Brand

---
name: brand
description: "Use when the user invokes /brand, or asks to build, name, position, design, roll out, evaluate, or refresh a brand identity — a logo/brandmark, brand strategy, positioning, brand brief, visual system, brand guidelines, touchpoints, or a rebrand — and it is unclear which brand-identity reference skills apply. Dispatcher that routes to the right companion skills distilled from Wheeler & Meyerson's Designing Brand Identity (6e)."
---

# /brand — Brand Identity Dispatcher

Router for the **brand-identity-skills** family — 12 reference skills distilled from Alina Wheeler & Rob Meyerson, *Designing Brand Identity* (6th ed., Wiley 2024). Don't design a brand from memory: route to the 2–4 skills whose scope matches the task, load them, and apply their frameworks.

## How to use

1. Read the task. Identify which stage(s) and concern(s) it touches using the routing table.
2. Load the matched skills (2–4 — cast slightly wide, discard after reading). If the task spans the whole engagement, load `managing-the-process` first as the spine.
3. Apply the combined frameworks. Where two overlap, the more specific stage skill wins.
4. Name which skills you applied.

## Routing table

| Task signal | Load |
|---|---|
| "what is a brand / brand vs branding", vocabulary, brand architecture, why invest, stakeholders, brand experience | `brand-fundamentals` |
| Judge/critique/defend an identity; acceptance criteria; "is this any good"; rubric | `brand-ideals` |
| Choose a logo/mark type (wordmark, pictorial, abstract, emblem, dynamic); name a company/product; tagline; character | `brand-elements` (naming also → `clarifying-strategy`) |
| AI, sustainability, social justice, social media, mobile, big data, licensing, certification, crisis, personal brand | `brand-dynamics` |
| Refresh/evolve/overhaul an EXISTING brand; brandmark or packaging redesign; renaming | `brand-redesign` |
| Plan/run the whole initiative; timeline, cost, "why so long", collaboration, IP/trademark, measuring success | `managing-the-process` |
| Phase 1 — audits (marketing, competitive, verbal), interviews, market/usability research, problem definition, findings | `conducting-research` |
| Phase 2 — positioning, brand brief, big idea, narrowing focus, naming strategy, trademark screening | `clarifying-strategy` |
| Phase 3 — the visual/sensory system: look & feel, color, typography, iconography, sound, testing marks in application | `designing-identity` |
| Phase 4 — apply identity across touchpoints: website, collateral, packaging, signage, environments, uniforms, vehicles | `creating-touchpoints` |
| Phase 5 — launch, brand guidelines, brand books, brand champions, governance, online brand center | `managing-brand-assets` |
| "show me a real precedent", pattern that worked, cite a case (Airbnb, Chobani, LEGO, Deloitte…) | `brand-case-studies` |

## The 5-phase spine

Most build/rebrand requests run the universal process in order. If the task is "create a brand identity" end to end, sequence:

1. **conducting-research** — understand before designing
2. **clarifying-strategy** — decide meaning, positioning, name
3. **designing-identity** — build the visual/sensory system
4. **creating-touchpoints** — apply it everywhere
5. **managing-brand-assets** — launch and sustain it

`managing-the-process` orchestrates all five; `brand-fundamentals`, `brand-ideals`, `brand-elements`, `brand-dynamics` are cross-cutting references; `brand-redesign` and `brand-case-studies` inform any stage.

## Common mistakes

- **Jumping to logo design** before research + strategy — load `conducting-research` and `clarifying-strategy` first.
- **Loading all 12** — the point is to route to the 2–4 that fit. Cast slightly wide, then discard.
- **Designing from memory** — these skills carry the book's exact frameworks (the 9 ideals, the mark taxonomy, the 5 phases). Read them; don't paraphrase from recall.

> Source: Wheeler & Meyerson, *Designing Brand Identity* (6th ed., Wiley 2024).