Harnessing the True Power of Branding — Why Startups are in the best position to do so
Branding is a fuzzy topic.
So fuzzy that after practicing, living and breathing it for the last 5 years, I still find myself constantly going back to the most basics of questions:
“What is Branding? What makes it so important? How can it be quantified?”
Some still can’t differentiate it from other marketing verticals like Advertising and PR.
Some reduce it to just its communication elements — Logo, Colour Palette, Messaging.
For those who’ve explored the topic a little more, they’re no stranger to Branding components like Brand Purpose, Values, Vision, Mission, Positioning etc. — statements which differences are so small they may seem insignificant, a joke even.
To define what makes a brand is fuzzy enough. Let alone putting one together and executing it as a team.
Branding is a powerful thing. I don’t mean to use words that make this topic even more far-out, fantasy or unicorn-like. But it is my heartfelt opinion based on experience.
When I was Brand Consultant in an international consultancy firm, I saw how a well-executed brand could:
- Help founders build a more focused and purposeful businesses
- Unite the team under a resolute vision, and
- Bring in more happy consumers
The communication component of the brand is just one of the benefits of Branding (but definitely not one to be taken lightly).
Of course, the pragmatic side of you may still be contemplating if what I’ve just said are butterflies you should be chasing, or not.
Hear me out :)
The emotion of branding is relevant to all businesses — big or small
One important fact that we all shouldn’t be ignoring is this:
All of our audiences (employees or users), or all human beings in that matter, have aspirations, emotions and beliefs.
Of course these somewhat intangible stuff might be seen as soap bubbles. But in every sense, they are real to your users. They can have a more powerful influence to a person’s decision-making than hard functional benefits.
That’s why some most inspiring and influential figures are those that openly and powerfully express their dreams.
People relate to it, and are drawn to it.
So are the most influential brands.
Because the most successful brands are those that have carved a ‘unique & protected space’ in your head
Just like how Apple stands for Designful Innovation, and Windows stands for Powerful Functionality.
Once established, it is hard for a competitor to break into the space in the mind of the audience — not unless the brand delivers short on its promise.
In its most vigorous form, a branding/rebranding journey is not just launching a new logo or coming up with a fancy tagline. It involves structuring and restructuring of many things within the organisation — just to name a few, business plan, product strategy, internal work flow & process — to enable everyone to think of a singular promise and deliver it physically in their products and services.
Did you think it is an accident that any powerful brands like Apple or Nike end up in these ‘spaces’ that they are in?
They are based on strategic reasoning — and everything within the organisation is implemented with well-thought-of intentions and purpose.
But the truth is — many brands are thought out in hindsight
“Branding is marketing, just leave it to the designers and advertisers”.
“This is thinking a little too deep…Let’s not waste time on it now”.
“I’ve got to take care of my business and product first, which is more important”.(Hearing this makes me cringe sometimes, well, most of the time. Because they are practically saying their brand isn’t their business.)
As a result, which I’ve seen happened many and many times — businesses entrenched themselves too early in a brand image that they do not desire, and in the worst case scenario, even ends up hurting the business.
For example, while a constant use of promotional sales tactics may bring in sales quickly, it may portray your brand as “a cheap brand” if it wasn’t your intention for it in the first place.
Start-up Founders — Please think of Branding early, or early enough.
Start-ups are in the best position to harness the power of branding. Here’s why I think so:
# 1: Start-ups are meant to be disruptive & differentiated in nature —
Hence, the ‘ownable space’ could manifest in a much quicker, and organic manner. We could say, it’s easier to drive a powerful start-up brand across, if it’s positioned and strategized to your best advantage.
# 2: Start-ups are in the position to enroot a purpose-driven culture from the onset —
Talents are the biggest assets for all organisations — unless your business is solely run by tech and bots.
Businesses that go through rebranding often work backwards to find their collective vision, mission, purpose and values — and would spend a great amount of effort to rally ‘change’ in the way their team work and think.
Start-ups — who are usually close-knitted, agile, and non-hierarchical — provides the best kind of environment for founders to rally and build a purpose driven and high performance team from the onset.
#3: (My last point — but certainly not least — is one of the shiny opportunities that led me in the journey of exploring branding for start-ups)
The experimentative and iterative spirit in the start-up industry is opening up a whole new avenue to make brand building more efficient and, potentially, more effective –
Conventional branding is where brands are implemented following a set strategic direction. Feedback and alteration to the brand is always tedious because too much stake has been put into it from the onset.
Whereas in a start-up environment, we are called to experiment and alter — and to do it often enough. Instead of putting all the stakes into a robust and time-consuming brand building effort in the beginning, start-ups can split the weight into an experimentation stage. There’s a flexibility to test a brand’s adaptability and effectiveness among its audience and change often enough to find the perfect fit.
Branding has often taken the back foot in the start-up industry, with priority given to the product and tech. Sometimes too much priority. I’m here to explore the potential of branding to be an integral part in the start-up process.
In my following articles, I’ll share my thoughts and experience on how start-ups can… start-up (hah!) their branding journey.
If you have any thoughts, drop me some comments and let’s discuss! :)
As a Brand Strategist in VLT Labs, I am thrilled to explore different brand and business tools as we journey with different start-up founders. I hope to share my experience on specific verticals for start-up branding in my following articles — and discover how branding can create value in every step of the way.
