Branding for Builders
Branding for Builders
Gibson Biddle · Former VP of Product, Netflix · 2017
Introduction
A Brand Model for Product Teams
Gibson Biddle, VP of Product at Netflix from 2005 to 2010, published the framework in 2017 to show how Netflix defined a brand that helped it build a great product, and the other way round (Biddle, 2017). His starting point is a division of labour: marketing defines the brand, and the product team brings it to life by building a great product (Biddle, 2017). He defines a brand as something that "tells a story that builds a relationship between a customer and product" and names five components: positioning, customer benefit, personality, aspiration and emotion (Biddle, 2017, brand definition figure). Two models capture them: the positioning model covers the first three, and the brand pyramid adds aspiration and emotion (Biddle, 2017). Biddle recommends testing the result with consumers through focus groups, surveys and above all A/B tests; at Netflix the positioning changed continuously, while the upper levels of the pyramid stayed more constant and gave the product team direction (Biddle, 2017).
The Model
Elements
Definitions follow Biddle (2017). The examples are his: Volvo, Apple and, above all, Netflix.
The Positioning Model
01
Positioning
Positioning is "the place a brand occupies in a consumer's mind" (Biddle, 2017, figure): a brand's ability to place an idea in people's heads relative to competitors. The first question of the model asks: "In simple terms, how do you describe your product or company?" Biddle advises clear, precise "sixth-grade language" and a few easy ideas instead of many complicated ones. In the long term, a brand should ask which one word it would like to own (Biddle, 2017).
Volvo and Netflix: for most people, the first word that comes to mind with Volvo is "safety"; the company spent billions on advertising and kept inventing safety features to own that word. Netflix describes itself as "a monthly subscription service for TV & movies", and Biddle expects it to own the word "entertainment" (Biddle, 2017).02
Customer Benefit
The second question of the positioning model asks: "How does it benefit customers?" The answer reappears in the brand pyramid as its second level, the product benefits (Biddle, 2017).
Netflix: "It's fast", "It's easy", "It's entertaining", "It's a great value" (Biddle, 2017, Netflix positioning model).03
Personality
The third question asks: "How do you define its personality?" The question behind it is how the product should relate to customers. Biddle suggests imagining that someone met the company or product at a cocktail party: how should people describe it afterwards (Biddle, 2017)?
Netflix: "Straightforward, friendly" (Biddle, 2017, Netflix positioning model).
The Brand Pyramid
04
Product Attributes
The base of the pyramid, read from bottom to top, holds the product features that deliver benefits to customers: the features or components that consumers buy or use. All other levels "ladder up" from this foundation. Attributes can and will change over time, "that's where the innovation happens", while the other levels stay relatively constant (Biddle, 2017).
Netflix: in the early days, 100,000 movies on DVD, one-day delivery, no late fees and a website for building a queue; later, TV and movie streaming and original content (Biddle, 2017).05
Product Benefits
This level states how the product improves customers' lives. The benefits are the same as the customer benefits of the positioning model, and the product attributes must make them possible (Biddle, 2017).
Apple: the ease of use of its human-centred design, which makes customers more productive and creative (Biddle, 2017).06
Emotional Benefits
This level asks how the product makes customers feel, if a world-class product delivers its benefits and exceeds customers' expectations; the words must describe feelings. Biddle includes emotion because it makes things memorable, citing Maya Angelou: people "will never forget how you made them feel" (Biddle, 2017).
Netflix and Apple: Netflix aims at "delight"; Apple makes its customers feel imaginative and free (Biddle, 2017).07
Something Bigger
The top asks how the product might "dent the universe" in the long term, if it fully delivers the product and its emotional benefits; teams should think twenty years ahead. Many teams struggle with this part, and Biddle's advice is "Think Big". The "something bigger" is meant to inspire the team to build a great product and company over fifty years (Biddle, 2017).
Apple, Nike, SpaceX and Netflix: Apple delivers "revolutionary innovation", Nike enables customers to fulfil their full human potential, SpaceX wants to save the human race by colonising Mars, and Netflix's something bigger is to "escape reality" (Biddle, 2017).08
Headline
The headline gives an executive summary of the whole model. When an advertising campaign is developed, it is the title of the campaign (Biddle, 2017).
Netflix and Apple: "Movie Enjoyment Made Easy" summed up the Netflix pyramid; it was not meant to be seen by customers. Apple's "Think Different" campaign cost forty million dollars to create (Biddle, 2017).
Source
- Biddle, G. (2017, December 18). Branding for Builders: How Netflix Defined a Brand That Helped It to Build a Great Product, and Vice-Versa [Blog post]. Medium. https://gibsonbiddle.medium.com/branding-for-builders-19e103ef3f1d (archived copy retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://web.archive.org/web/20250105120005/https://gibsonbiddle.medium.com/branding-for-builders-19e103ef3f1d)