Conviction

January 22, 2026

Why the best brand platform almost always starts with an “against”

Brand House, Golden Circle, Brand Onion: all these models have their uses, but they often produce platforms that could belong to anyone. The coat of arms asks the most uncomfortable question first, and that is what makes it strategic.

Romain Brignier, President

For more than ten years we have worked with SMEs, scale-ups and mid-caps on repositioning. Almost always with the same question in the background: what is the right format for a brand platform?

The frameworks on the market

We have worked with most of them. They all have their uses, but in demanding contexts of limited resources, heavy business pressure and the need to decide fast, we keep coming back to the same tool: the coat of arms.

  • Brand Arrow
  • Brand House
  • Brand Diamond
  • Brand Onion
  • Golden Circle

Not because it is more complete than the others, but because it asks the right question at the right moment.

The shared flaw

Most platforms built with the classic frameworks set out above all to structure, align and reassure. The Brand House is very effective at organizing an architecture, but it comes after the key strategic decisions. The Golden Circle is inspiring and rallying, but too abstract to differentiate in a saturated market: it often ends in variations on “make the world a better place”. The Brand Onion formalizes an identity, without making a brand stand out when competition is strong.

The result: many platforms built with these models share one problematic trait. They could belong to any player in the market.

The coat of arms

What are we fighting against?

The coat of arms is not a brand platform in the strict sense, it is a tool for strategic clarification. Few questions, decisive answers, and above all an order. The first one is almost always the most uncomfortable.

01 · Strategy

A brand is not a neutral synthesis, it is a position taken on a market. Asking what you fight against is not about inventing an enemy: it is about naming what is broken in an industry.

  • Standardized experiences
  • Inherited models gone obsolete
  • Hollow promises
  • Inefficient habits everyone accepts
Without that work, the brand’s added value stays vague, and therefore undifferentiated.

02 · Commercial

The most effective value propositions do not start with what the brand does well. They start with what the customer suffers badly. Naming an “against” puts words on a problem prospects feel without having formulated it.

We are fighting against sanitized, interchangeable hotel experiences.

Immediately understandable, memorable, and easy to take ownership of.

03 · Narrative

Every rallying story rests on a tension: old world against new world, challenger against leader, inertia against transformation. Positioning against something puts the company on a quest, and brings along teams, customers, investors and media.

Back Market did not settle for saying it resells refurbished devices. The brand formulated a simple, radical against, New is old, which names a cultural problem, owns a counter-model, and opens immediately onto a positive vision.

The risks, and they are real

The reservations are legitimate. A position defined only by opposition can divide needlessly, lock the brand into a defensive stance, and become less relevant as the company grows.

Hence the key point: the against is never an end in itself, it is a starting point. Good work means naming what the brand refuses, then making the jump to a positive, rallying formulation. Start from the tension to arrive at a promise that brings people together. That is exactly what the coat of arms makes visible.

In short

Between 100 and 1000 employees, the coat of arms speeds up decisions and gives you the raw material for a fuller platform.
  • Formats are not equal, context decides
  • The coat of arms is not the most exhaustive, but the most strategic
  • Not positioning against something often carries more risk
  • The point is turning opposition into a positive vision