The Invisible Architecture of Hot Little Brands
If you think branding is the pretty surface-level stuff, I'm here to gently tell you you're wrong.
When most people think about branding, they picture logos, color palettes, and pretty Instagram feeds. Maybe they recall the matte feel of a package they opened for their most recent skincare purchase, or a billboard that made them stop and feel something.
But the truth is more subtle: The parts of your brand that actually make people viscerally feel something (and stick around to convert) are largely invisible.
I learned this lesson the expensive way. While I’ve helped massive brands (PayPal, Instacart, Absolut Vodka) and hundreds of clients who are women solopreneurs move through rebrands, it’s more difficult to navigate my own rebrand.
It’s like the cobbler with holes in his shoes. Sometimes we have trouble applying our expertise to our own businesses…and I felt it. After redoing my website in December, I saw that conversions lifted… but it still didn’t feel aligned. I was pouring so much time into marketing but had this sense that the foundation of everything was off. And I was right. I shouldn’t have to do as much marketing if my brand was really speaking the right language.
I finally discovered what was missing at the turn of the year—my strategy and positioning. AKA the invisible architecture that makes a brand actually work. I was just too in a rush to see it.
The Brand Iceberg
Picture an iceberg. The visible 10% above water is what most people associate with "branding"—your visual identity. The aesthetics we love to love. But the 90% below the surface is where the real magic brews and bubbles for eternity.
This hidden structure includes:
1. Positioning: The strategic place your brand occupies in your audience's mind relative to competitors. It's not just what you do, but how you do it differently. (This was the #1 thing that was lurking beneath the surface for me but I couldn’t put my finger on it til January.)
2. Messaging architecture: The hierarchical framework that organizes how you communicate your value. It's the difference between "we offer coaching" and "we help women entrepreneurs lead their companies with more ease and less stress through inner engineering practices." One is clear. One is not.
3. Brand tensions: The productive opposites that make your brand memorable. Apple balances "technological sophistication" with "human simplicity." This is what can make or break the creative direction.
There’s much more to this. I’m revealing the rest of the 90% (and how to rebrand strategically while saving thousands) on April 15, sign up for my free workshop here (yes, you’ll get the recording).
The $15K Mistake Most Entrepreneurs Make
Last year, I worked with a client who had spent $15,000 on a gorgeous rebrand with a highly sought after branding and website agency. Her website was clean, aesthetically beautiful, and had a visual personality. Her Instagram feed was visually tailored to “perfection”.
And yet... crickets. No new clients. She was upside-the-head wondering why it wasn’t converting.
After going through her marketing material, I realized that it wasn’t converting because she she had invested in the visible 10% without building the foundation beneath.
When we dug deeper, we discovered her messaging didn't speak to her ideal clients' actual pain points. Her positioning was identical to three other coaches in her niche and overly generic. She didn’t call out her target customers (and we soon realized, she didn’t even have a strong + specific understanding of who they were). And her visual identity, while beautiful, didn't trigger the psychological responses that drive action.
Strategy Before Design—Always
I started my career working for the brand and advertising agency, TBWA. They did the famous Think Different campaign for Apple and are world renown for building brands that also lead to higher sales. During my time there, I learned something critical: they never, ever approach branding as a visual exercise first. They start with deep strategy, then move to expression.
Here's what that looks like:
Digging into your core business goals, offerings, and audience
Identifying your unique value proposition (not just what makes you different, but what makes you valuable)
Mapping customer motivations and anxieties
Creating brand personality attributes that resonate with your ideal clients
Developing a messaging framework that speaks directly to client needs
Only then do they move to visual identity—and by that point, the design decisions are informed by strategy, not just aesthetics.
The Brand Resonance Test
Here's a quick way to test if your brand strategy is working: Can you articulate in one sentence what problem you solve, who you solve it for, and how you're different from alternatives?
If not, you're likely focused too much on how your brand looks rather than how it works.
I see this constantly with entrepreneurs:
Beautiful websites that say nothing meaningful. AKA, a pretty cake that tastes like someone forgot the sugar.
Gorgeous Instagram feeds that don't actually turn browsers into buyers. AKA, a marketing channel that is suffering from serious California-esque drought.
Perfect color palettes that potential clients don't connect with. AKA, a Jackson Pollock who’s audience prefers Monet.
The truth I want to infuse your sweet little head with is that strategy without design is invisible. Design without strategy is ineffective.
You need both.
Your Next Steps
If you're feeling that disconnect between how your brand looks and how it performs, you're not alone. I'm hosting a free "How to Rebrand" workshop on April 15th where I'll break down the strategic framework that transforms scattered, DIY brands into magnetic business assets.
After interviewing 30+ brand designers and implementing these principles with clients who've doubled their revenue after aligning their brand strategy, I'm sharing the exact step-by-step approach that works. Plus, get a sneak peek of my own rebrand that is launching May 1.
Until then, remember: The most powerful parts of your brand are often the ones you can't see—but your clients can feel.
About Me
Samantha Fackler is a Brand Strategist and Executive Leadership Coach who helps women entrepreneurs transform scattered brands into aligned business assets that convert. With 13+ years helping companies like PayPal and Apple build magnetic identities, she now combines sharp marketing expertise with intuitive wisdom to help service-based businesses stand out and scale. Her insights have been featured in Investopedia, and her unique approach has helped 100+ companies. I'd love to connect on Instagram. Check out more articles of mine on Substack or stalk my website here.