The Brand Universe Framework

Building not just brands—but belief systems, aesthetic codes, and cultural fluency.

Once upon a time, a brand strategy doc was a PDF that lived in a lonely Dropbox folder. It told you your brand was “authentic,” “bold,” and “human,” gave you a mission statement, a few bullet-point values, and maybe—if you were lucky—a half-hearted moodboard. It wasn’t inspiring. It wasn’t actionable. It definitely wasn’t enough.

But today, brands don’t just need a message—they need a worldview. They need to speak with clarity and feel like a cultural force. And that means the old brand deck is out of its depth. Because truly, a good brand positioning is something you print out and pin up. Something new hires should read before they even open Slack. Something that helps your collaborators say, “Here’s what we do next.”

Over the past few months, I’ve been evolving my own framework for foundational brand strategy—and recently tested it while building a scope for a fashion brand looking to understand what makes labels like Jacquemus so culturally magnetic. That exercise made one thing clear: brand positioning, as a discipline, needs to evolve.

If you want to build a brand that people actually care about, you can’t just string together a few aesthetic references, design a logo, and call it identity. You have to understand the cultural codes you're remixing, the values you stand on, and the world you’re inviting people into.

Because real brand-building follows a deeper logic—one that moves from belief to behavior, from ideas to atmosphere.

belief → identity → cultural positioning → truest fan → lifestyle & atmosphere → creative universe → icons & rituals → cultural stance → voice → legacy

That’s the progression this framework follows. Not just defining what a brand says, but how it behaves. How it earns devotion. How it builds mental availability and a strong cultural association over time.

Good brand strategy should have gravity. It should tell you what your brand would never do, not just what it could. And ultimately, it should do what Seth Godin framed perfectly:

“If Nike made a hotel, you could imagine what that might be like. But if Hyatt made a sneaker? You can’t imagine that because Hyatt doesn’t really have a brand. They have a logo.”

This framework helps you build a brand with depth—one where you can instantly picture the apartment it lives in, the art on its walls, the playlist it’s got on repeat, and the niche magazines it's obsessed with.

---

---

1. Brand Truth

The belief system behind the brand

Every lasting brand starts with belief. Before aesthetic, before product, before positioning—there’s a reason for being. This section articulates that reason. It defines what the brand stands for, what cultural shift it wants to help create, and what tension it’s responding to in the world.

• Purpose – Why the brand exists in the world

• Aspirational Future – The cultural shift it wants to help create

• Cultural Tension – What status quo it challenges (in the industry or world)

• Point of View – How the brand sees the world, uniquely

Why it matters: A brand without a point of view is just a product with a logo. This section becomes a strategic anchor for product direction, team alignment, founder storytelling, and long-term decision-making. It helps align future hires, collaborators, and creatives with the brand's deeper reason for being.

---

2. Brand Persona

If the brand were a person, who would it be?

Once belief is defined, we give it personality. This section brings the brand to life as if it were a person—someone with taste, opinions, and a role in people’s lives. Not just an archetype, but a relationship. If your brand texted your customer, what would it say? Would it hype them up? Share a niche reference? Push them to try something new?

• Role in Their Life – Best friend, trusted expert, instigator, quiet cool older sibling

• Archetype – The character it plays in culture (e.g. the rebel, the archivist, the futurist)

• Attitude – How it moves through the world

• Behaviors – What it values, rejects, prioritizes

• Taste Level – The aesthetic and cultural cues it naturally gravitates toward

Why it matters: Brands are cultural characters. This makes them feel alive, consistent, and recognizable across mediums, informing everything from casting and copy tone to social media behavior and in-store experience/vibe.

---

3. Cultural Positioning

With identity established, we locate the brand in the world. Who is it compared to? What category does it belong to—and what norms does it resist? This section helps sharpen competitive advantage while also guiding how the brand shows up in cultural conversation.

• Reference Points – Other brands we’re inevitably compared to (even if we don’t like it)

• Category Codes – The dominant signals or tropes we reject, remix, or elevate

• Strategic Difference – What we do that others won’t—or can’t

Why it matters: This section defines the brand’s edge and relevance, shaping press messaging, pitch decks, campaign differentiation, and how the brand is understood by consumers and culture at large.

Photo: Nothing

---

4. Truest Fan

Who the brand is really for

The truest fan is the person who intuitively gets the brand, shares its values, and helps signal its world to others. When you build this person out with enough clarity, they don’t just represent your customer—they represent a lifestyle that becomes aspirational to everyone else watching.

• Truest Believer – The ideal customer, not defined by demographics but by worldview

• Shared Values – What they seek, fear, believe in. What do they crave? What do they believe? What are their unmet needs? 

• Aspirational Identity – Who they become by aligning with the brand

• Taste Regime & Media Diet – What they consume, reference, collect. What they reread. Who they listen to. Which photographers, subreddits, playlists, zines, or newsletters shape their world?

Why it matters: This section defines not just the target customer but the shared culture between brand and audience, informing community strategy, influencer casting, brand partnerships, and channel planning.