Adytum Education · Track 01 · Tier 1 of 4 · ~15 hours
Brand Strategist Foundations.
For founders + SMB owners who don't have a brand person — or whose first brand hire needs the framework. Self-paced. Two portfolio pieces. Reciprocal peer review. Open Badges 3.0 credential on completion. You leave able to perform brand-assistant work Monday — voice extraction, brand-check audits, asset organization, guideline maintenance — with or without any specific tool.
NEW · Earn a certificate for any single lesson
Don't have time for the full 7-module track? Every module is independently certifiable. Take a single lesson, pass the focused micro-portfolio at the end, get peer-reviewed against the published rubric, and earn an Open Badges 3.0 micro-credential displayable on LinkedIn.
The lesson certs stack: earn all 7 + pass the final synthesis portfolio = full Brand Strategist Foundations credential. Same competence bar at every level. No attendance certificates.
See the 7 lesson rubrics →Curriculum — 7 modules · ~15 hours · all tool-independent
Total reading: ~40,000 words PhD-density curriculum + glossary (35+ cross-referenced terms). All 7 modules now live.
Module 1 · Domain theory Live
Cognitive substrate, archetypes, positioning, equity, voice/tone, semiotics. Drawn from cognitive psychology (Miller, Kahneman/Tversky, Rosch), semiotics (Saussure, Peirce, Barthes), and brand-strategy literature (Aaker, Sharp, Mark/Pearson, Trout/Ries).
Module 2 · Workflow design — tools optional Live
Three core workflows: voice extraction (5-step), brand-check auditing (4-step), brand-asset organization. Tool-options matrix showing pen+paper, free tools, general LLMs, and Adytum apps for each step. Three sample artifacts for an invented brand.
Module 3 · Process design Live
Brand-request intake, four-layer review cadences (daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly), DACI decision-rights, escalation triggers, definition-of-done discipline, cross-functional embedding. Two sample artifacts including a quarterly brand-health one-pager template.
Module 4 · Edge cases Live
The 12 brand-assistant edge cases: conflicting voice samples, multi-product tension, voice drift, founder voice vs brand voice, crisis comms, M&A integration, legacy content, off-brand exec quotes, influencer/UGC, translation drift, co-branding, and the dangerous "let's freshen up" request. Each case: symptom · diagnostic · action · escalation trigger.
Module 5 · Stakeholders Live
Mendelow interest-vs-influence mapping, the seven stakeholder archetypes (Pragmatist, Perfectionist, Skeptic, Champion, Founder/CEO, Veteran, Newcomer), four recurring conversation patterns, and how to handle the two hardest cases: actively hostile and chronically disengaged stakeholders.
Module 6 · Ethics & governance Live
Calibrated honesty discipline, trademark basics (and the escalation rules), FTC endorsement + disclosure rules (2023 update), cultural sensitivity + inclusive language, AI-output ethics (disclosure, attribution, accuracy), brand safety in algorithmic distribution.
Module 7 · Measurement Live
Operational vs consistency vs outcome metrics, voice-consistency scoring design, brand-check pass-rate tracking, asset-lifecycle metrics, awareness/recall research methods (literacy not execution), composite brand-health reporting, and how Foundations metrics connect to brand-equity outcomes.
Reference · Glossary Live
Every outside concept introduced in the modules — from Mark/Pearson archetypes to Saussurean signifiers to Miller's 7±2 — is defined in plain English with primary-source citations. Click any dotted-underline term in any module to jump to its glossary entry.
Portfolio deliverables (2 required) — tool-independent
Submit via the Adytum portal. Reciprocal peer review (2 reviewers per submission) + 10% Adytum staff QA sample. Pass requires 4 of 5 rubric dimensions at threshold. Either deliverable can be completed with pen + paper, free industry tools, any general LLM, OR Adytum's apps as accelerators — the rubric is tool-agnostic.
- Voice extraction + 1-page brand voice doc for a real or fictional small business of your choice. Apply the 5-step workflow from Module 2 §2.1; deliver as a single-page reference doc following the structure in Module 2's sample artifact.
- Brand-check audit of 5 web pages (yours or a brand you admire). Apply the 4-step rubric workflow from Module 2 §2.2; produce a severity-ranked remediation list following the format in Module 2's sample artifact.