How To Identify Your Brand Essence: Tips and Examples

Brand essence is the distillation of your brand’s core identity, synthesizing its key elements like purpose, promise, personality, and benefits to the consumer.

The “essence” of something is that thing’s most significant quality. Sounds simple, right? If you try to describe your best friend’s essence, you might instinctively say they’re fun, outgoing, or quick-witted. That’s accurate, but they’re also so much more than that. They’re the life of every outing without hogging all of the attention—“a welcoming, charismatic party starter” if you will. With a handful of words, you can picture that person and understand their personality a bit better.

Crafting a brand essence is similar. Beyond a few helpful adjectives, it’s an exercise in cutting to the core of what your brand is all about in just a few words. A brand that knows who it is will have a consistent presence that builds brand equity over time.

What is brand essence?

Brand essence is the distillation of your brand’s core identity, synthesizing its key elements (purpose, promise, personality, benefits to the consumer, etc.) in just a few words. It’s your North Star, a guiding light that can help a brand find a path forward, regardless of product iterations, shifting consumer preferences, challenging market dynamics, or even leadership changes. Generally speaking, a brand’s essence is designed for internal use, although in some cases, it can double as a public-facing slogan, brand promise, or mission statement.

For ecommerce companies, crafting an authentic and specific brand essence is helpful. It guides brand stewards to ensure that the brand’s presence aligns with its intended identity. In the same way you’re more likely to trust a confident person, consumers are more likely to trust a brand that knows itself. Plus, when your brand essence is precise and accurate, it helps attract the right audience. A strong brand essence is like an internal compass. At its best, it can guide a host of decisions a brand needs to make from product development, messaging, visual identity, hiring and training, and customer service interactions.

Brand essence vs. brand identity: What’s the difference?

A brand’s essence is a concise collection of words that captures the heart and soul of a brand to help inform internal decisions. A brand identity is a system, a toolbox of principles and assets a brand uses to express itself outwardly.

• Brand essence. Brand essence captures what your brand stands for at a foundational level, its purpose, and the promise it makes to consumers. In just a few words, it communicates the core of what your brand is all about.

• Brand identity. Your brand’s identity includes the tangible things it uses to express itself—your logo, colors, typography, messaging, design principles, and more. Described at length in your brand guidelines, it captures all the details that go into building your brand into something people can recognize. 

Brand essence is the “what,” while brand identity is the “how.” 

Elements of a strong brand essence

A strong brand essence helps a company identify what is and is not “on brand” and maintain a consistent portrayal across touchpoints such as marketing materials, product design, customer service, and digital presence. This is especially valuable when decision-making becomes decentralized, with multiple people or business units needing to make decisions on behalf of your brand. To facilitate, a brand essence should be:

• Concise. It quickly and clearly communicates what the brand represents in its idealized form.

• Aspirational. It represents your brand at its best and sets a high standard.

• Authentic. It must be true to your brand’s values, personality, purpose, and benefits.

How to identify your brand essence

When you’re ready to articulate your company’s brand essence, begin by organizing your thoughts to determine if you have the ingredients for a clear and differentiated brand. Then craft an authentic brand essence based on the following steps:

• Paint a picture of your brand. Before you articulate your brand essence, clearly define your brand personality and brand values. This helps you understand how your audience will perceive your brand and its mission. 

• Consider your competition. If you’ve written a positioning statement, you already know exactly how your brand stands out in the market. If not, perform a competitive analysis to assess how similar companies present themselves to their audiences. You’ll use your brand essence statement as a differentiator.

• Define your desired impact. What are the functional and emotional benefits your brand delivers to its customers? You can reference your unique value proposition at this point.

• Seek supporting evidence. Although it won’t be part of the brand essence statement itself, concrete evidence of your brand’s benefits helps you understand your mission’s impact.

• Draft your brand essence statement. Jot down a list of short sentences or phrases that capture the essence of your brand. Your brand essence represents the image you want your audience to think of when your brand is mentioned. Consider the perceptions that your audiences will have from your various drafts.

Brand essence examples

• BMW
• Starbucks
• LEGO
• Artisaire
• Healthy Roots Dolls

It’s rare to find companies explicitly labeling and posting their brand essence statements. Still, we can find them in taglines, mission statements, and slogans. Here are a few examples:

BMW

BMW’s brand essence comes through in its slogan, “Sheer Driving Pleasure.” This phrase communicates the brand’s promise to innovate in service of a better driving experience. Cars, according to BMW, are about more than getting from point A to point B. They’re about finding joy in the journey and making travel an end in itself. This brand essence distinguishes BMW from other luxury carmakers by focusing on the experience rather than the design alone. 

Starbucks

Starbucks’ brand essence of everyday connection is connected to its mission: “To be the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world, inspiring and nurturing the human spirit—one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” Starbucks’ promise over the decades has been to provide not just a good cup of coffee but a place where people can feel comfortable meeting with friends or colleagues, reading a book, or getting some work done. 

LEGO

LEGO’s brand essence of creative play enables it to transcend its physical product to represent the belief that creative play unleashes human potential. LEGO isn’t just selling colorful, interlocking plastic bricks, it’s selling inspiration and imagination for the young and young at heart. LEGO has produced licensed kits with iconic movie and video game franchises, theme parks, and more—and throughout all of these brand extensions, it has been able to be true to its essence.

Artisaire

A family-run business, Artisaire sells “gorgeous stationery for every moment” along with customizable wax seals made in its Canadian factory. You could say Artisaire offers classically sophisticated correspondence for people who want their messages to convey an elevated sense of thoughtfulness.

Healthy Roots Dolls

Healthy Roots Dolls sells dolls designed to empower young girls with curly hair, and represent the beauty of diversity. The dolls feature natural hairstyles and come with accessories that encourage creativity and learning about hair care. Ultimately, the brand provides representation and pride through play.

Brand essence FAQ

What is an example of a brand essence?

An example of brand essence is BMW’s “sheer driving pleasure.” It guides all aspects of BMW’s approach—from engineering decisions to marketing communications to dealership experiences. It informs the brand promise BMW makes to consumers.

How do you create a brand essence?

Create a brand essence by identifying the most critical aspects of your brand personality, what your core offerings are, and the feelings you want to inspire in your target audience. Sum that up in a few words, and you have your brand essence.

How do brands use their brand essence?

Brands use their brand essence statements to guide internal decision-making and stay focused on the company’s core values over time. Businesses may also use their brand essence as their company’s tagline, mantra, and/or messaging for marketing campaigns.