On the latest episode of the Trending: Pet Food podcast, Hunter Ellis, brand experience strategist at Trone, joined host Lindsay Beaton, editor of Petfood Industry, to discuss what a brand compass is and why pet food companies should understand this strategic tool.
The conversation covered the concept of a brand compass as an internal strategic document that serves as a North Star for brands, containing key elements like brand purpose, universal audience needs, brand archetype, tangible and intangible brand aspects, and proof points.
Below are 10 takeaways from EPISODE 98: What is a brand compass and why is it important for pet food companies?
1. A brand compass serves as an internal North Star for brands.
A brand compass is an internal strategic document that's typically going to be used by marketers, Ellis said. "You can almost think of a brand compass as a North Star for a brand," he noted. A North Star can be thought of as a single, unifying metric or statement that serves as a guiding principle for brand activities and decisions, ensuring a focus on delivering customer value that drives long-term business success.
2. Brand purpose sits at the top of the compass.
Brand purpose is at the top of the brand compass, Ellis explained. "A brand belief, or some kind of core company value that the brand stands for, might be partly why the brand was founded in the very first place," he said. "It might be why the brand has evolved with the times to solve a need."
3. The concept originated with Fortune 500 companies but works for all sizes.
Ellis noted that Trone was first exposed to the brand compass concept through a large Fortune 500 company in the pet space. "We have found that it also works well with smaller clients or independent clients, or clients that are more of a startup, ones that haven't really been around or have that legacy," he said.
4. Key elements include purpose, audience needs, archetype and proof points.
According to Ellis, a brand compass typically includes a big brand belief or brand purpose statement, a universal audience need, the brand's archetype, all the intangible aspects of the brand such as logos and taglines, and proof points that provide evidence the compass is true.
5. Brand archetype proves most challenging to define.
"I think in a lot of ways, it's the archetype," Ellis said when asked about challenging aspects. "Figuring out the behavior or the role of the brand can be hard to get alignment on. I think a lot of times, people want to be very innovative. They want to be a leader. They want to behave like what they perceive to be the number one product in the category might be."
6. The document should balance present reality with aspirational future.
Ellis emphasized the compass should be a statement that is two feet in the present day, and one foot in the future -- or aspirational future -- of the brand. "We want to chart not only how we want people to think about the brand today, but also what we want people to think about the brand down the road," he said.
7. Marketing teams typically initiate compass development due to internal disconnects.
"I think it tends to be the VP of marketing or the director of marketing initially, because they have their own perspective on how to organize the brand, but then their board or their C suite has a very different view of how the brand should look," Ellis said.
8. The compass benefits multiple departments beyond marketing.
Ellis explained the document can help "each part of the organization, whether that is C suite, whether that is the marketing team, R&D, partnerships, media relations, these different departments can start to find that alignment and create that consistency." He added it can influence internal company culture and serve as an internal training tool.
9. Consumer demand for brand values makes the compass increasingly relevant.
"HubSpot last year did their future consumer trends report," Ellis said. "They found that 82% of customers want to engage with and buy from brands that share their values. Customers, by and large, want brands to share their values, or they want to buy from brands that have values just point blank."
10. The document has growing importance for AI training and implementation
"As more and more brands shift in the age of AI towards feeding internal documents, internal data to help train AI, whether that's an assistant or a data analysis AI tool, having something like a brand compass that is fed to the AI, that can help the AI understand the company internally, from its core values to those key aspects and components of the brand," Ellis explained.
