The Let’s Canoe Framework™
Our brand strategy framework
A five-phase process for brand strategy work, built on one principle.
The principle
We start by assuming the better answer hasn’t been found yet.
Before we sketch a logo or write a line of positioning, we’re working from one belief: the right answer to a growth problem isn’t sitting in the brief. It’s somewhere in the wider space of what’s possible, and our job is to go find it.
Most agencies treat the brief as the boundary of the work. We treat it as the starting line. The brief tells us where the client thinks the problem is. Our job is to find where the problem actually lives, and to surface answers the client didn’t think to ask for.
You can see it in the day-to-day. We ask what something could be before we ask what it has to be. We take one creative pass with no constraints, then a second pass with the budget in the room. The team works through the possibilities together, then brings the strongest ideas back into a project that still has to fit the scope, schedule, and cost.
Keep looking
“The world is abundant with ideas & solutions. Half the work is just remembering that, and refusing to settle for whatever was already in front of us.”
Brian Murnion, Co-Founder & Director of Strategy
The result is work that goes past the brief: positioning sharper than what the client walked in with, an identity built on it, and messaging the market hasn’t heard before.
Five phases build on the principle, and together they make up our framework. The short version: keep looking.
Skip ahead
Book a 20-minute fit call and we’ll tell you whether we’re the right team for your brand.
Our process
The five phases
Brand strategy work moves through five phases. Each phase has its own focus and outputs. The phases move in order, but they aren’t sealed off from each other. What we learn late can send us back to sharpen earlier work.
1
Discovery
We dig in: audits, interviews, content reviews, data crawls, competitor and customer research, and stakeholder conversations. Everything that follows has to be earned by what we find here.
You leave with
- Brand and marketing audit
- Competitor and market analysis
- Audience and customer research
- Search and analytics baseline
2
Positioning
We turn the findings into decisions: where the brand sits, who it serves, what it stands for, and what it says no to. When a company has more than one brand or product line, this phase also settles the brand architecture.
You leave with
- Positioning statement
- Audience definition
- Differentiators and value proposition
- Brand architecture decision
3
Identity
The visual system is built on the positioning: logo, type, color, and the design language that ties them together. We change a logo only when the strategy shows it’s needed.
You leave with
- Logo system, type, and color
- Design language
- Application samples
4
Brand narrative
We define the brand’s voice and story: how it sounds when it speaks, and what it talks about. This is the part that keeps every message coherent, no matter who’s writing it.
You leave with
- Brand voice and story
- Messaging architecture
- Key messages by audience
5
Activation system
We build the brand book, asset library, application guidelines, and rollout roadmap, then support the rollout.
You leave with
- Brand book
- Asset library and guidelines
- Rollout roadmap and support
Case study
The Northern Hotel, built on the framework
The Northern Hotel in Billings, Montana is built on this framework. Discovery covered the hotel’s market, audience, and search presence. Positioning set where the Northern sits in its market. Identity and brand narrative turned the position into a campaign, photography, and a new website, and activation put the system into the hotel’s day-to-day marketing, which we still manage.
The result we can show in public numbers: the Northern now sits on page 1 for hotel searches in its market. The website, the campaign, and the numbers behind the work are in the case study.
Timeline
Two ways to build on the Let’s Canoe Framework
The framework is bigger than either offer, and both are built on it. The six-week brand strategy audit does the research and positioning at full depth, competitor, market, and product analysis, positioning, and the brand voice, then delivers the rest as a roadmap: what the visual identity, the narrative, and the activation work need to be. The brand strategy engagement does that same work and then builds it, the visual identity, the brand narrative, and the brand book, and activates the strategy across campaigns, the website, funnels, channels, segments, markets, email flows, and partnerships.
Brand strategy audit · six weeks
Brand strategy engagement · three to four months
Solid pills are included. Outlined pills are not.
For a quick read before either one, the free brand audit scores your brand in about three minutes.
Context
How it compares to other brand strategy frameworks
The brand pyramid
Stacks a brand’s attributes and benefits up to an essence. Organizes what a brand is.
Keller’s CBBE model
Builds brand equity in stages, from awareness up to resonance with customers.
The golden circle
Starts the brand from why the business exists, then works outward to what it sells.
The Let’s Canoe Framework
Positions the brand in uncontested market space, then builds and activates it across every customer touchpoint, with one senior-led team.
| What the model addresses | Brand pyramid | Keller’s CBBE | Golden circle | Let’s Canoe Framework |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market and competitor research | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Audience definition | — | ○ | — | ✓ |
| Competitive positioning | ○ | ○ | — | ✓ |
| Purpose and values | ✓ | ○ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Visual identity | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Voice and messaging | ○ | — | ○ | ✓ |
| Goals and measurement | — | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Activation and brand guidelines | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Uncontested market space | — | — | — | ✓ |
✓ addressed · ○ partly addressed · — not addressed. The first three are thinking models, and a good strategist can extend any of them. The columns show what each model itself covers. The full comparison, including brand archetypes and the brand key, is in our guide to brand strategy frameworks.
All three are useful lenses, and all three organize the brand you already have. None of them tells you where the market has open space. Our framework starts there, with discovery and positioning built to find uncontested market space, and it ends in an activation system your team works from rather than a slide deck. The thinking behind the positioning phase is covered in our guide to brand positioning.
Why brand strategy compounds
Brand strategy is what makes a business compound. The work happens once. From there, every campaign, every hire, every product, and every customer interaction starts from the same foundation, and each one gets easier than the last.
Without that foundation, businesses spend without building. The marketing keeps spending, the team grows, the product line extends, and nothing accumulates.
Ready to start?
Three ways to start the conversation, depending on where you are.
Researching
Self-assessment
Fifteen questions, about three minutes, and a score that shows where your brand stands and where the gaps are.
Take the free brand auditEvaluating
20-minute fit call
A short call to see whether we’re the right fit for your situation.
Book a callSpecific project
Send a message
Tell us what you’re working on. We’ll reply within a day.
Send a message
Anna and Brian Murnion, co-founders and owners
Built and led by the team at Let’s Canoe
Every brand strategy engagement is led by Brian Murnion, our chief strategist and co-founder, with the team working alongside him. We take on a limited number of engagements each quarter, because the framework only works when the people doing the thinking are the same ones delivering the work.
Read more about the team →Questions about the framework and how an engagement works. For broader questions about brand strategy, see the brand strategy page, or book a free fit call.
The framework
What is a brand strategy framework?
What is the Let’s Canoe Framework?
What is the principle behind the framework?
What makes your brand strategy process different?
Phases and delivery
What are the five phases of the framework?
Do the phases have to run in order?
What does each phase of the framework produce?
Who runs a brand strategy engagement?
A brand agency in Billings, Montana. We set the brand strategy, then build the marketing on top of it, with one senior team from strategy through production.
406-998-7901team@letscanoe.com
119 N 29th St, Billings, MT 59101
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