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What is a brand anthem and why do you need one?

Speak! Agency • December 12, 2019
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Put simply, a brand anthem (also known as a brand manifesto) is a declaration of who your brand is and why it’s here.

When people read a brand anthem — and by people we mean employees and customers — they should gain an instant understanding of your message and a strong sense of your organization’s purpose. To accomplish this, the anthem needs to be built around a radically simple idea, and it should be artfully crafted so it makes your audiences feel something.

Brand anthems come in many flavors.
At Speak!, we tend to prefer anthems that string together thoughtful sentences with bold language. That’s exactly the feel we were going for when we created the “For the Futuremakers” brand anthem for the Dell Technologies OEM Division (case study).

“For the Futuremakers” isn’t an empty statement. No marketing fluff here. It’s a confident declaration about how Dell Technologies is helping its business customers change the world.

The brand anthem is making three important differences for Dell. And if it’s written properly, an anthem can have these same three effects on your brand.

1) Inspire employee belief – Whether it’s a new hire or a grizzled company vet, the brand anthem should serve as a rally cry that unites all your employees behind a singular purpose.

2) Forge a positive connection with customers — A brand anthem should be emotionally charged and inspire customers to take part in your brand’s larger purpose.

3) Provide a platform for storytelling — The anthem and the idea it’s built around should allow you to scale the story across video, events, campaigns, etc.

What all brand anthems have in common
If you’re going to create a brand anthem that accomplishes these three goals, you need craft it around something you’re serious about. Consider GE’s Ecomagination platform. It’s a bold, lofty, aspirational commitment that would fall flat if the company didn’t live by it. The difference between strong brands (like GE and Dell) and weak brands is that strong brands have a belief in a bigger, more important mission.

The key takeaway here is it’s unlikely you’ll just be able to sit down and write an effective brand anthem in the next couple hours. It will require some companywide soul searching.

Before putting pen to paper, make sure you do the hard work of figuring out what your brand is really all about. We’d love to help you do that. Give us a holler. We’d be happy to walk you through a 15-minute overview of our Brand Intervention service.

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The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But the Truth. So Help Your Brand.

By Speak Agency • February 3, 2025
Let's cut to the chase: In a world drowning in digital noise and AI-generated content, brand authenticity isn't just a nice-to-have — it's your survival kit. Today's tech-savvy customers can smell manufactured messaging from ten browser tabs away, and they're not afraid to hit "unfollow" faster than you can say "corporate values." The Power of Brand Truth Here's the deal: brand authenticity means getting real about who you are as an organization. We're not talking about your product specs or your tech stack — we're talking about the raw, honest truth of why you exist and what drives your team to show up every day. Your brand truth might be buried in your startup story, your unique approach to solving gnarly problems, or the way you're fundamentally changing how your customers work and live. Take Microsoft's transformation under Satya Nadella. When he took the reins in 2014, he didn't just pivot the company's technology — he unleashed its authentic truth as an enabler of human achievement. This wasn't some slick marketing play; it was a fundamental shift from "Windows first" to "empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more." The result? Microsoft's stock price soared over 600% since 2014, and they've become one of the most valuable companies in the world. Why Truth Matters More Than Ever The numbers don't lie: According to Stackla, 88% of consumers say authenticity is crucial when deciding which brands to support. Even more telling? A recent Edelman study found that 81% of consumers need to trust a brand before they'll even consider buying from them. In an age where every startup claims to be "disrupting" something, customers are developing highly sophisticated BS detectors. They're not just looking at your product dashboard — they're scrutinizing your GitHub contributions, reading your engineering blog posts, and watching how you handle service outages on Twitter. Uncovering Your Brand's Truth Finding your brand's authentic truth requires serious introspection. Ask yourself: What technical problem made you angry enough to start this company? What conventional wisdom in your industry are you willing to challenge? What keeps showing up in your customer success stories? What principles would you defend even if they slowed down your growth? Sometimes your truth is hiding in plain sight. Look at Twilio. Their brand truth isn't about APIs — it's about democratizing complex communications technology. This core truth drives everything from their developer-first approach to their acquisition strategy. Expressing Truth Through Story Once you've nailed your brand truth, you need to tell its story in a way that clicks with your audience. And no, we're not talking about another "Our Journey" blog post. Consider how Stripe tells its story. Their truth isn't about payment processing — it's about increasing the GDP of the internet. This bigger narrative has turned what could have been dry technical documentation into a compelling story about empowering entrepreneurs worldwide. Their transparency about their engineering challenges and public infrastructure investments has built unprecedented trust in the developer community. Building Trust Through Consistency Real talk: authenticity means walking the walk. When Zoom faced security criticisms in 2020, CEO Eric Yuan didn't hide behind PR speak. He admitted the problems, implemented a 90-day feature freeze to focus on security, and hosted weekly webinars to address concerns. This transparent approach turned a potential crisis into a trust-building opportunity. The data backs this up: According to PwC, 71% of consumers say they'll lose trust in a brand if they perceive it's putting profit over people. And once that trust is gone, 46% say they'll stop buying from the company altogether. The Bottom Line In the tech world, where every other company claims to be "revolutionary" or "game-changing," authentic brand truth is your secret weapon. It's not about crafting the perfect message—it's about having the courage to be genuinely, consistently, unapologetically you. The next generation of successful tech brands won't win because they had the most sophisticated tech stack or the biggest AWS budget. They'll win because they dared to be real in an increasingly artificial world. In an industry obsessed with automation and scalability, never forget that authenticity is the one thing you can't fake. Remember: Your brand truth is like your source code — you don't write it from scratch, you refactor and optimize what's already there. When you commit to pushing authentic commits to your brand repository, you're not just building a better story — you're compiling a more resilient business that resonates with users on a fundamental level.
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