Brand Kinesphere

A model for brand and communications strategy

Uniting who a brand is with how it moves.

The Brand Kinesphere is a strategic methodology based on brand archetypes and theories of movement. It has been created to provide a new shared choreography for how to approach modern communications planning.

Get access to the tool

Free. Enter your email and both editions open straight away.

We use your email to give you access and, only if you tick the box, to send updates. By getting access you agree to the terms of use; read the privacy notice.

How it works

Three questions, one movement.

  1. 01

    Who it is

    Twelve archetypes, from the Innocent to the Creator, after Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson. The character a brand plays.

  2. 02

    How it moves

    Laban’s effort actions, each a mix of weight, time and space. Punch is strong, sudden and direct; Float is light, sustained and indirect. Every archetype is given one.

  3. 03

    What it changes

    Each pairing becomes a guide and brief for teams working across paid, owned and earned channels: the movement is translated into a guiding channel menu, and interesting questions to ask before committing further time and budget

The efforts

Eight ways to move.

Laban developed his effort theory in the 1940s with the industrial consultant F.C. Lawrence, by studying how factory workers moved. It was a theory of how people work before it was a theory of dance, which is why it translates so naturally to how organisations behave.

Plus one borrowed from Judson Dance Theater: Pedestrian, everyday movement deliberately left unperformed, for the Everyman.

Three editions

One model, three ways in.

Consumer edition

For brands that sell to people.

Twelve segments and 36 channel briefs, with examples from Nike to Liquid Death and evidence from advertising effectiveness and behavioural science.

Open the consumer edition

B2B edition

For brands that sell to buying groups.

The same model, rewritten around stance, promise, buyer and fear, with B2B channels, examples and research on how buying groups decide.

Open the B2B edition

Creator edition

For the people who carry brands.

The same model, handed back to people: creators, talent and characters. Each brief maps where a person has standing in culture and how they move across public, community and personal spaces.

Open the creator edition

Start with your own brand.

Pick the segment closest to it, answer the questions, and export the brief.

Get access