Positioning
Where you play and why you win. In words you'd actually say out loud.
Positioning · Voice · Visual Direction · Narrative
A brand foundation in five days.
The complete brand foundation, in one guide.
— The take
What I believe
Good brand work is quiet.
Everyone else is shouting.
Everyone else is shouting.
01 ⁄ 04
Inside the sprint.
Brand voice
Three tones and clear rules your team can apply the same week.
Visual direction
The brief your designer will thank you for, not a logo.
Brand narrative
One story that holds up in front of customers and investors.
A launch ⁄ a rebrand ⁄ a raise ⁄ a new market ⁄ a reset after drift
02 ⁄ 04
How it works.
Day ⁄ 01Intake & discoveryIntake form and a focused 90-minute call.
We start with a structured intake form, then a focused 90-minute call. I listen for your own language, the tensions in how you talk about the work, and where the real energy sits. Nothing is pitched yet. This day is about capturing raw material.
- Structured intake questionnaire
- 90-minute discovery call
- Notes on your language, audience and ambition
Day ⁄ 02ResearchA compact read on market, competitors and your current presence.
A compact strategic read on the landscape you operate in: where competitors sit, what the category takes for granted, and how you currently show up. Built to sharpen the choices ahead, not to produce a deck nobody reads.
- Competitive and category scan
- Audit of your current brand presence
- The openings worth playing into
Day ⁄ 03PositioningTerritories with honest trade-offs, then one chosen position.
The core of the sprint. I lay out a small set of positioning territories, each with its honest trade-offs, then we commit to one and state it precisely. This is the decision everything else is built on.
- Two to three positioning territories
- Trade-offs made explicit
- One chosen position, stated in a single sentence
Day ⁄ 04ArticulationVoice, visual direction, narrative and key copy.
The chosen position gets turned into things you can use: a defined voice, art direction to brief a designer, the core narrative, and the key lines of copy for your most important surfaces.
- Voice definition with tones and examples
- Visual direction and moodboard
- Narrative plus key website and deck copy
Day ⁄ 05HandoverOne brand guide, ready to use the same day.
Everything is assembled into a single brand guide, structured so you can hand it to a designer, a writer or an investor and have it make sense without me in the room. Yours to use the same day.
- One consolidated brand guide
- Ready for team, designers and investors
- A short walkthrough call to close
03 ⁄ 04
Ways to work.
01
Live session
90 minutes, live. We work through your brand questions: positioning, messaging, your deck, your site. You bring the questions, I give direct feedback and clear recommendations. Short written summary afterwards.
€200One-time
02
Brand Foundation Sprint
The full package: positioning, voice, visual direction and narrative. Five working days, one brand guide. Fixed scope, price known upfront.
from €500One-time
03
Project work
For what goes beyond the sprint: repositioning, launch narratives, ongoing brand advisory. Custom scope. I take on a small number of these at a time.
On request
04 ⁄ 04
Questions.
01What is a Brand Foundation Sprint?
The Brand Foundation Sprint is a fixed-scope consulting format: a complete brand foundation in five working days. It covers positioning, brand voice, visual direction and brand narrative, delivered as one brand guide your team, designers and investors can work with from day one. Fixed price, known upfront.
02How much does the Brand Foundation Sprint cost?
The sprint starts at €500 as a one-time fixed price, agreed before we start. A single 90-minute live session is €200. Larger project work is scoped individually. There are no hidden day rates and no open-ended retainers; the scope and the price are fixed upfront.
03Who is the sprint for?
The sprint is built for founders and small teams at a decision point: a launch, a rebrand, a raise, a new market or a reset after drift. If you need a sharp position and a usable brand guide fast, without a six-week agency process, this is the format.
04What do I get at the end of the five days?
One brand guide containing four deliverables: your positioning (where you play and why you win), a defined brand voice with clear rules, visual direction your designer can brief from, and a brand narrative that holds up in front of customers and investors. Ready to use the same day.
05How is a five-day sprint different from working with an agency?
Agencies typically run brand projects over six to twelve weeks with large teams and large decks. The sprint compresses that into five focused days with one strategist. You get the decisions and the foundation, not the padding. I take on a few clients at a time, which keeps the pace honest.
— Who's behind it
Mike Palmes · Berlin
Senior Brand Manager at Freeletics, Europe's #1 fitness app. Six-plus years building brand strategy at scale across consumer, fitness and culture.
I've spent years building brands in-house, at the scale where positioning has to survive real launches and real budgets. Now I bring that to a few clients at a time. I use AI daily as a research partner, which is what makes the five-day pace realistic without cutting corners on the thinking. The thinking stays mine; the process just makes it faster.
60kathletes brought into a single in-app challenge
80countries in an ambassador network I scaled
180korganic impressions from a launch, in five days
6+years building brands in-house at scale