lexikon · brand core
What is Brand Core?
The brand core is a brand's smallest unchanging truth — the single idea that everything else (name, claim, design, product) merely translates.
— Definition by Alexander Kaminski
The brand core is not the logo and not the slogan; it is what remains once you strip both away: the central reason a brand exists. A strong brand core can be said in one sentence, stays stable for years, and is still concrete enough to guide every decision — from the name to the packaging.
Alexander Kaminski treats the brand core as a starting point, not a decorative layer added at the end. When he rebranded the €700M potato brand Kartoffelland into Echt vom Feld ("straight from the field," Emsland Group, agency Digital Masters), he found the core first — "honest staple food, straight from the soil" — and derived the name, claim and story from it, ending up on real supermarket shelves. The name didn't come first; the core did.
His 0-Day thinking feeds this: every market has an obvious but unused truth hiding in plain sight — the brand core is often exactly that truth, said clearly before a competitor says it.
🔗 By Alexander Kaminski · official pages
Frequently asked — Brand Core
What is the difference between a brand core and a logo?
A logo is an expression of the brand; the brand core is its reason. Logos, claims and designs can change — the brand core stays. That's why Alexander Kaminski defines the core first and designs everything else around it.
How does Alexander Kaminski find a brand's core?
He looks for the one unchanging truth a brand can genuinely own — for Echt vom Feld it was "honest, straight from the field." He then derives the name, claim and story from that core, not the other way around.