What is a Brand Pyramid?

A brand pyramid is a tool that is used to companies or individuals create a new brand, or rebrand an existing brand, through a 5 tier system that mimics Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and outlines a brands identity and marketing position.

A brand pyramid clearly describes a brands:

• Core Functionality.
• Rational benefits.
• Emotional benefits.
• Personality.
• Essence.

A brand pyramid is beneficial as it results in greater clarity, increased customer engagement and more organizational cohesion.

The Core Functionality or Features and Attributes are often seen as the basic purpose or features of your products, services and experiences.

For example:

• If you are a juice company, the benefits would be the ingredients and nutrients of your products. You may also be using environmentally friendly material, which may be of interest to consumers.
• If you are an IT company, the benefits might be the security and privacy of your products or the things you can do or create with the offering.
• If you are a meditation company, the benefits might be that you visualize their breath allowing for biofeedback during their session leading to enhanced meditation.

The Rational Benefits or Functional Benefits describes the problem that you solve for the target audience or what differentiates your offering from that of competitors.

For example:

• Apple's ecosystem offers you security and privacy and connectivity across its ecosystem.
• ESPN and FuboTV offer you access to a wide variety of sports at a fixed price.
• Google Workspace offers you access to mail and a wide range of tools that boost productivity and collaboration.

The Emotional Benefits describe the emotions that an offering (i.e. products, services and experiences) brings to the target audience.

For example:

• Real Madrid and Barcelona brings joy and ecstasy to their fans, week in, week out.
• A Playstation provides a wide range of emotions depending on the game that you feel.
• Ibuprofen relieves pain for people experiencing inflammatory diseases, rheumatoid disorders, mild to moderate pain, fever, dysmenorrhea, and osteoarthritis.

The Personality, Brand Persona, Brand Values or Core Values describes who the brand would be if it were a human being.

This should be a reflection of the target audience and can be crafted from user personas created from user research.

For example:

• Nike's personality is that of an athlete that strives for greatness.
• Geiko's personality is a gecko that calms the fear and distrust surrounding insurance companies by being curious, approachable and friendly.
• Patagonia's personality is that of an anti-consumerist adventurer who seeks freedom through the great outdoors.

The Brand Essense or Brand Identity is a statement that describes the brand in a single sentence.

This is often described as the Brand Mission, for examples consult the article below.

To learn our approach to creating a brand pyramid, consult the post linked below.

Consult the guide below to learn more about what it takes to create a brand or rebrand an existing one.

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