Brand Strategy 3Ps (Purpose, Positioning, Personality)

Build your brand foundation with three components: why you exist, how you want to be understood, and how you show up

Arielle Jackson
The art of building legendary brands | Arielle Jackson (Google, Square, First Round Capital)

Brand Strategy 3Ps (Purpose, Positioning, Personality)

"Your brand is who people think you are. And developing a brand strategy is what do you want to be? What do you want people to think you are? And what are you going to do to help shape that perception?" - Arielle Jackson

What It Is

The Brand Strategy 3Ps is a right-sized brand development framework for early-stage startups. Rather than getting lost in mission statements, vision statements, and values documents, you focus on three essential components that inform everything else:

  1. Purpose: Why you do what you do
  2. Positioning: How you want people to understand your product
  3. Personality: How you show up in the world

These three components feed into visual design (logo, colors, fonts) and written voice (copy, tone), but they ARE your brand—the visual elements are just expressions of it.

How It Works

1. Purpose (10-Year Frame)

Your purpose explains the change you want to see in the world, irrespective of financial gain. It's your "why."

Characteristics of good purpose:

  • Answers "We exist to ___"
  • Could be the header for your About page
  • Makes people want to root for you
  • Helps align employees around something bigger
  • Exists on a 10-year timeframe (doesn't change often)

Examples:

  • Google: "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful"
  • Stripe: "To increase the GDP of the internet"
  • Nike: "To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete"
  • LogicLoop: "To make operations data work harder than operations people"

Process to develop purpose:

  1. List cultural tensions relevant to your business (zeitgeist, current events, subconscious beliefs)
  2. List ways to describe your brand's best self (when everything works perfectly)
  3. Pick the best from each list
  4. Complete: "The world would be a better place if ___"
  5. Refine into: "We exist to ___"

2. Positioning (18-Month Frame)

Positioning is the space you occupy in your target customer's mind and everything you do to influence how they describe your product.

Signs you have a positioning problem:

  • Ask 10 customers or employees what you do—get 10 different answers
  • Can't explain what you do in one sentence
  • Takes 30 minutes to explain your company

Positioning exists on an 18-month frame—it can evolve as your product and market evolve, unlike purpose which stays stable.

See the Four-Part Positioning Statement and Concentric Circles Audience Model for the detailed positioning process.

3. Personality (Ongoing)

If your brand was a person, would people want to hang out with them? Personality informs your visual design and written copy.

Why it matters:

  • Brands show up where people show up (TikTok, Instagram)
  • Without personality, you end up like ADP trying to be fun for summer—awkward and forced
  • Strong brands have clear personality (Mountain Dew = rugged/exciting, Rolex = sophisticated/competent)

See Five Brand Personality Dimensions for the detailed personality development process.

How to Apply It

Timeline for early-stage startups: ~3 weeks

  1. Week 1: Purpose

    • Cultural tensions brainstorm
    • Brand's best self brainstorm
    • Develop "We exist to ___" statement

  2. Week 2: Positioning

    • Define audience (concentric circles)
    • Map problem and current solutions
    • Write positioning statement
    • Test with Bar Test

  3. Week 3: Personality

    • Identify two of five dimensions
    • Develop five "X but not Y" attributes
    • Create creative brief with inspiration examples

Output: A creative brief that includes all three components plus visual/written inspiration, which you hand to designers and writers.

When to Use It

  • Before launching a new company or product
  • Before hiring an agency or designer
  • When you notice positioning drift (different people describing you differently)
  • Before a rebrand
  • When onboarding new employees (include in brand Bible)

ROI Argument

"Whatever time it takes you actually is going to save you so much time down the road. It's going to help you save time on company decision making. It's going to help you save time writing your website. Literally your web copy almost writes itself if you get this all done right."

Source

  • Guest: Arielle Jackson
  • Episode: "The art of building legendary brands | Arielle Jackson (Google, Square, First Round Capital)"
  • Key Discussion: (00:34:33 - 00:37:48) - Overview of the three components
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube
  • Additional Resource: First Round Review article "Three Moves Every Startup Founder Should Make"

Related Frameworks

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