Do You Even Know Your Own Brand? 5 Questions to Get Your Brand Crystal Clear
Barry Raber Forbes Councils Member
Forbes Business Council COUNCIL POST | Membership (Fee-Based)
Dec 4, 2023, 09:30am EST
Barry Raber is president of Carefree RV Storage, a Portland Entrepreneur of the Year and shares business secrets at realsimplebusiness.org.
gettyCan you clearly describe what your brand is and what it isn’t? Can your newest hire articulate it, and do they understand how their day-to-day actions reinforce it? Could your latest customer describe it? When you make strategic decisions, is it easy to determine what's on-brand—and what's off-brand?
Successful companies answer these questions with a resounding yes. Wondering how you can too? Create a single document outlining your brand in vivid detail. This is called a one-page brand. From this, you can design training to educate all new hires and implement performance metrics.
How To Create A One-Page Brand
To more deeply define your brand or “The [your company name] Way,” gather your team in a collaborative space away from your daily workplace. Be sure to include representatives from all levels of the organization, particularly several who work the closest with your customers.
Next, answer these five questions, in this order:
1. What's our brand promise?
You want customers to experience your brand promise every time they interact with your company. Questions to help you define this include:
What distinguishes your products and services from the competition?
What is superior about the value you offer?
What do you want the customer to experience every time
Your brand promise should include three things at most. If you brainstorm a longer list, negotiate, lobby and vote to pare it down to the three most important customer experiences.
Example: In-N-Out Burger’s brand promise is "Give customers the freshest, highest-quality foods and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling-clean environment.”
2. How do we want our customers to feel?
This question isn't as simple as it seems. It's crucial to defining your brand and may take more work to pinpoint than anticipated. Feelings and emotions are the essence of the brand and are critical to articulate.
One way to get a clear answer is to ask instead, “How don’t we want customers to feel after interacting with us?” That then informs what you must do to encourage the opposite.
Another way is to ask what feelings you want each of your three brand promises to evoke. Narrow your list down to the top three to five answers. These should clearly represent how you want customers to feel.
Once you define those feelings, briefly describe and characterize how your company will create them. For example, if the feeling is “belonging,” the characterization might be "We treat them like they're one of us."
Other examples: "We’re glad you’re here," and "We make it easy."
3. What won’t we do?
Draw a T-chart on the whiteboard to create this outline. Start by listing what you won’t provide to customers for any reason, whether it’s too costly, requires too many resources or is simply off-brand.
Then, list what you will do for customers. As you complete this side of the chart, consider what you don’t like about how competitors treat customers or what they fail to provide. Ask team members who have close relationships with customers for feedback about what customers look for in your product or service.
Vote as a group, and settle on five to seven things you just won’t do. Keep the list of things you will do handy for Question 5 below.
4. What's our 'because?'
What do you want customers to say about you? How should they complete the sentence, “I would recommend [your company name] because ___________?” It’s what comes after because that is the essence of your brand, according to Gerry O’Brion in his book, They Buy Your Because: Closing the Sale in a Crowded Market.
Answering this question prompts you to reverse-engineer the customer experience to create that result consistently. It informs how you design the product, craft the customer experience from website functionality to personal interactions, as well as customer and employee policies.
Examples: "I like Company X because their product makes me feel great," or "I trust they won't take advantage of me."
5. What's our action plan?
The last step is brainstorming the actions your team can take to deliver the brand consistently. Be specific. Think through every aspect of the customer interaction from the initial lead to closing the sale to ongoing communications. Identify actions, then use them to support your new, more clearly defined brand.
On a practical note, it may be easier to complete this exercise in a separate meeting after you generate answers to the first four questions. It's helpful to have those four concepts clearly outlined for reference as you brainstorm supporting actions.
Example: "We drop everything and connect when a customer enters the office."
6. One-page it.
Now that you've answered the five questions, put them all on a single page. Use your logo and company graphics creatively to keep it interesting. Present each component visually, in different ways, so they all stand out with their own personality. Use conversation bubbles, dotted boxes, color bars, white reverse text, etc. Here's an example from our company.
Put Your Brand into Action
Review your one-page brand document with all new hires during orientation and reinforce behaviors that deliver your brand promise through recognition programs. Team members who receive a 5-star review mentioning any of the brand items should get a shoutout at team meetings as additional reinforcement. Quarterly evaluations can even be designed to ensure that your everyday actions and product match and strengthen your brand.
The brand document is foundational to your decision-making process. Both strategic and tactical decisions are much easier when you know your brand promise—how you want customers to feel, what you will and won’t do, what you want your reputation to be and which actions reinforce your brand.
When your brand is defined with this much thoughtful detail, all your employees know and live your brand, and you'll find it echoed in the reviews and words of your customers. This clarity on both sides of the table leads to a very pure customer experience that produces a bigger and brighter future for your business
Barry Raber, is an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Member, CEO of Business Property Trust, a Portland, Oregon, company that owns and manages RV storage through Carefree Covered RV Storage and self-storage through Bargain Storage. He is also a thought leader who shares experiences for businesses at Real Simple Business.
FAQ: 5 Questions to Get Your Brand Crystal Clear
What does it mean to have a clear brand identity?
A clear brand identity means every person in your organization — from a brand-new hire to your longest-tenured manager — can confidently articulate what your company stands for, how it's different from competitors, and how their daily actions reinforce it. It also means your customers can describe your brand just as clearly. When your brand identity is truly clear, strategic decisions become easier because you always have a benchmark: is this on-brand or off-brand?
Why is brand clarity so important for business success?
Without brand clarity, your customer experience becomes inconsistent, your competitive edge weakens, and your team lacks a shared north star for decision-making. Companies with well-defined brand identities outperform those without because every employee, every customer interaction, and every strategic decision is aligned around the same promise. Brand clarity is the foundation that everything else — hiring, marketing, culture, growth — is built on.
What are the 5 questions to clarify your brand identity?
The five questions, answered in this order, build a complete picture of your brand:
What's our brand promise? — The experience you commit to delivering every time a customer interacts with your company.
How do we want our customers to feel? — The emotional experience your brand is designed to create.
What won't we do? — The firm boundaries that define your brand as much as what you will do.
What's our "because"? — How customers would complete the sentence, "I'd recommend this company because ___."
What's our action plan? — The specific, concrete actions your team takes to deliver the brand consistently at every customer touchpoint.
What is a brand promise and how do you write one?
A brand promise is the consistent experience you commit to delivering every time a customer interacts with your company. To write one, ask three questions: What distinguishes your products or services from the competition? What is superior about the value you offer? What do you want the customer to experience every single time? A strong brand promise captures no more than three core experiences. If your team brainstorms a longer list, negotiate and vote until you've narrowed it to the three most important. A classic example: In-N-Out Burger's brand promise is "Give customers the freshest, highest-quality foods and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling-clean environment."
Why do feelings and emotions matter in defining your brand?
Feelings and emotions are the essence of a brand. Customers may forget what you said or did, but they always remember how you made them feel. Defining the emotional experience your brand delivers — and designing your entire customer journey around it — is what separates forgettable companies from beloved ones. A useful shortcut: ask how you don't want customers to feel after interacting with you, then design toward the opposite. Narrow your list to three to five core feelings, then describe specifically how your company creates each one.
What is a "Won't Do" list and how does it clarify your brand?
A "Won't Do" list is a defined set of things your company will not provide, offer, or do — regardless of customer requests, revenue potential, or competitive pressure. Defining your brand limits is just as powerful as defining your strengths. To build one, draw a T-chart: list what you won't do on one side and what you will do on the other. Look at competitor shortfalls and ask your front-line team what customers most care about. Vote as a group and settle on five to seven firm "won't do" items. This exercise sharpens your brand focus and prevents the brand dilution that happens when companies try to be everything to everyone.
What is a brand "because" and why does it matter?
Your brand "because" is how a satisfied customer would complete the sentence: "I would recommend [your company] because _____." The word that comes after "because" is the heart of your brand reputation. According to author Gerry O'Brion, this single insight allows you to reverse-engineer your entire customer experience — from your website and personal interactions to your company policies — to consistently produce that result. Examples: "I trust they won't take advantage of me" or "Their product makes me feel great every time."
What is a one-page brand document?
A one-page brand document is a single, visually engaging page that captures the complete essence of your brand — your promise, the feelings you want to create, what you will and won't do, your "because," and your action plan. It serves as the foundation for new hire training, performance metrics, and day-to-day decision-making across the entire organization. When it's well-designed — using your logo, color bars, conversation bubbles, and other visual elements — it becomes something people actually read and remember, not just another policy document.
Who should be involved in creating a one-page brand document?
Include representatives from all levels of the organization, with a strong emphasis on team members who work closest with your customers. Their firsthand knowledge of what customers value, what frustrates them, and what keeps them coming back is essential input. The session works best when held in a collaborative space away from your usual workplace — a change of environment encourages fresher, more honest thinking.
How long does it take to create a one-page brand?
Plan for at least two sessions. The first session should work through questions one through four — brand promise, customer feelings, won't-do list, and your "because." The action plan (question five) often works better in a separate follow-up meeting, once the first four concepts are clearly defined and available for reference. Rushing the process produces vague answers; taking time to debate, lobby, and vote produces a document the whole team genuinely owns.
How do you put your brand into everyday action?
Start at onboarding — every new hire should review the one-page brand document from day one. Then reinforce it continuously: give shoutouts at team meetings when employees earn 5-star reviews that mention a brand element, design quarterly performance evaluations around brand behaviors, and reference the document in strategic planning sessions. The goal is to turn brand clarity into brand culture, where living the brand isn't a policy — it's just how your team operates.
How does brand clarity improve business decision-making?
When your brand is fully defined, both strategic and tactical decisions become significantly easier. Every option can be evaluated against the same questions: Does this align with our brand promise? Does it create the feelings we're committed to? Does it fit what we said we will and won't do? That clarity cuts through second-guessing, reduces internal conflict, and keeps the entire organization moving in the same direction — especially valuable during periods of growth or change.
Can a small business benefit from defining its brand identity?
Absolutely — in fact, small businesses often benefit most from brand clarity because they have fewer resources to waste on misdirected efforts. A clearly defined brand identity helps small businesses compete against larger players by being more focused, more consistent, and more memorable. It also makes hiring easier (you know exactly what traits and values you're looking for) and customer acquisition more efficient (your marketing speaks directly to the right audience).
How is brand identity different from a logo or visual design?
Brand identity goes far deeper than visual design. Your logo, colors, and fonts are expressions of your brand, but they aren't your brand. Your brand identity is the sum of your promise, your values, the feelings you create, what you stand for, and what you refuse to do. Visual design should flow from that foundation — not the other way around. Many businesses make the mistake of investing heavily in visual branding before doing the harder work of defining what they actually stand for.
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