Brand Narrative · Message architecture · Component
The audience variants
What changes by audience, written side by side so contradictions show — because they are only visible when read together.
The deliverable
What it is
Saying different things to investors, customers and candidates is normal and necessary. Saying incompatible things is discovered, usually by someone who reads both.
The contradictions are invisible while each variant is reviewed on its own, which is how they are always reviewed.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The invariants
What must be identical across every audience.
3 attributes: Invariant · Reason · Type
LearnThe contradiction check
Reading the variants together to find what conflicts.
3 attributes: Conflict · Between audiences · Resolved
Learn
Growth claims to investors against stability claims to customers is the most common contradiction, and nobody reads both.
The other components in message architecture
The master message
The single thing that must land — because without a hierarchy every message is equally important and none of them arrives.
LearnThe supporting messages
What holds the master message up, kept to a few — because more than three and the hierarchy is flat again.
Learn