Building a canonical brand identity

The fix for entity inconsistency starts with one thing: a single, authoritative description of who you are. That's your canonical brand identity: the source of truth that every platform should reflect.

What a canonical description is

A canonical description is one definitive statement of:

• What your business does (in one sentence)
• Who you serve (your primary audience)
• What makes you different (your key differentiator)
• Where you operate (geography, if relevant)

This isn't marketing copy. It's not a tagline or a sales pitch. It's the plain, factual description of your business that should appear, adapted for format, on every platform.

Example:

"Acme CRM is a customer relationship management platform built for creative agencies with 5-50 employees. Founded in 2020 and based in Melbourne, Australia, Acme CRM helps agencies manage client pipelines, automate follow-ups, and track project profitability from a single dashboard."

This description answers every question an AI model might have about the brand entity.

How Outrigger generates your canonical

When you set up a client with a brand brief, Outrigger's AI generates a canonical description from that brief. The process:

1. Analysis: AI reads your brand brief, website URL, and any existing platform descriptions
2. Draft: Generates a canonical description following the who/what/how/where structure
3. Review: You review and edit: this is your brand, you know it best
4. Approval: Lock in the canonical. This becomes the reference point for all consistency checks.

Once approved, the canonical is used to:

• Score existing platform descriptions for consistency (how closely do they match?)
• Generate platform-adapted versions (LinkedIn has different length/format requirements than Google Business)
• Flag platforms where your description has drifted too far from canonical

Platform-specific adaptations

Different platforms have different format requirements:

Outrigger generates adapted versions for each platform from your canonical. Each adaptation preserves the core facts while fitting the platform's format.

The approval workflow

Because your canonical description affects every platform, changes go through a review process:

1. Generate/Edit: Create or modify the canonical description
2. Review: Compare against current platform descriptions
3. Approve: Lock in the new canonical
4. Deploy: Use the adapted versions to update each platform

Outrigger generates the task list, "Update LinkedIn description," "Fix Google Business category," etc., but you execute the changes manually on each platform. Some platforms require admin access, verification steps, or specific formatting.

Version history

Every change to your canonical is versioned and timestamped. This matters because:

• You can see what changed and when
• If a platform audit shows inconsistency, you can check whether it's because the canonical was updated but the platform wasn't
• Historical versions help track brand evolution over time

When to update your canonical

Update your canonical when:

• You launch a new core product or service
• You rebrand or change your positioning
• You expand to new markets or geographies
• Your audience shifts significantly
• AI audit reveals that your current description isn't matching how the market sees you

Don't update it for minor marketing refreshes or campaign-specific messaging changes. The canonical is about foundational identity, not seasonal campaigns.

In Outrigger

The canonical description editor is the starting point of Entity. Generate, review, approve, and see platform-adapted versions all from one screen.