Reading · Purpose&Prompt for PMM

Hey, welcome back. I’m Laura. Just a regular human and marketer trying to make sense of the AI era without losing my mind.

This week, I’m walking you through how to build a simple, lovable brand step by step with AI as your partner in less than a week. And actually enjoy the process.

Here’s what’s changed: According to SaaStr, 65 million potential builders are ready to launch micro-products this year. Marketers, creators, and operators are becoming builders overnight, which explains why your LinkedIn feed looks like a startup pitch deck threw up.

When software becomes cheap and widespread, coding becomes a commodity. So differentiation becomes the real advantage.

That’s why brand matters more than ever. Especially if you’re building something people will actually care about.

I built my Substack brand in five days using the framework I’m about to show you. No agency, no budget, no brand degree required. Just a clear process that works.

In this article, I’ll walk you through how to build a brand from scratch using PRESENT, a simple, proven framework designed for speed and clarity. No 80-slide decks.

On top of that, I’ll show you how to use AI to accelerate the process with a custom ChatGPT that works like a creative partner.

Everything here comes from real experience. I’ve built brands multiple times as a Product Marketer in tech startups and as a Substack creator. I’m not a “brand guru.” I’m someone who had to build brands without being an expert, by finding the best experts and using the right frameworks.

This is for you if you’re:

A marketer who wants to understand the brand beyond logo and colors, and defend decisions with confidence
An entrepreneur, solopreneur, or vibecoder building a project and needing a minimum lovable brand that stands out
A product builder who wants the brand to show up inside the product, not just in marketing
A Substack creator who wants a simple, professional brand that attracts the right readers

You can jump straight to the framework if you want. But if you care about the why behind this approach, stick with me for a minute.

Quick context: I studied Advertising and PR, but I only truly understood branding once I lived it.

At Komvida (a kombucha brand in Spain), I led e-commerce strategy and worked with an exceptional Brand Creative Director, Marc Caballe. We grew it into a market leader with a community that didn’t just buy the product. They felt part of it.

That’s where I learned: a great brand doesn’t decorate growth. It drives it.

At 2gether (a European crypto exchange), as Head of Marketing, I pushed brand as a strategic lever, not an afterthought. A few skeptical eyes were watching closely. When we achieved a higher market share than Coinbase and Binance in Spain during the first year, those eyes stopped being skeptical.

The lesson? Brand amplifies reality. It can’t replace it. 2gether offered the simplest way to buy crypto. The brand just made that value three times louder.

After that, I did a slow, heavy rebranding with a big agency. Many stakeholders, endless meetings, the whole nightmare. Then I went back to speed at Billionhand, where we built and launched a brand in under a week.

Here’s what I learned: brand building can be slow, political, and endless. Or fast, focused, and designed to evolve. If you can choose, choose the second.

That’s exactly what I did for my Substack. No budget, no team, just me. I used PRESENT, a framework by brand expert Rodrigo Maroni, and built a minimum lovable brand in less than a week, with a custom GPT as my creative Partner.

Now I’m going to teach you that same process.

Branding isn’t about slapping a new logo on things or choosing pretty colors and pretending you’ve got a strategy.

Real branding is about making people instantly get three things about you:

Meaning: Why does this even matter?
Difference: Why should I pick you over everyone else?
Trust: Why should I believe anything you’re saying?

A brand is how people recognize you, remember you, and feel about you. It’s not what you tell them. It’s what they walk away thinking.

We always start with strategy because design without strategy is just decoration.

If words like “positioning” or “brand pillars” sound foreign to you, don’t worry. We’re going to build your brand the same way you’d build a house, starting from the foundation and working our way up to the front door.

There are four phases to building a brand.

Foundations is where you define your purpose, your audience, the key human insight behind your brand, and what’s happening in your category.

Strategy is where you decide your positioning, your main brand idea, your value proposition, and the key messaging pillars you will repeat.

Expression is where your brand takes shape through its voice, visual style, name, tagline, and overall story.

Activation is where the brand comes to life through your website copy, campaigns, content plan, and internal alignment with your team.

This phase makes your brand real. It answers: who are you for, what do you believe, and what truth are you built on?

Think of it like pouring concrete. If this part is weak, everything you build on top of it will wobble.

Your purpose is why you exist beyond just making money. It’s what you’re here to change, protect, or make possible.

Good examples:

Patagonia: “We’re in business to save our home planet.”
Why it works: Specific, bold, and they actually back it up with real action.

Tony’s Chocolonely: “100% slave-free chocolate.”
Why it works: Tackles a real problem in the industry and gives the brand a clear mission.

LEGO: “Inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow.”
Why it works: Connects a product to something bigger, human potential.

Bad examples:

“To be the best coffee brand in the world.”
Why it sucks: It’s all about you, not what you stand for.

“To innovate continuously.”
Why it sucks: Sounds clever but means absolutely nothing.

“To make people happy.”
Why it sucks: So generic that literally any brand could say it.

Rule of thumb: If any company could claim it as their own, it’s not a purpose. It’s just filler. If your purpose sounds like it was generated by autocomplete after typing “Our mission is to,” start over.

A target audience isn’t a demographic. It’s a group of people who share a goal, frustration, or identity.

Good examples:

Apple: Creatives who value freedom and innovation.
Why it works: Defines a clear identity, not just a buyer profile.

Peloton: High achievers who want performance and community.
Why it works: Speaks to motivation and belonging, not just fitness.

Glossier: People who want authenticity, not perfection.
Why it works: Captures a mindset that guides everything from product to marketing.

Bad examples:

“Women 25 to 35.”
Why it sucks: That’s a demographic, not a motivation. Congratulations, you’ve just described roughly 8% of Earth’s population. That should make your marketing really focused.

“Everyone who likes tech.”
Why it sucks: Way too broad. Impossible to speak clearly.

“High-income consumers.”
Why it sucks: Tells you nothing about what they want or care about.

Helpful question: What do they want, fear, and care about?

Every category repeats the same tired story. That story becomes invisible. Your job is to spot it so you can break it.

Here’s the weird part: the cliché exists because it worked once. Your job isn’t to avoid what works. It’s to avoid what’s become invisible.

Examples:

Water cliché: “Pure. Clean. From the mountains.”
Disruptor: Liquid Death
Why it worked: Looked nothing like water branding, so people couldn’t forget it.

Insurance cliché: “Trust us. We’ve been here forever.”
Disruptor: Geico
Why it worked: Humor made a boring category actually watchable and memorable.

Beauty cliché: “Look perfect. Be flawless.”
Disruptor: Dove Real Beauty
Why it worked: Made people feel seen instead of judged.

Simple takeaways:

Clichés make you blend in. Breaking them makes you stand out.

Clichés are strategy junk food. They feel safe going in, then six months later you’re wondering why your brand looks like everyone else’s distant cousin.

A core insight is a deep human truth that explains why people emotionally care about something.

Insight is not:

A fact: “Gen Z spends 6 hours a day online.” Just data.
A trend: “Sustainability is on the rise.” Just observation.
A stat: “67% of consumers prefer brands with purpose.” Just a number.

Those things are useful inputs, but they don’t unlock anything new. Insights are breakthroughs.

If your “insight” could’ve been pulled from a LinkedIn motivational post, it’s not an insight. It’s just something that sounds smart in a meeting.

A true insight equals a game-changing revelation

A real insight sounds like:

“You think the problem is X. It’s actually Y.”
“People say they want A, but they choose B because of how it feels.”

Good insight examples:

Liquid Death: People want to be healthy without feeling boring.
Why it works: Reveals a tension the brand can solve creatively.

Geico: Nobody cares about insurance unless it’s simple and entertaining.
Why it works: Honest, human, and explains their whole tone perfectly.

Dove: Most women don’t feel represented by beauty standards.
Why it works: Connects the product to a real emotional need.

Bad insight examples:

“People like comfort.”
Why it sucks: Obvious. Doesn’t unlock a new strategy.

“Everyone wants to save money.”
Why it sucks: True, but too broad to build a brand on.

“Consumers want healthy food.”
Why it sucks: Surface-level and not emotionally specific.

Pro tip

If you’re building a brand from scratch, go with:

Brand Purpose → 2. Target Audience → 3. Market Context → 4. Core Insight

Why? Because you’re starting from intention.

This sequence is ideal for founders, startups, or rebrands where belief and behavior matter more than legacy.

If you’re repositioning an existing brand or entering a competitive category, flip it:

Market Context → 2. Core Insight → 3. Target Audience → 4. Brand Purpose

This is the disruption-first approach.

This sequence is sharper for mature brands, challengers, or category disruptors who want to cut through noise fast.

Pause here. If defining these four elements felt hard, good. You’re doing the work most people skip. This is why their brands feel like guesswork.

If you can answer these four questions clearly, you’re already thinking more strategically than most startups.

Copy this into your doc right now:

Our purpose is: ___
Our audience wants: ___
The category cliché is: ___
Our insight is: ___

Your first version will probably be rough. But getting words on the page beats staring at a blank doc. You can always refine.

Now we turn the foundation into a structure. This is your brand’s spine.

Think of Purpose, Category Context, Cliché, and Core Insight as the inputs to produce these outputs: Positioning, brand idea, value proposition, and messaging pillars.

Here’s what most people miss: most brand failures happen in Phase 1. People skip to Phase 3 (the fun visual stuff) without doing the hard thinking. Don’t. If you nailed your foundations, everything from here gets easier.

Positioning is one sentence that explains who you serve, what you do, and why you’re different.

How the inputs shape it:

Purpose gives your positioning a why that matters
Category Context ensures you don’t copy competitors
Cliché tells you what not to say
Insight tells you what only you can say

Example:

If your purpose is “helping creatives find calm” and the cliché in your category is “hustle harder,” your positioning might be:

“Unlike productivity tools that push output, we help thinkers find mental clarity, because creativity needs space.”

Good examples:

Liquid Death: “Water for people who hate boring brands.”
Why it works: Clearly defines a specific audience and unique tone in one line.

Geico: “Fast, simple insurance with a sense of humor.”
Why it works: Stands out in a serious category by owning simplicity plus entertainment.

Dove: “Beauty products that celebrate real women, not perfection.”
Why it works: Flips the beauty cliché and takes a clear emotional stance.

Bad examples:

“We offer innovative solutions.”
Why it sucks: Could describe literally any company. If you can replace your brand name with any competitor and the positioning still works, you don’t have positioning. You have Mad Libs.

“The best service at the best price.”
Why it sucks: Everyone claims this, so nobody believes it.

“Quality and value you can trust.”
Why it sucks: Generic and forgettable.

This is your emotional promise wrapped in a sticky phrase. Think of it as the emotional core that unites your purpose, insight, and audience and gives direction to everything you create. It’s the guiding idea that everything else orbits around.

How it’s shaped:

Purpose gives it meaning
Insight gives it emotional punch
Cliché gives it edge, by saying the opposite

Example:

If the insight is “People don’t want to hustle, they want to feel in control,” the brand idea could be:

“Focus without force.”

It’s short, sticky, and emotionally charged.

Good examples:

Liquid Death: “Health with attitude.”
Why it works: Turns water into identity, not just hydration.

Geico: “Insurance that doesn’t waste your time.”
Why it works: Speaks to what people actually want, speed and simplicity.

Dove: “Real Beauty.”
Why it works: A mission that guides every campaign.

Bad examples:

“Be your best self.”
Why it sucks: Vague and overused. This phrase has been used so many times it should come with a cease and desist letter from the universe.

“Innovating for the future.”
Why it sucks: Corporate language with no emotion.

“Think different” (if you’re not Apple).
Why it sucks: Copycats always sound fake.

Your value proposition is your clear promise: what you help people do.

How it’s shaped:

Insight points to the real benefit your audience wants
Cliché helps you cut jargon and avoid empty promises

Example:

If the cliché is “boost productivity” but the insight is “people feel overwhelmed,” your value prop might be:

“We help busy minds find clarity, without the burnout.”

Good examples:

Liquid Death: “Drink water without losing your personality.”
Why it works: Matches the insight and makes the product feel fun.

Geico: “Save money in 15 minutes.”
Why it works: Short, clear, measurable, memorable.

Dove: “Beauty products that build confidence, not insecurity.”
Why it works: Connects product to a meaningful emotional outcome.

Bad examples:

“We’re the future of X.”
Why it sucks: Hype with no clarity.

“Helping people live better lives.”
Why it sucks: Too broad to be believable.

“End-to-end solutions.”
Why it sucks: Jargon that hides what you actually do.

These are three to four themes you repeat everywhere. They’re your brand’s greatest hits, the beliefs you weave into every blog post, email, or ad you write.

How they’re shaped:

Purpose anchors them in belief
Insight gives them emotional relevance
Category and cliché tell you which messages to challenge

Here’s something people don’t realize: strong messaging pillars also tell you what NOT to talk about. They’re filters, not just topics.

Example pillars (for a focus brand):

Clarity is a ritual
Creativity needs space
Focus doesn’t mean hustle
Burnout is not a badge of honor

Each one reflects a belief and helps shape every piece of content you create.

Good examples:

Liquid Death messaging pillars:

Healthy hydration, not boring wellness
Rebel personality
Anti-plastic sustainability

Why it works: Everything supports the same identity and tone.

Geico messaging pillars:

Save time
Save money
Make it easy
Make it memorable (humor)

Why it works: Practical, repeatable, and reinforces positioning.

Dove messaging pillars:

Beauty is diverse
Confidence matters
Real is beautiful
Reject harmful standards

Why it works: Emotionally consistent and mission-driven.

Bad examples:

“Quality, innovation, service.”
Why it sucks: Corporate mush, not messaging.

“Customer satisfaction.”
Why it sucks: That’s a KPI, not a brand idea.

“Results.”
Why it sucks: Unclear, results for who and why?

Notice something? You just designed a brand system that could guide years of decisions. Some agencies charge $50K+ for this. You did it by answering questions.

This is where strategy becomes experience. If you nailed your positioning, this part becomes obvious. Your brand idea practically tells you what voice and visuals to use.

Tone is how your brand sounds in writing and speech. It brings your personality to life.

Good examples:

Liquid Death
Tone: Bold, satirical, rebellious.
Why it works: Makes water entertaining and unforgettable.

Geico
Tone: Funny, simple, light.
Why it works: Humor becomes the hook that delivers the message.

Dove
Tone: Warm, empowering, supportive.
Why it works: Builds trust and emotional connection.

Bad examples:

“We strive to leverage synergies.”
Why it sucks: Nobody talks like this in real life. Not even the person who wrote it. Especially not the person who wrote it.

Forced humor
Why it sucks: Breaks trust and feels try-hard.

Inconsistent tone
Why it sucks: Makes the brand feel unreliable.

Visual direction is your look: colors, fonts, imagery, and style.

Good examples:

Liquid Death
Cans, bold typography, metal/punk vibe.
Why it works: Instantly breaks category norms.

Dove
Clean visuals, real women, natural photography.
Why it works: Matches the mission and feels authentic.

Bad examples:

Stock photos
Why it sucks: Looks generic and replaceable. Also, we all know that’s not your team. Your team doesn’t laugh at salads.

Blue-gray corporate templates
Why it sucks: Signals are safe, not memorable.

Inconsistent design
Why it sucks: Kills trust and recognition.

Your name introduces you. Your tagline delivers your promise.

The best brand ideas sound too simple. If yours feels clever, it’s probably too complicated.

Good examples:

Liquid Death
Name: Liquid Death
Tagline vibe: “Murder your thirst.”
Why it works: Impossible to ignore.

Geico
Brand: Geico
Tagline: “15 minutes could save you 15% or more.”
Why it works: Repeated, sticky, tied to value.

Dove
Brand: Dove
Tagline: “Real Beauty.”
Why it works: Simple emotional statement that guides everything.

Bad examples:

Hard-to-pronounce invented names
Why it sucks: People can’t remember or share them.

“Innovation. Integrity. Excellence.”
Why it sucks: Empty buzzwords.

Your manifesto is your belief system, a statement of what you fight for.

Good examples:

Nike: “If you have a body, you’re an athlete.”

Why it’s great:

It flips the cliché that sport is only for the elite
Based on a powerful insight: People want to feel capable, not compared
It democratizes athleticism. You don’t need a medal, just a heartbeat
The tone is empowering, defiant, and inclusive, everything Nike stands for

Manifesto flavor:

“It’s not about the finish line. It’s about the start. It’s not about perfect bodies. It’s about powerful minds. If you have a body, you are an athlete. Just do it.”

It’s not just copy. It’s a belief system that fuels campaigns, athlete partnerships, and even internal culture.

Patagonia: “We’re in business to save our home planet.”

Why it’s great:

It puts mission before marketing. They lead with values, not features
It’s rooted in their purpose: business should be a force for good
The language is urgent, activist, and uncompromising, and they back it up with action (donating profits, suing the US government over public lands, etc.)

Manifesto flavor:

“We’re in business to save our home planet. We seek not only to do less harm, but more good. We support grassroots activism. We design to be repairable and recyclable. Because the world can’t wait.”

It’s bold. It’s clear. It’s why customers wear their values, not just their jackets.

Bad examples:

“Founded in 2021.”
Why it sucks: History is not mean.

“Our founders saw a gap.”
Why it sucks: Everyone says this.

This phase is about taking all that strategy and putting it into action, where people actually meet your brand.

This is how your brand speaks online, especially on your homepage, About page, and product pages.

Good examples:

Basecamp: “Project management software that doesn’t suck.” Honest and human.

Calm: “#1 app for sleep and meditation.” Clear and confident.

Allbirds: “The world’s most comfortable shoes.” Simple, benefit-led.

Bad examples:

“Welcome to our.” Wasted space. Thanks for the geography lesson, but people generally know they’re on a homepage when they type in your URL.

“We’re a leading provider of...” Generic intro.

“Click here to learn more.” Lazy CTA.

Campaigns bring your brand into the real world through ads, launches, and creative stunts.

Good examples:

Liquid Death: Metal videos and satire. When they launched, water brands thought they were insane. A year later, they were the ones everyone copied.

Old Spice: Over-the-top humor flipped the grooming category.

Spotify Wrapped: Turns personal data into cultural moments. Genius.

Bad examples:

Banner ads with “Buy Now!” The “yelling at strangers” approach to marketing. A classic that’s never worked.

Social posts with zero creativity or visuals.

Unclear or inconsistent messaging in ads.

Your content plan keeps your brand alive on social and beyond, consistently and creatively.

Good examples:

Headspace: Daily mindfulness tips. Reinforces utility.

Calm: Peaceful stories and visuals. Aligns with tone.

Duolingo: Funny, viral TikToks. Perfect for Gen Z.

Bad examples:

Only posting sales and discounts.

Copy-pasting press releases as posts.

Infrequent, inconsistent posting.

Your team needs to understand your brand inside and out. They’re your first brand ambassadors.

Good examples:

Netflix: Culture deck shapes internal behavior.

Airbnb: Brand training for every new hire.

Zappos: Service culture built into operations.

Bad examples:

No brand onboarding.

Inconsistent internal communication.

Leaders say one thing, employees do another. Turns your brand into performance art, and not the good kind.

Once you have these elements, test them. Send your positioning to five people in your target audience. If they don’t get it in 10 seconds, revise.

Your brand isn’t done. It’s never done. But now you have something clear enough to build on. That’s the difference between staying stuck and moving forward.

You have a custom GPT trained with all these great campaigns and more, built by a brand strategist (Rodrigo Maroni), that helps you build your brand by following these steps and giving you the right strategic answers. It’s like your creative partner to build your brand.

So let’s take advantage of it. Because somewhere right now, someone is building their brand by asking AI to “make it pop” and calling it strategy.

If you liked this article and want to continue learning about this process, I recommend:

Six hours of amazing content from Caleb Ralston, a great expert who made us a real gift: knowledge that people pay a lot for in master’s degrees, delivered in six hours on YouTube.

My Substack publication brand. Here you can see how I built and continue to evolve my personal brand for my Substack publications. Brand is a process and continues to evolve with my own evolution and my audience.

If this helped the ideas click, or if you think I oversimplified, missed something important, or got a detail wrong, tell me.

I learn faster in public, especially when people disagree thoughtfully.

#32 How To Build A Minimum Lovable Brand In Less Than A Week (With AI As Your Creative Partner)

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