A brand manifesto sets out why your organisation exists, what its purpose is (what your aspirations and ambitions are), and how you want to be perceived by your customers, your key stakeholders and your employees.  

In eight weeks, the Cotswold Marketing Agency will get to work creating your brand manifesto from your own ideas and thoughts. You already hold the answers in your heads – we help you shake those out and together we start to make sense of it all. 

Your manifesto captures what you stand for and why people should care about your brand. It’s typically an emotional story that captivates your audience, using empathy to connect with them, and persuade them to support your brand. 

A brand manifesto is an extremely useful tool to identify how to build a loyal customer base. It also plays a key role internally, helping your organisation attract and retain talented and motivated employees. 

What do you end up with? 

Our brand manifesto crafting service is an in-depth exercise that gives you a clearly defined document that captures: 

• Who your target audiences are 
• What their specific needs, ‘pain points’, drivers & motivators are 
• What they want/expect from you 

• How you deliver your services and how you make your customers ‘feel’ 
• What your core values and personality are 
• Who the competition are and what they do well 
• The style and tone of voice of your brand 
• The key messages and ethos that underpins your working style 

• What your value proposition is* 

*value proposition is the unifying thought that sums up what you stand for. It’s not a strapline, although it could be if copywritten. It must feel distinctive, be true and relevant to your audiences. The strongest value propositions are driven by emotion. 

How does it work? 

Skull Session. 

Our eight week sprint starts with a facilitated ‘fresh thinking’ workshop between us and your senior leadership team and marketing team. In this session we unpick what it is you do, how you do it and who you do it with. We also seek out what your in-depth motivations and aspirations are for the business. This helps us develop that ‘North Star’ guiding value proposition. 

Desk research 

Following the workshop we conduct further research using your existing business plan, conducting competitor analysis and research into market conditions and opportunities. 

We also conduct 6-8 telephone interviews with some of your existing clients or connections to gain their insight into your reputation and brand position and expectations around your service. 

The Manifesto Report 

The Manifesto itself is divided into sections distilling the key points of our work, before bringing it all together at the end. 

• The future – Challenges, vision and ambitions 
• Target audience – Top level profiles of the different target audience segments 
• Brand positioning and key messaging – Where your organisation sits in the marketplace and how it should engage your target audiences.  
• Value Proposition – That unifying thought that sums up what you stand for 

• Proof Points – The evidence you can demonstrate that backs up your value proposition. 
• Brand Values – What you believe in and the way you act 
• Look and feel – How your visual brand identity can be built upon and used to best effect. 
• Brand Archetypes – How we define your character in a way that is relevant to the needs of your audience. 

The Marketing Plan 

The final stage is to produce a top line marketing plan that translates the opportunities and strengths identified in the brand manifesto into tangible marketing activities. The plan will take a comprehensive view of your marketing and look across online and offline activities. These could include but are not limited to: 

• Ensuring the website communicates the key messages and reflects the brand positioning and strategy. 
• Creating interesting and authoritative content that builds on the key messages and positions your organisation in line with the brand opportunities 
• Keeping your business and brand ‘on the radar’ using social media to build credibility with potential and current customers. 
• Creating story pitches and articles for relevant industry and regional press. 

• Creating ‘on brand’ marketing material such as brochures, case studies and trade presentations and events.