The New Web3 Brand Framework: Vision, Community & Distinctiveness.
As the power and capabilities of blockchain, crypto and web3 continue to be realized; the space is becoming increasingly crowded with new brands hoping their project will prevail over the rest.
As strategists and designers, when we’re building a new brand narrative, we usually lean on two things, functionality and emotional connection. Functionality might involve speeds, security, scalability, interoperability. Emotional messages relate to vision, impact and community.
In terms of functionality, it’s increasingly hard to tell projects apart, especially blockchains. Cheaper, faster and more scalable is no longer a big enough competitive advantage and doesn’t necessarily guarantee mass adoption.
With this in mind, we’ve pulled out three key areas from our web3 brand framework that can elevate your brand beyond functionality.
A strong vision
Web3 brands are not like consumer brands, they don’t just sell a product, they’re selling a vision that retail investors buy into through their digital token or digital asset.
A powerful vision will galvanize your community to be a part of the project’s collective mission. A vision should look ahead to the future and show what can be achieved if developers build on the blockchain or retail investors buy tokens.
The best visions are grand and always just out of reach; it’s something to aim for in 2, 5, or 10 years time, that all stakeholders can get behind.
Take Ethereum for example, they paint a picture of blockchain’s potential. Their vision? To build a digital future on a global scale and grow Ethereum until it’s powerful enough to help all of humanity. Pretty big goal right?
SpaceX is one of the most successful companies at raising cash, but investors don’t believe in SpaceX just because of their rockets capabilities. They invest in Elon Musk’s vision: “Helping man become a space-faring civilization and multi-planetary species.”
Telegram is the same. “For us, Telegram is an idea,” Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder, has said. “It is the idea that everyone on this planet has a right to be free.”
At Noir, we build visions about where your project will be in 2, 5 or 10 years and what we see there informs our approach today. This ensures we’re future-proofing the value your project can bring to the world.
Build a strong emotional connection with the community
The decentralized nature of blockchain brands means they are inherently community-driven; ultimately, the value of any project is backed by the size and robustness of its community of believers. In web3, community is the new marketing.
To influence and connect with a community, founders need to have a deep understanding of their communities needs and dreams and provide them with both functional benefits (speeds, security, scalability, interoperability) and a strong emotional connection.
An emotional connection provides the community with a **positive feeling, adding richness and depth to the experience of owning and using the brand.
So, what might we draw upon for building an emotional connection to the community in web3?
Trust and authenticity. The community needs to believe you’re going to produce something of value.
Creating excitement and energy and telling an impactful story of the future.
Giving the community incentive to spread brand narratives of their own, we see this play out massively in the Bitcoin community, with believers and doubters wrestling with their own ideas of what Bitcoin should be.
Finally, being collaborative, supportive and listening to what the community want from you.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but with these in mind, you can build a strong community that will evolve and grow with you on your web3 journey.
Memorable and distinctive design
Another area in which blockchain brands should be challenging themselves further is their visual language. To stand out in the busy category, web3 brands must think more about using distinctive and memorable design.
Instead of focussing on being different, the key to success is using consistent and constantly used, easy to remember brand assets. This will over time create distinctive memory structures in peoples minds and mean they can easily identify a brand over others.
Some of the worlds biggest consumer brands are masters of this, think Coca Cola’s iconic bottle shape or the McDonald’s golden arches.
One phenomenon to demonstrate this is called the ‘Von Restorff Effect’, which predicts when multiple items are presented together, the one that differs from the rest is more likely to be remembered.
In other words, being distinctive increases the likelihood of recall, recognition and rememberability.
Solana has gained a cult following amongst developers and retail investors. Their logo, name and gradient colours are so distinctive that projects that build on their chain use Solana’s visual system and language in their own brands (Solsea using the ‘Sol’ from Solana for example).
Aim for distinctive and memorable and you’ll be on to a winner.
How Noir can help
We understand that communities converge around impactful brands with an inspiring narrative. We help founders build their brand around the community, the technology and the market to achieve their project’s vision for the future.
Get in touch on Telegram to see how we can supercharge your web3 project in 2022.
Author:
Strategy Directornoir.io
