How to give your brand a point of view.

Some thoughts on brand archetypes and characters.

Apr 25, 2025

Hi, friends.

Over the years I’ve built a lot of brands.

One thing I’ve noticed about the best ones? They all have a crystal-clear point of view on the world. One that shapes everything they do in the business.

For today’s letter, I wanted to dig into what a POV is, how it helps you keep your brand consistent at scale, and how to find one that works for you.

What is a brand point of view?

A brand point of view (POV) is your company’s core stance on the world it operates in. It’s not your mission. It’s not your values. It’s your perspective—your filter for how you see the market, your customers, your role in solving a problem, and, frankly, just the world at large.

It answers questions like:

What do we believe is broken or backwards in our industry?
What do we think really matters (even if it’s unpopular)?
What’s the hill we’re willing to die on?

For example, at BrandStack — the little agency I’m building — our point of view is:

"Brand isn’t a vanity project. It’s infrastructure."

That belief shapes how we talk about design, strategy, sales, marketing, and internal alignment. It’s why we focus on building a brand that’s usable and scalable — not something that just looks pretty.

A strong POV gives your brand a backbone. It helps you stand out not because you’re louder, but because you're crystal-clear. When you combine it with strong values? That’s how you get something that’s unignorable, interesting, and authentic.

Why is POV important?

I have come to believe that point of view is one of the most important parts of the branding process for a singular reason: it’s how you keep things consistent at scale.

I like to think of POV as a pair of glasses. When you have a well-defined perspective, anybody in your business can “put on” the glasses and view the world as the brand.

This is important. It means:

Your marketing contractors know how to shape design/copy decisions
Your product team can write documentation that supports the brand mission
HR can identify candidates who share a similar perspective
Leadership can present a consistent story to investors
Customer success and support can respond to tricky situations in a way that reinforces the business’ goals

In short: it’s how you keep things aligned and allow your team to make decisions that are always on brand.

Brand archetypes can help you frame yours.

If you want to create a really strong point of view, brand archetypes are going to be helpful. If POV is the worldview itself, an archetype is how you bring it to life.

The most popular brand archetype framework out there is the 12 Brand Archetypes. Developed by Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson and made famous in their book The Hero and the Outlaw, it identifies 12 different “characters” that can shape a brand:

Or, with a little more detail:

The Hero – Strives to overcome challenges and inspire others through strength, courage, and determination.
The Ruler – Brings structure, control, and leadership to create order and stability.
The Sage – Seeks truth and wisdom, offering insight through knowledge and thoughtful guidance.
The Magician – Creates transformative experiences by turning vision into reality.
The Caregiver – Protects and supports others with compassion, empathy, and selflessness.
The Explorer – Craves freedom and discovery, always pushing toward new horizons.
The Jester – Uses humor and irreverence to challenge norms and bring joy.
The Outlaw (Rebel) – Breaks rules and disrupts the status quo to spark change.
The Creator – Builds meaningful, original things through imagination and expression.
The Innocent – Believes in doing the right thing with optimism, honesty, and simplicity.
The Lover – Fosters deep emotional connection through passion, intimacy, and appreciation.
The Everyman – Relatable and grounded, seeks belonging and connection through authenticity.

Brand archetypes are helpful in creating and maintaining a point of view because they give your POV consistency and character. It’s not just what you say, but why and how you do it.

1. They give your POV a tone and temperament.

Let’s say your POV is:

“Most enterprise software creates more complexity than it solves.”

If your brand archetype is The Rebel, you’ll express that with fire and edge. If you’re The Sage, you’ll approach it with wisdom and clarity. Same belief, different delivery. Archetypes keep your POV emotionally consistent.

2. They help your POV feel human.

People don’t relate to companies. They relate to characters. Archetypes anchor your brand’s personality in something that feels familiar—The Caregiver, The Explorer, The Creator. That familiarity builds trust and recognition over time.

3. They act as a gut-check for new ideas.

When you’re building out a campaign or writing a thought leadership piece, you can ask:

Is this something our archetype would say? Would they say it like this?

It keeps the voice and values aligned, even across different teams or writers.

4. They support storytelling.

POV is the narrative backbone. Archetypes help cast your brand as a character in that narrative. For example, if your brand is The Hero, your POV might challenge the status quo and call your audience to rise up with you. But if you’re The Caregiver, your POV might focus on what your audience needs to feel safe, supported, and empowered.

How to find your archetype.

When we work with clients on brand archetypes, we take them through a structured workshop. As someone who is a mega fan of structured workshops (I replaced every meeting with a workshop at my last job), I’ve found they’re the best way to get people thinking creatively, collaboratively, and, most importantly, get some decisions made.

We use the time together to think about things like:

What are our core beliefs about the industry?
What does our audience expect from a company like ours?
What connects all the employees? How do we describe ourselves?
What makes our team different from others?
How do we want to show up in the world?

Etc. After about two hours I usually go sit in the brain cave and use this time to come up with a few different options. Then the designers and I come back with a few different messaging concepts that fit that perspective.

Sounds simple… until you try to do it yourself.

Honestly, ChatGPT can get you pretty far if you’re trying to DIY this. But if you feel like you’re running around in circles trying to read the label from inside the bottle some outside perspective is useful.

It doesn’t have to be us… but if you’re interested, we have a totally free branding audit offer. 😉 Hit reply and let’s get you on the list.

Last night I signed up for an ultramarathon, so my rabbit hole for the last few weeks has mostly been running related content. That said, here are a few things I’ve stumbled upon which I think you might like:

How brand lets you do more with less (this is my post on LinkedIn).
Nick Gaudio wrote an amazing post about the process of finding an advertising concept. This is well worth a read.
I wrote this while listening to Flavour Trip’s new mix.
A rant on women’s trail gear, if you’re interested in trail running.