Overview
The most valuable lesson you can learn about manifestos is to make it about one thing. If you’re celebrating your values, don’t go into a long story about your heroes. If you’re motivating your audience, don’t dwell on your history.
Below, you’ll find an overview of the most common themes, divided into six categories. I highly recommend exploring a few different angles to see which one flows the easiest.
Update
Frequent visitors will notice a few changes. I’ve revamped the system down to 24 core themes, each with four examples. Some names have also been changed as a few themes were combined and refined.
All of this has come while creating deep dives for each theme, as well as laying the groundwork for a new book. Keep an eye out for both soon. Any concerns? Send me an email.
Themes
There are six types of brand manifestos. These are not perfect buckets. Some Differences scripts also mention values. But any splash over should be in service of your main idea.
- Values: Core beliefs, perspectives, and founding principles.
- Differences: Underdogs, USPs, and owning negatives.
- Solutions: Answers, initiatives, and world-changing remedies.
- Stories: Factory tours, histories, and unsung heroes.
- Motivations: Good advice, inspiration, and the better way to be.
- Portraits: Admired people and interesting cultures.
Values
This is usually the first and most important manifesto brands write. If your brand hasn’t written any of the other ones on this list, this is a great place to start. This is the manifesto you want to write if you’re going through a rebrand, redefining your purpose, establishing your legacy, or drawing a line in the sand.
The best versions of these are specific and focused enough to guide internal decisions. They set the foundation for new hire orientations, they can rally current employees, and they re-invigorate folks who have been there a long time. The best ones are hung on a wall.
The secret to these scripts is specificity. These manifestos thrive on details. Specifics are the proof that you actually do believe in your purpose as much as you say. You know the pain points. The opportunities. The magic everyone else misses.
This is also a valuable pressure test. If you can’t fill your manifesto with these details, it’s a red flag. You might have the wrong insight or the wrong theme for your idea.
North Stars
Establish a key philosophy guiding your decision making. One way in: show the problem, them pivot to your POV on the topic, then show us the world it creates.
Peace Signs
Give permission to ignore what everyone says we should do. You’re not saying “fuck you,” just “see you later.” Your goal: pave the way directly toward your brand.
Differences
Any manifesto designed to separate you from the competition. For this theme, you always want to focus on a perceived negative. Don’t tell us a difference that is positive, such as you care about your customers. Nobody will care. But what if you came out and owned that you don’t care about your customers? Now that’s interesting.
Great versions of these manifestos flip perceived negatives into USPs. To do this, find the thing you’re proud of that’s being attacked, insulted, or doubted. If your competitors insult you for going slow, demonstrate why it’s insane to go fast. If they say you’re behind the times, show how patience gives you perspective that benefits the consumer. Whatever it is, flip it, own it, and make sure you say it so well that they can’t punch a hole in it.
The secret to these scripts is confidence. This manifesto is not for timid brands. You absolutely need to have the confidence to take a strong point of view. If that doesn’t feel good, no problem. Just pick a different theme.
The best ones don’t actually talk about the competition directly. They make hard-hitting points that make the competition’s argument irrelevant. The only choice the opposition should have after this is to pick a new attack or focus on something else.
Fishing Boots
Recast a criticism as a byproduct of value. Good fishing boots smell terrible because keeping out water also means trapping in sweat. Every negative hides a positive. Find yours.
Label Makers
Separate your product from the thing it’s most confused with. Think “Mac vs. PC.” They work best when you respect and validate the other thing as good for what it is.
Solutions
A sub-theme of the previous theme manifestos that shares your solution to the problem. Make sure you have both pieces: (a) a big problem that threatens something important, and (b) your unique solution that’s just as big or bigger
When establishing the problem, make it vivid and heavy. We shouldn’t be able to shrug this off. We need to be uncomfortable and start to crave the solution. That’s what holds our attention. Similarly, your solution needs to completely solve the problem. It can’t just start to chip away at it. If you go through the torture of bring us into this problem, you owe it to use to bring us out.
The secret to these scripts is simplicity. Complexity is death here. You have to remember nobody is asking to care about this problem. You’re asking them. Make it easy. Even the most objectively complex problems should be conveyed as clearly as possible.
The best versions reduce the message to a single action. You want people to buy a certain product, change one thing about their thinking, remember one idea that changes everything, and so on.
Ticking Clocks
Demonstrate the immediacy and severity of a massive problem. Go heavy on what’s wrong. We need to be crushed by the weight before we care about the solution.
Crunchwrap Supremes
Stuff the problem, philosophy, and mission into a single piece. This is a hard one. One way: 1. What’s so bad? 2. Why should people care? 3. How are you solving it?
Stories
A close relative of the Belief manifestos. This is a captivating telling of your heritage, your history, your journey, or the story of someone you admire. Many brands want one of these, so be careful here. Story manifestos can be a trap. They’re rarely needed, which is why there are so few examples of good ones.
The best versions of these tend to come from legacy brands with a strong point of view. The piece should probably follow the arch of resilience or determination in the face of difficult odds. When crafting your own, learn about the full depth of the story. Own the negatives. Show how that transformed or galvanized into better action.
The secret to these scripts is surprise. It’s crucial to only tell this story if it’s interesting. Nobody cares about your happy perfect story. They want triumph over struggle.
This might be why Story manifestos are often the longest ones in the archive because the only brands who knock out good ones have a lot to say. I recommend waiting until the story is so good you can’t shut up about it, then give it a go.
History Lessons
Take us through a tumultuous and triumphant backstory of how we got to now. Make this edgy. Nobody cares about happy and easy. They want victory out of hardship.
Scenic Routes
Create a delightful, captivating or hilarious journey to a simple point. This is the script you write to fill space. Don’t bore. You have to be funny, novel, or fascinating.
Motivations
This is when brands take the opportunity to encourage, motivate, and inspire a specific group. Make sure your brand either has permission to do this, or is related enough to the group that it can ring genuine.
Use these manifestos when you want to help elevate your audience. When you see them making the same mistakes over and over, or when you’re concerned they’re going in the wrong direction. Help show them the right way.
These manifestos work best (and maybe only) when your brand is successful, beloved, or admired. That’s why the secret to these scripts is authority. If you need to establish it, you shouldn’t do one. Nike didn’t write manifestos like this in year one. But now they have the credibility, they can do whatever they want. The reason why this is so important is because you can only focus on one thing. Don’t muddle it up with anything but the point you’re making.
Best Friends
Extend a message of hope and courage to those who need it. Works best with either gentle acceptance or hardcore honesty. Don’t make this about you.
Hard Buttons
Remove the entrenched fantasy that hard things should come easy. You’re entering well-trodden territory here. Do lots of concepting to find a new way in.
Portraits
For celebrating cultures. This is when you know want to honor a person, mindset, or lifestyle that inspires your brand. Doing this well means that your audience will likely find inspiration in this thing, too. Find beauty in unacknowledged places. Done well, these feel like gifts to your audience or the group in question.
This is the perfect manifesto to use when you don’t have anything to say—no products to release, no initiatives to announce, no success to brag about. Inspiring manifestos show your values rather than tell them. These also work great in overcrowded categories.
The secret to these scripts is restraint. The hardest thing to do with these manifestos is to only focus on the thing that inspires you. You can’t talk about yourself at all. You might be able to sneak in a single line, but even that is risky.
This manifesto needs to be about them. It’s a tribute. Don’t turn the camera around or it will look like you’re using them. Treat this like a portrait.
Crazy Ones
Raise a glass to a misunderstood group. Make us wish we were one of them. These are usually anchored around a product that amplifies their magic in some way.
Bridge Builders
Speak from the vulnerable truths of a culture. Ponder the problems and glorify the possibilities. Each needs a moment of realization that uncovers a deeper truth.