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Brand Gravity: Designing for Evangelist Alignment

Great brands don’t chase users. They attract them — and keep them. This magnetic force is what we call brand gravity.

Brand gravity isn’t about mass appeal. It’s about clarity, coherence, and deep alignment between what the brand stands for, how the product behaves, and how the user is treated.

This document explores how to build brands that earn evangelists by design.

What Is Brand Gravity?​

Brand gravity = Alignment × Intent × Stickiness

A brand has gravity when:

  • People are pulled in without being sold to
  • They stay because it resonates deeply
  • They spread it because it aligns with who they are

It’s not hype. It’s coherence.

Brand gravity emerges when the experience, model, and message are all tuned to the same frequency.

1. Pillar 1: Philosophical Alignment​

You attract who you resonate with. The best brands make their worldview clear.

  • Notion: calm productivity, knowledge ownership
  • Obsidian: self-hosted, extensible, long-term memory
  • Figma: collaboration as the default, not an add-on

If your brand is ambiguous or generic, it can't anchor loyalty.

2. Pillar 2: Intentional Product Strategy​

You can’t just say the right things — you have to deliver.

  • GitHub didn’t just talk about open source — it lived it.
  • Superhuman backed up its price with workflow-changing UX.
  • Linear pairs fast UI with product principles like focus and flow.

Gravity forms when product behavior matches product philosophy.

3. Pillar 3: Trust-Based Model​

Pricing, trial design, support, cancelation, upgrade flow — all of it is UX.

Brands with gravity:

  • Don’t manipulate with dark patterns
  • Don’t bait-and-switch features
  • Don’t disrespect the user’s timeline (see: [Trial Models That Don’t Suck](./980c314b-9df6-41cd-b562-26ad05940e99))

Users feel safe putting emotional and workflow trust into products that respect their agency.

How to Design for Evangelist Alignment​

To earn evangelists:

  • Be specific in message
  • Be consistent in behavior
  • Be transparent in model

Evangelists don’t form from ads. They form from alignment.

If users say “this feels like it was made for me” — you’re on the right track.