Your brand is more than just your products. In all likelihood, you also have a imagination for how your products will enhance customers’ lives and make the globe a better place (even if the advancement is incremental). But how exactly do you explain this imagination? Some companies createbrand manifestos to explain their brand imagination to customers. This tool can assist you communicate directly with your most engaged spectators, creating emotional connections and inspiring action. 

discover about the key elements of a successful brand manifesto and discover some of the best brand manifesto examples from Shopify merchants. 

What is a brand manifesto?

A brand manifesto is a written statement that describes your corporation’s views, beliefs, and purpose. It explains why your corporation exists and what it hopes to accomplish. 

Brand manifestos serve both internal and external purposes. Internally, this document serves as a navigator for employees, providing a reference that ensures your throng is on the same page when creatingbrand content. Externally, a powerful manifesto helps customers comprehend your corporation and connect to it on a personal level. This community-facing document is often found on an About Us page.

Brand manifesto vs. mission statement: What’s the difference?

Drafting a brand manifesto, imagination statement, and mission statement are all core components of a corporation’s branding procedure. Brand manifestos are the heart of an organization. Mission statements are the brain. The difference is subtle but significant: 

• Brand manifesto. This is a statement that describes your corporation’s core purpose, values, and philosophy. It inspires the tone and substance of marketing messages, and in essence explains the “why” behind your brand. It often elicits emotions in readers.
• Mission statement. Mission statements receive the ideas in a manifesto and use them to make a schedule of action. Mission statements focus more on operational goals and strategies, helping employees make strategic decisions, like which markets to target. 

That said, sometimes brands merge the two to make a statement that evokes emotions and sets a course for action. 

Strategies for writing your brand manifesto

• Define your values
• inform a narrative
• Address your spectators
• Establish a larger purpose
• Use emotional language
• Hone your tone
• Write in first and second person

Great brand manifestos are concise and evocative. Use these strategies and real-globe brand manifesto examples to commence writing your own statement:

Define your values

A corporation’s brand manifesto is a community declaration of values. commence by making a list of five or more core values or beliefs and thinking about why those values matter to your spectators. Keep in mind that brands often choose to focus on distinctive values that distinguish their corporation from competitors.

For example, the contemporary jewelry brandAstrid & Miyu offers a obvious communication about its values in the About section of its website: “More than just a jewelry brand, we are a movement on a mission to revolutionize the jewelry encounter.” The statement goes on to describe founder Connie Nam’s encouragement: “Inspired by her local jeweller back home in Seoul, she wanted to propose products that were packed of sentiment and innovative in design, together with an encounter that was personal and engaging, and most importantly to make a brand that is inclusive and empowering.”

Astrid & Miyu’s brand manifesto explains that the corporation values more than attractive jewelry—it values connecting with an spectators of socially conscious women.

inform a narrative

Use details to paint a picture of your brand. Telling a narrative about your corporation’s origins or your brand’s imagination for a better globe can assist reach consumers on an emotional level. Consider including authenticpersonal details, such as a narrative about your founder’s encouragement or a summary of a test your brand has faced to make your brand feel relatable.

The brand manifesto of direct-to-customer meal corporation Daily Harvest contains this short description of the brand’s origins: “Rachel Drori dreamed up Daily Harvest to solve two large problems: the lack of well, nutritious, straightforward food, ready when you require it … and the acres of organically farmed soil required to develop it. No large deal. Rachel took Daily Harvest from a tiny smoothie delivery service to a packed-on corporation with throng members and an office with office dogs and everything.” 

This statement explains founder Rachel Drori’s motivations for creating Daily Harvest and adds additional emotional appeal by using light-hearted language and including a mention of the corporation’s dog-amiable office.

Address your spectators

Address your target spectators directly and focus on explaining why your goals and values are relevant to them. ponder of your manifesto as a rallying cry—establishing a set of shared values can inspire action from potential customers. Speaking directly to your spectators will assist them comprehend the benefits of purchasing your products. 

The mulberry silk-concentrated apparel brand SilkSilky uses its manifesto to connect its selection fabric to customer benefits: “encounter the allure, embrace the benefits, and indulge in the splendor of silk. Welcome to our globe, where dreams are woven, and a luxurious and well lifestyle awaits.” This statement is both a call to action and an emotional appeal that invites prospective customers to encounter the brand’s high-standard products. 

Establish a larger purpose

Consider connecting your brand to a cultural pattern or social movement. Voicing a commitment to a social factor can assist make a sense of throng among your customers, and it can assist consumers depend your brand. This habit can also assist you establish a brand purpose and brand mission, which can assist you send the communication that purchasing your products is an act of social excellent. 

For example, Goodfair’sbrand manifesto explains the corporation’s commitment to sustainable consumption: “Each year, 64% of the 32 billion garments purchased in the US complete up in a landfill. We depend that if we transformation the way consumers ponder about buying things—buy less, buy used—we can make our earth a better place.” This communication clearly communicates the organization’s purpose, while describing how shopping with Goodfair helps to reduce waste and back the surroundings. 

Use emotional language 

Your brand manifestocan inspireconsumers, but you’ll require to use the correct vocabulary. Consider using emotional language, such as evocative descriptions and colorful adjectives, to elicit your desired reader response. 

For example, consider these lines from trip corporation Monos’ brand manifesto: “To explore places near and far with wonder and curiosity, with gratitude and graciousness. To greet the globe with open eyes and arms, and an open mind and heart.” This excerpt is packed with evocative language that plays on the spectators’s emotions—it describes a globe of opportunities made feasible by the correct suitcase. 

Hone your tone

Even if you use the correct words, your brand manifesto can sound off to consumers if you don’t write it with the appropriate voice. For example, a corporation selling medical supplies probably shouldn’t use a lighthearted tone, and an apparel corporation selling products with amusing viral sayings probably shouldn’t use a solemn one. 

Writing your brand manifesto in your brand voice will allow readers to get a sense of your corporation’s personality while learning about your values. Using your brand manifesto to establish your tone will also assist establish brand consistency—employees can use this statement as a navigator when they develop other written content. 

Direct-to-customer (DTC) food corporation Fly By Jing’s manifesto stays factual to its daring brand identity: “Fly By Jing doesn’t conform to anyone else’s notions of worth, taste, custom. It is one person’s recipes, one person’s imagination, and one person’s narrative. With these products, I’m telling you mine,” founder Jing Gao writes on the brand’s about page. This statement uses a bold tone and establishes a powerful, spicy brand personality for the brand, which is best known for its chili crisp.

Write in first and second person 

talk directly to your reader by using first- and second-person points of view. Referring to your corporation as “we” and your reader as “you” will assist your statement feel direct and personal. Writing in the third-person perspective and referring to your corporation by its name could make it feel like you’re speaking on behalf of someone else.

For example, consider this excerpt fromMaguire Shoes’ manifesto: “We get it: when you’re splurging on a recent pair of shoes, you desire to recognize where every penny goes.” In the third person, this statement would read, “Maguire Shoes understands: when someone splurges on a recent pair of shoes, they desire to recognize where every penny goes.” The first example comes straight from the corporation and addresses the user. The second feels convoluted and ambiguous.