Brand DNA Management

How to set up, update, and use a client's brand voice, positioning, messaging, stakeholders, and content themes.

What Is Brand DNA?#

Brand DNA is the structured marketing identity of a client. Unlike memories (which are extracted knowledge), Brand DNA is curated data stored directly on the client mind. It consists of five fields:

Setting Up Brand Voice#

The fastest path is to pull it from the client's website:

"Pull the brand voice from acme.com"

Or share brand guidelines directly:

"Here are Acme's brand guidelines" (paste the content)

Coppermind extracts tone, positioning, messaging, target market, and banned phrases, then stores it as structured Brand DNA.

You can also set fields manually:

"Set Acme's brand voice to casual, direct, and confident. Avoid corporate jargon and passive voice."

Brand Voice Structure#

{
  "tone": ["casual", "direct", "confident"],
  "avoid": ["corporate jargon", "formal language", "passive voice"],
  "examples": {
    "good": ["We ship fast and tell you why."],
    "bad": ["Our organization is committed to delivering value."]
  },
  "visual_identity": {
    "logo_usage": "Full color logo on white/light backgrounds. Reversed on dark.",
    "photography_style": "Authentic, candid. Real people in natural settings.",
    "graphic_treatments": "Bold geometric shapes. Gradient from brand blue to teal.",
    "typography": {
      "headings": "Montserrat Bold",
      "body": "Open Sans Regular",
      "accent": "Montserrat Light Italic"
    },
    "color_palette": {
      "primary": "#FF6B35",
      "secondary": "#004E89",
      "accent": "#F7C948",
      "neutral": "#2D3436"
    }
  },
  "anti_patterns": [
    "No stock headset/call center photos",
    "No aggressive sales language ('Act NOW!', 'Limited time!')",
    "No competitor bashing or comparative claims",
    "No jargon without definition on first use"
  ],
  "platform_guidance": {
    "linkedin": {
      "post_format": "Hook line + 3-5 short paragraphs + CTA. Emojis sparingly.",
      "hashtags": "3-5 per post. Mix branded and industry."
    },
    "email": {
      "subject_line_style": "Curiosity gap preferred. Under 50 chars.",
      "structure": "Personal greeting, 2-3 paragraphs, clear single CTA."
    }
  },
  "brand_colors": {
    "primary": "#FF6B35",
    "secondary": "#004E89",
    "accent": "#F7C948"
  }
}

Visual identity, anti-patterns, platform guidance, and brand colors are all optional. When you haven't set them, content generation simply proceeds without them.

Visual Identity#

Captures the graphic side of a brand: logo rules, photography style, typography, and color palette. Used when generating creative briefs or content for visual platforms (LinkedIn carousels, ad creative, website sections).

"Acme uses Montserrat for headings and Open Sans for body. Primary brand color is #FF6B35. Photography style is candid, real people."

Anti-Patterns#

Explicit "what we do NOT do" rules. These are included as negative constraints in all content generation prompts. Anti-patterns take precedence over positive guidelines when they conflict.

"Add anti-patterns for Acme: no stock photos, no aggressive sales language, no competitor bashing"

Maximum 20 anti-patterns per client. More than that suggests the brand voice needs restructuring.

Platform-Specific Guidance#

Per-platform rules for content format, length, tone, and structure. Consulted by /cmo-write and /cmo-write when generating content for a specific platform.

"For Acme LinkedIn posts: hook line plus 3-5 short paragraphs, max 2 emojis, 3-5 hashtags"

When no platform guidance is set for a given channel, content generation falls back to the general brand voice guidelines.

Brand Colors#

When brand colors are configured, tool responses include a brand_color field. MCP clients can render the active client mind name in the client's brand color for visual differentiation during multi-client switching.

Colors can be set explicitly or auto-extracted during brand voice setup from a website URL.

Setting Brand Positioning#

"Acme is a developer-first API platform targeting mid-market SaaS companies. They compete with Twilio and SendGrid. Their differentiator is simplicity over feature count."

Positioning Structure#

{
  "category": "Developer-first API platform",
  "target_market": "Mid-market SaaS companies",
  "differentiator": "Simplicity over feature count",
  "competitors": ["Twilio", "SendGrid"],
  "tagline": "APIs that don't need a manual."
}

Setting Approved Messaging#

"Acme's elevator pitch: 'The fastest way to add communications to any app.' Value props: speed to integration, no-code dashboard, usage-based pricing. Never say 'synergy' or 'leverage'."

Messaging Structure#

{
  "elevator_pitch": "The fastest way to add communications to any app.",
  "value_props": ["Speed to integration", "No-code dashboard", "Usage-based pricing"],
  "banned_phrases": ["synergy", "leverage", "disrupt"],
  "approved_claims": ["50% faster integration than Twilio", "99.99% uptime SLA"]
}

Managing Stakeholders#

"Add Sarah Chen as VP Marketing at Acme. She's the primary contact, owns the rebrand brief, and prefers async updates via Slack. She started March 2025 and came from HubSpot."

Stakeholder Structure#

[
  {
    "name": "Sarah Chen",
    "title": "VP Marketing",
    "role": "Primary contact, owns rebrand brief",
    "preferences": "Prefers async updates via Slack",
    "notes": "Started March 2025. Came from HubSpot."
  }
]

Maximum 50 stakeholders per client mind.

Reading Brand DNA#

"What's Acme's brand voice?"

Returns all five parts of the client's Brand DNA. Parts you haven't filled in yet come back empty.

How Updates Work#

When you update a part of Brand DNA, Coppermind replaces that part with what you provide; the parts you don't mention stay exactly as they were.

This means:

• If you say "clear Acme's stakeholders," that part is wiped
• If you only update the brand voice, positioning, messaging, stakeholders, and themes are all left untouched

Every change is recorded with the previous value, so you can review what changed and restore it if needed -- just ask "what changed in Acme's brand voice?" or "undo that brand voice change."

When to Use Brand DNA#

Key Details#

• Brand DNA is not extracted from transcripts. It's curated data that you set explicitly. Memories about brand preferences (type=preference) are separate from Brand DNA.
• History is immutable. Every change to Brand DNA creates audit trail rows. These rows are never modified or deleted (except when the entire client mind is deleted).
• Stakeholder info vs stakeholder memories. Brand DNA stakeholders are structured profiles. Memory-type stakeholder captures observations from meetings ("Sarah seemed frustrated about the timeline"). Both contribute to meeting briefs.