Startup Branding
Startup Branding : The pre-branding roadmap to steer your Startup onto the right path
‘Your brand is a voice and product a souvenir’ – Lisa Gansky
With innovation today ranging from the selfie toaster to the self-driving electrical car, it often becomes hard for a new or inexperienced product/service/company to get a foothold in the market. Conceptualising, designing and even producing your product/service is the easier part of your entrepreneurial journey. The challenge mainly lies in reaching out and connecting with the masses of unknown people across the multitude of villages, cities and even countries in a way that actually convinces them to let go of their hard earned money. Now that’s a challenge! A tough one too.
According to the Small Business Association, 30% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 50% during the first five years and 66% during the first 10 years. It’s almost shocking that only 25% go on to make it for 15 years or more. The game you’ve entered is a tough one my friend. A true test of your stamina, will power, grit and everything you have in you. But before you start to panic, know that life doesn’t necessarily have to be as testing or difficult. For you, it can actually be rather simple. How? By using this open secret that we’ve spent years refining into a sure shot process. So come closer. Read this bit extra carefully. It’s literally the difference between having your moment at the very top of the mountain and crashing straight to the bottom. The key to it all is BRAND.
If you want to understand the true gravitas of solid brand building, consider the more personal phrase ‘Your reputation precedes you.’ A phenomenal brand is the difference between ‘this looks cool, I wonder how it tastes’ and ‘oh, McDonalds just came out with a new breakfast range? I HAVE to try it!’ It’s the difference between, ‘This product is on discount, might be of a bad quality.’ and ‘OMG, Nike is on sale, I’ve been waiting all year to catch this.’
What you should find most exciting about all this is that it’s actually relatively easy and super fun to brand build. In fact, it’s so simple that we’re going to tell you exactly how to do it. But, for the moment, you’re going to have to stop salivating cause you’re not going to find that information in this article. Why? Because if you truly want to reach the pinnacle of success, you’re going to have to start at the base. So here are a few things you should have in place way before you even consider branding.
- What are you looking at scaling?
Let’s look at Apple, a company which for decades has looked at scaling the mountain of best in class customer experience using technology. They don’t pick their products first. They first decide what legacy they want to leave in their wake and then carefully craft products that have the highest possibility of achieving that goal. To get business success, you must adopt a growth mind-set and realise that your product is an outcome of your company’s goal and not the goal itself. Identify your legacy and then communicate it in the best way you can.
- Do you have the right tools required to make the climb?
If you’re a professional freelancer like a photographer, it literally pays to know the difference that lenses, camera types, lighting etc. make in capturing the perfect photograph. Similarly if you were to climb a mountain, it’d greatly benefit you to know the ins and outs of the tents, ropes and food you’d carry. You’d need to know what would work in which situation during your ascend. Designing a product or service is much like this. You need to have complete knowledge of where your product/service can be used to the max of its ability, in which situations it’ll thrive and in which situations it’ll fail. Know that it’s okay to not be perfect at the very start but do keep in mind that your value proposition should not be so undercooked that competition easily beats it.
- Who are the people supporting your climb up?
Imagine you’re the best cell phone producer in the world. Literally better than anything Apple and Google could produce by a freaking landslide. However instead of courting people between the ages of 18 and 35, you focus on the 70 + and focus all your money, time and energy on convincing them to buy your product. Would it work? Would they even understand what you’re trying to say? Probably not! Similarly, it’s very important to understand who your exact target audience is. Regardless of the product or service, you always have an ideal customer; someone you can convince 99.9% of the time to purchase your product or subscribe to your service. It’s your duty to find out the exact break up of that person i.e. their gender, language, cultural preferences, likes, dislikes etc. and consistently and constantly speak their language. At the end of the day, we’re all in business to make money.
- What makes you better than the others scaling the same peak?
There are numerous instances of competition, disruption and even bad planning which has led to the steep downfall of business untouchables. Be a Netflix, not a Kotak. Study your market and competition. See where the gaps are and focus on plugging it. If you plug enough gaps with a high quality product/service at a reasonable fee, you’re a quantum leap closer to the top.
Remember this Mr. Entrepreneur, building a successful and stable business empire is not easy. It’ll probably be one of the most challenging activities of this life. Putting your hard-work, sweat and tears out there for random people to just form opinions on and downright judge requires guts. Thankfully today, the world is a much more conducive place for entrepreneurs. The market itself provides trustworthy and competent business friends, comrades and partners like Almond Branding who can help you get straight to the top where you belong. All you got to do is figure out exactly where you need a hand.
This article was originally published here on medianews4u.com
As a start-up, should you invest in a Brand Strategy exercise?
I am often asked this question by budding startups that are very cautiously making their investments and are unsure if Brand Strategy is a thing only for the Big guys or they should also take it seriously. My answer to them and every other startup is that Brand Strategy, particularly for a startup is a no brainer. Let me tell you why.
Let’s say you are a technology startup and you have cracked the code. You think you have made the best invention of your times, created an innovative product solution and secured a patented technology status.
Or say you are a Food startup that has crafted the yummiest cookie in the world.
Well, the Marketing Rule 1 says: Create a product for which there exists an inherent need so that it sells itself. So, you have created the best product/service – you’re sure that the consumer/customer should come running after it. Right?
Surprise! The Consumer doesn’t think as logically as you thought. They think emotionally – That’s why brands were born – it’s all a mind game.
The customer doesn’t care a damn about your patent until you show her the value in it. The consumer doesn’t pick up your cookie until you make it evident to her – why only you? Why not your competitor?
So apart from figuring out the product/service you need to figure out
- What role does it play in the life of the consumer?
- How does your product make her feel?
- What experience do you want them to have with your product/service?
That’s where Brand Strategy kicks in.
Brand Strategy is an exercise that will help you predict the market responses and attract the right clients. So, for a start-up, Brand Strategy is really the foremost and essential exercise. If you ask me when is the right time to invest in a Brand Strategy; my answer is the moment you conceive a product idea.
But unfortunately, some believe that Brand Strategy is something that comes during promotion activities – when you start communicating about your brand outwards. Well, that’s completely a wrong idea.
Creating and perfecting the Brand Strategy is the starting point and a destination too.
So, here are 7 reasons why Brand Strategy is a must for any Startup to create a successful brand?
Let’s go one-by-one:
- Brand Purpose
For any Startup, it becomes essential to have a really passionate team, that is cohesive, led by a bigger vision and is constantly motivated. Hence it becomes essential to define: “Why are you in business?” or for that matter, “What do we want to achieve together?”. Any given day, a team member, if faced with a self-reflecting question as to why is he in here and what is all his work leading upto, he should immediately find the answer and the right direction.
More often than not, this is very clear in the Founder’s mind. But the fact is he needs a team to make the startup successful and the entire team needs to be aligned to the same vision. The goals need to be as clear to the team-members as it is to the Founder. This is precisely why the Brand’s Core Purpose and Brand Values need to be defined and articulated. A Brand Strategy exercise will help you do just that.
- Establishing a Differentiation
We all know that in a crowded space, for your Brand to stand out and shine, differentiation is the key.
While making the elevator pitch to the Investor, you got to quickly answer his question “What do you do and why should I care?”. Similarly when you enter the market, you got to answer to your customer/consumer – “Why do you matter to me? What problem are you solving?”
A Brand Strategy exercise will help you do a thorough competitive analysis, find the Points of Parity and Points of Differentiation and carve out a clear cut differentiation strategy, unique to your Brand. This will guide how you will do things differently than all your competitors in the market.
- Brand Value Proposition
Defining the Brand Value Proposition for your brand is essentially a perfect description of the rational plus emotional benefits that helps win both hearts and minds for your consumers.
One of the key deliverables of a Brand Strategy exercise will be a clearly articulated Value Proposition. This helps you decide where to focus on, what not to compromise even in stringent conditions as that is the key value you are offering to your consumers.
- Brand Strategy tied to Business Strategy
The right Brand Stragey can help you achieve your business goals faster. Your Brand Strategy has to be always aligned to your overall business strategy and will be the essential fuel to succeed.
Brand Strategy is essential to steer your startup in the right direction to accomplish your business objectives. eg. Depending on how aggressively you would like to grow, your Brand Strategy will decide whether or not to take a Challenger stance and take the competition head-on. All your subsequent investments and brand communications will be guided by this Brand Strategy articulated.
- Brand Core
Another key deliverable of a Brand Strategy exercise is to define the Core Essence of the Brand – what does your Brand stand for. Now as much as this helps you focus, it helps in your future diversification plans.
It’s essential to keep your Brand core broad enough to accommodate new product developments as well as focussed enough, not to dilute the essence altogether. eg.If your Brand’s core is defined around “Car Service” you can do anything in the realm of making car servicing easier. However, if you make it a little broader say “Car Care”, the arena grows manifolds and adds plethora of possibilities.
The caveat here is that it’s as much important to define what your Brand can’t or shouldn’t do as much as what it should. eg. If you brand stands for “Everyday products” for an Indian audience, you ideally shouldn’t be launching something like an Olive Oil under the same Brand because Olive Oil is still isn’t an everyday product in an Indian household.
- Right Messaging and Tone
Before you start any kind of Brand Communication, whether its B2B or B2C, you need to articulate the right message as well as the right tone. Brand Strategy helps you pin-point the right messaging that is based on the Brand Core, Brand Value Proposition and the key USP or differentiation discussed above.
However, that’s not enough. There can be various ways of delivering the same message and that’s when the right Brand Tone comes in. You will catch the attention of your TG when you use the right messaging and the right tone.
- Consistency
Brand building is all about consistency. When your consistent communication reaches your target audience time and again, you will be surprised to know how it helps them recall your brand, even if they have been ignoring the communication for a long time. Consistency works subtly and registers your Brand’s colours, your message and tone in the minds of the consumer and that’s what is the core of building a Brand.
With all the facets that a Brand Strategy exercise helps articulate and document, it becomes easy for you to have all brand building streamlined to the same goal – as everyone is referring to the same Brand bible. This helps in increasing your overall ROI that is so critical for any startup.
Rome was not build in a day. That goes true for any Brand building exercise too. A Brand is not built overnight, it takes time to build. While its fuelled with the passion of the Startup founder, it also needs the facets described above to reach the summit faster. Hence my advice will be to start early in the game so that all your efforts are aligned and they pay off sooner to make your Brand a huge success.
This article was originally published here on medianews4u.com