Forget the business model canvas. Your brand is the real ceiling on your growth.
- Manelik Sfez
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Most companies think they have a brand but in reality, they just have a service with a label. Here’s the test: does your company name include your service? If yes, you’ve already built your own growth ceiling.
This article introduces the Brand Hierarchy of Vision Brands, Styled Services, and Commodity Companies, and explains why no business model canvas or template will help if your brand identity is missing. Your business model matters, but your brand determines whether you can grow at all.
The Business Model Canvas or the illusion of strategy
Every small and midsize business owner knows the Business Model Canvas. It’s become the holy grail of quick strategy: nine neat boxes to fill in, one sheet of paper to show investors, a way to feel like you’ve finally “mapped out” your business.
It’s neat, tidy, and… dangerously misleading. Because no canvas, template, or model can save a business that never had a brand in the first place. You can structure operations all you want, but if the foundation is weak, the whole thing collapses.
The big misconception
Most business owners believe they already have a brand. In reality, they have a labeled service. They’ve named what they do, not who they are.
Take “Studio Pilates.” The name tells you the service on offer (Pilates) and nothing else. There’s no identity behind it, no culture, no story that can stretch further. Compare that to Louis Vuitton or Dell. Those names don’t describe a product; they identify an entity. They stand for a promise that can travel into any category the company chooses.
That’s the difference. One is a label tied to a service. The other is an identity that can carry growth, innovation, and loyalty for decades.
The concrete test
Here’s the simplest way to know if you’re in trouble: does your brand name include your service? If the answer is yes, you’ve already capped your future.
PurePilates will always be just about Pilates. Launch yoga classes, retreats, or nutrition coaching, and every client will need to be convinced from scratch. Your name fights your expansion.
Bright Accounting will always be just about accounting. Add payroll or HR consulting, and you’ll find yourself spending double on marketing just to make the connection believable.
Your name tells customers: “This is all I am. Nothing more.” That’s not strategy. That’s a self-imposed prison.
The Brand Hierarchy
Here’s a way to visualize it. We call it the Brand Hierarchy: three tiers that explain why some companies scale into ecosystems and others remain trapped in operations.
A) Vision Brands
These are companies whose names stand for identity, not service. Apple isn’t “Apple Computers.” Nike isn’t “Nike Shoes.” Tesla isn’t “Tesla Electric Cars.” They chose names that allow them to embody a worldview and expand freely.
💰 Exit value potential: These companies not only scale more easily, they also command the highest resale and acquisition multiples. Their brand equity makes them highly attractive exits.
Impact: Vision Brands build ecosystems, not silos. They enjoy lower marketing costs, higher loyalty, and limitless growth options. Customers don’t just buy products; they buy into the idea.
B) Styled Services
These are companies that dress up their service-based names with a touch of style. Think PurePilates or FitLife Gym. The brand has some flair, but it still anchors customers to the original offer.
💰 Exit value potential: These businesses can sell at fair but modest valuations, usually to larger players consolidating the market. Their brand isn’t strong enough to justify a premium.
Impact: They can build respectable local or niche success, but scaling is capped. Every new service requires a marketing battle to reframe perception.
C) Commodity Companies
These are the companies that use purely generic, descriptive names: Geneva Cleaning Services, Digital Marketing Solutions, Pilates Studio.
💰 Exit value potential: These businesses rarely sell as going concerns. At best, they’re liquidated or bought for their customer list. No brand means no equity value.
Impact: They aren’t brands at all, they’re labels. They compete only on price, convenience, or speed, and they collapse the moment a cheaper, faster, or shinier competitor appears. Their marketing costs rise, their margins shrink, and churn is a constant headache.
👉 And here’s the punchline: You’re not just saying “your name is boring.” You’re saying “your name is suffocating your future.”
Why this matters more than the Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas is a tool. It tells you how the parts of your business fit together. But it assumes you already have an identity to plug into the model.
If your name locks you into a single service, no template will help you scale. If your identity is absent, every strategy is built on sand.
That’s why so many businesses feel like they’ve been grinding for years without breaking through. They don’t have a business model problem. They have a brand problem.
The real foundation of growth
A true brand identity doesn’t just decorate your logo or tagline. It creates elasticity. It allows you to cross-sell without friction, to expand without disbelief, to pivot without rebuilding your reputation from scratch.
Apple didn’t need to convince the world that it could make a phone or a watch. People trusted the identity, not the product line. Louis Vuitton can sell fashion, luggage, or furniture because customers buy into the culture, not the label.
Contrast that with a commodity company. Try convincing customers that Geneva Cleaning Services should also manage office supplies, or that Digital Marketing Solutions can build enterprise-grade CRMs. The credibility gap is massive. The ceiling is already built into the name.
The close
So don’t start with a canvas. Start with your brand. Because your brand contains every ingredient of your future: your vision, your ability to grow, your potential to adapt, and your license to innovate. You will never go further than what your brand allows you to. The business model canvas can help you organize your operations. But your brand identity determines whether those operations can grow at all.
About the author
Manelik Sfez, founder of the Swiss brand consultancy Ultrabrand, brings 25 years of international business, marketing, and brand strategy experience to the table. He has worked with some of the world’s most iconic brands throughout his career. From luxury goods to global retail, financial services and technological and industry giants, he has guided companies through brand-led transformations that have enabled significant business growth.
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