What is a brand world?

You buy a brand. You belong to a world.

Most of us are over being sold to. Consumerism plays a loud daily beat, but we are more than what's in our shopping cart. Our attention is more overloaded than ever, and many brands are just another signal lost in the static.

Enter the brand world: a conceptual place where a brand hosts a community around a shared point of view on what's interesting, valuable and worthwhile. It isn't another offer to receive. It's a place you choose to join, and it's most compelling when it reflects your own values, interests and desires.

Thirty years in consumer and lifestyle branding has taught me one thing above all: the strongest brands define their world first, then build strategy and creative from inside it.

Over the next six weeks I'll lay out the eight brand worlds and the three realms they fall into. If you own or run a brand that's ready to be reimagined, or you're launching something new, use the framework to discover which world your brand already belongs to, and how to build your marketing, content and audience around it.

Which world is yours?