Strong brand systems work like music – they're built on a fundamental structure that enables meaningful improvisation, not restricts it. Think of your brand guidelines as a musical scale: once you truly understand the rules, you can play with them in infinite ways while still creating something recognizable. The structure isn't limiting your creativity; it's giving it direction and purpose. When you have a clear framework, you don't waste energy wondering if something is "on brand" – instead, you can focus your creative energy on finding fresh, innovative ways to express your brand's core truth.
The best brand systems don't wall you in; they give you a foundation to build upon. They provide the tools and principles that enable teams to move quickly and confidently, ensuring that every expression of the brand adds to its equity rather than diluting it. It's about creating guardrails that focus innovation rather than barriers that prevent it.
What Actually Matters
Real brand consistency isn't about mindless repetition or rigid rule-following – it's about strategic intention and purposeful choice. It's understanding that every brand expression is either building or eroding brand equity, and making conscious decisions about how to move forward. True consistency comes from having a deep understanding of your brand's core principles and using that understanding to guide evolution, not prevent it.
This means looking beyond surface-level consistency like colors and logos to ensure you're creating coherent experiences that build meaningful recognition over time. It's about understanding that your brand isn't just a set of visual rules – it's a tool for creating lasting impressions and building trust with your audience. When you approach consistency from this perspective, it becomes less about what you can't do and more about how you can use your brand's established equity to create more powerful work.
The Bottom Line
Remember: The most powerful creative work doesn't come from ignoring your brand - it comes from understanding it deeply enough to push it forward with purpose.
