Get your team to help build your brand

Successful businesses know what they're good at, the founders who start them have strong ideas in their minds. As the business grew and more employees come on board, sometimes the big ideas that helped the business grow in the first place get lost.

Brand strategy is a great way to help everyone get a deeper understanding of the business. This plan comes from the people who started the business, and it helps the workers know the right way to act and make choices. It guards the principles in the workplace, and the value delivered to the customers.

To demo these prompts, I have in mind a project management app that targets creative solopreneurs, providing all the essential tools to run their business. These are the 3 brand strategy statement we got at the end.

Storytime

Let me start with a story to explain why we believe it's important to have a brand strategy in place.

A few years back, we visited a local Vietnamese eatery. The owner quickly approached us with a friendly smile, the place was spotless, and the Vietnamese broken rice with pork chops they served was delicious and generous. Everything was perfect, instagram perfect even, so we decided to visit again the following week.

This time around, the owner was not working in the shop. It was difficult for us to flag down the waitress to take our order as she was in the kitchen chatting. Half an hour later, we learnt that our order was forgotten (my partner is Vietnamese, so he understood the kitchen chatter). When the food finally arrived, it’s a sad little piece of pork chop that was tossed onto the plate like a lifeless roadkill, accompanied by a fully cooked through pan fried egg sitting on a splatter of rice on a plate.

Could the staff deliver a similar experience without having gone through extensive training such as The Hamburger University? Absolutely. They just had to stay true to what the owner offered in the first place—delicious food presented nicely that gets served to us quickly. I’ll be a happy returning customer.

But they didn’t, that broke our trust, so we never returned.

Using AI to help define your brand purpose, vision and mission

A brand strategy is put in place to ensure a company consistently delivers to the customer every single time -- same message, same attitude, same offer, same appearance, regardless of who is on duty.

Since the generative AI such as ChatGPT become a part of many people’s workflow, we have also incorporate it to help us brainstorm and refine our branding processes. Here are some of the prompts that we have used to help us pull thoughts and information together to define a brand’s purpose, vision, and mission statements.

We used copy.ai to help us, their chat is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4. This prompt would work with any chat platforms based on GPT-4.

Use the prompts in sequence from brand purpose → brand vision → brand mission, as each step will help inform the next. These prompts will engage you in a conversation style session, that takes you through a step by step workshop to develop your brand statements.

Brand purpose statement prompt

Copy and past the whole prompt into your chat and let it guide you through the process. We have put down the names of some well known brand strategist for reference, feel free to change it to any branding thought leaders.

Your Background:
You are a professional brand strategist who helps B2B SaaS companies define their brand strategy. You are well versed in the writing of Al Ries, David Ogilvy, Seth Godin and April Dunford.

Goal:
I want you to help me define my brand purpose in a short and clear statement.
  
Criteria:
- The brand purpose statement should be inspirational or motivational.
- It is important to be concise and written at a reading level 3
- Do not use any jargon words, the most important is to clearly communicate the purpose of the brand.<br>
Rules of engagement:
- I will let you know when we can proceed to the next step. Don’t proceed until I say 'Yes'
- You will use the background provided above for every step of this conversation

Steps of our session:
1. I have set the rules of our conversation [done]
2. You will ask me 5 easy questions to understand my background [next step]
3. I will answer your questions
4. You will explain to me what you think my brand purpose is, wait for my response<
5. I will say “yes” if it is correct, and if I say “No” you will try again
6. You will give me 6 purpose statements for my brand. 1 statement that is inspirational, 1 statement is motivational, 1 statement based on the greater good of society, 1 for the greater good of the world, 1 in the style of David Ogilvy, and 1 in the style of Al ries.<br>

Brand strategy prompts - purpose step 1

GPT-4 will ask you some questions to understand what you are offering to the market. Answer these questions with as much details as you can provide, and save them somewhere safe. You’ll get to add them to later prompts to get a better outcome.

1. Project management app for solopreneurs
2. Creative freelancers, office work contractors
3. freelancers and contractors can quickly and easily manage multiple clients and projects, with all the tools needed to run their freelancing business like invoicing, CRM, project management etc
4. Our platform is build specifically for people who work as a one person business that deals with multiple clients, it exist to make freelancers to focus on doing the work and getting paid
5. Helping solopreneurs to do their best professional work, and make working with clients enjoyable

Brand strategy prompts - purpose step 2

I feel like this is pretty spot on, so I’ve answered with a ‘Yes’.

Brand strategy prompts - purpose step 3

I liked the some of the statements in here, and feel like I can push it a bit further. I gave the following prompt.

Refine statement based on 3. 4.  and 5. , please give me 3 options for each.
Return a table with 2 columns:
- Statement Type
- Statement

Brand strategy prompts - purpose step 4

I feel like something is still missing. In the previous conversation we have touched on cultivating creative freedom by taking away admin tasks, I will ask it to refine based on this.

Refine them to include the purpose of cultivating creativity.

Brand strategy prompts - purpose step 5

Definitely much closer to what I want. Now to give instructions to refine it.

I like this one "Every stroke of splendor. Every bold idea. Our app backs the creative journey of every freelancer."
Can you please write 5 more options in this style?

Brand strategy prompts - purpose step 6

Great! This is a great foundation for me to build out the final purpose statement.

Every vibrant creation. Every daring ambition. We safeguard the creative realm of every independent entrepreneur.

Brand vision statement prompt

Remember when you have saved some of the answers to the questions asked when defining the purpose statement? You can add this information to the prompt under “About my company”, and add “Our purpose statement” so GPT-4 has more to work with.

Your Background:
You are a professional brand strategist who helps B2B SaaS companies define their brand strategy. You have learnt from experts such as Al Ries, David Ogilvy, April Dunford, David Aaker.

Goal: 
I want you to help me define the brand vision of my company in a short and clear statement

Criteria:
- The brand vision statement should be aspirational with an outlook on the future.
- The statement should focus on a long term vision.
-The statement should outline the transformation experienced by the customer with the help of my company
- It is important to be concise and written at a reading level 3
- Do not use any jargon words, the most important objective is to clearly communicate the vision

Rules of engagement:
- I will let you know when we can proceed to the next step. Don’t proceed until I say 'Yes'
- You will use the background provided above for every step of this conversation

About my company:
1. Project management app for solopreneurs
2. A helping hand to the solopreneurs to free their time to do the actual work, and not the admin work
3. Our platform is build specifically for people who work as a one person business that deals with multiple clients, it exist to make freelancers to focus on doing the work and getting paid
4. freelancers and contractors can quickly and easily manage multiple clients and projects, with all the tools needed to run their freelancing business like invoicing, CRM, project management etc
5. More freelancers will feel comfortable stepping out on their own and use their professional skills to start their own business, and their creativity will help build a better world
6. Our purpose statement is “Every vibrant creation. Every daring ambition. We safeguard the creative realm of every independent entrepreneur.”

Steps of our session:
1. I have set the rules of our conversation [done]
2. You will ask me 1-3 easy and straight forward questions that will help you create my vision statement [next step for you]<

Brand strategy prompts - vision step 1

My answers as follows:

1. Give individual the courage to take the leap into entrepreneurship with the professional skill they acquired during their career
2.In the future, I'd imagine everyone will feel it's normal and easy to start a one man business that contributes to building the better future one envisions. Starting a freelance business will be just as straightforward as getting a job.
3. The customer can carry on building a one man business with the help of our app, or they can have success as a one man shop and decides to expand, and eventually grow out of what we can offer.

Brand strategy prompts - vision step 2

I feel like it lacked differentiation, I wanted the message to really hit home with creative solopreneurs, so I asked GPT-4 to amend it.

Refine it to include how we aim to protect their productivity, creativity, and wellbeing.

Brand strategy prompts - vision step 3

It's a 'Yes' for me. Let the refinement begin.

Brand strategy prompts - vision step 4

Again, I would choose the statements I think is more accurate to what I want, and push for options.

Refine statement based on 1. 4. and 5. , please give me 3 options for each. Make it concise.
Return a table with 2 columns:
Statement Type
Statement

Brand strategy prompts - vision step 5

To give myself a bit more options to work with, I choose my top 2 statements and ask GPT-4 to push it further.

I like these 2 "Fostering a future where entrepreneurship is the norm, guarding creative spirits reshaping our world.", "Empowering individuals for smooth transitions into entrepreneurship, safeguarding holistic wellbeing to facilitate growth and success."
Can you please write 5 more options for each? Remember to use easy to read words, be clear and concise.
Use Markdown to format your response.

Brand strategy prompts - vision step 6

Stitching together a couple of these results, here is the vision statement (for now).

We’re shaping a world where self-run businesses thrives, protecting the creative forces that’s driving change.

Brand mission statement prompt

Add your vision statement to the prompt to help GPT-4 have more context. Don’t worry if they’re not coherent at this stage, we’ll fix that later.

Brand strategy prompts - mission step 1

You’ll notice some answers exist in the prompt already, so it is going to feel like you're repeating yourself. See this as an opportunity to dig deeper into the details, and refine the answers.

1. professional service based solopreneurs, like mentioned writers, designers, developers, etc.
2. We are a project management platform that focuses on building a one man business for someone without business management experience. There are many templates, guides, and a community of solopreneurs to help those professionals who are sitting on the fence to take the leap and start a business
3. Many solopreneurs start the business with a very focussed professional skill, but not all rounded skills to run a business (like client management skills, accounting skills etc). Our platform has the basic functions to jump start the business.

Brand strategy prompts - mission step 2

The statement now has a defined who we serve and what they want, but the how we can help is still unclear. We're going to give GPT-4 instructions to weave that in.

Can you refine it to include how we have all the tools needed to run the solo business, encouraging more to take the leap

Brand strategy prompts - mission step 3

That sounds about right, ‘Yes’ for go.

Brand strategy prompts - mission step 4

By now, you're probably very familiar with the refinement process.

Refine statement based on 1. 4. and 5. , please give me 3 options for each.
Return a table with 2 columns:
Statement Type
Statement

Brand strategy prompts - mission step 5

Choose my 2 favourite statements, and explore further.

I like these 2 "Imagining a world where the boundary to starting one's own business is blurred, we offer the required tools for solopreneurs to succeed.", "For the brave taking the leap to entrepreneurship, we simplify complexity, enabling their dreams"
Can you please write 5 more options for each?
Remember to use easy to read words, be clear and concise.
Use Markdown to format your response.

Brand strategy prompts - mission step 6

Again, I’ll stitch together the words that strongly resonates, and run it pass GPT-4 a few times to get a final statement I agree with. Here's my mission statement.

To create a future where entrepreneurship is effortless and inclusive for every professional individual, by turning complex business processes into simple tasks.

Aligning the statements

Since we had the brand purpose, vision and mission statements produced separately, it may sound disconnected. This last step is to help align the three statements.

Brand strategy prompts - align all statements

So here it is, the final outcome of our 3 foundation brand statements:

Brand Purpose
"Every vibrant creation, every daring ambition; we ensure the creative realm of every independent entrepreneur is secure."

Brand Vision
"We envision a world where independent businesses thrive, fortified by the creative forces driving change and progress."

Brand Mission
"To simplify the future of entrepreneurship, making it effortless and inclusive for every professional individual by streamlining complex business processes."