Do you apply strong branding for your startup? Learn how to build a powerful brand without needing to consult with an expensive brand agency, by establishing your brand beliefs.
Creating a brand that can compete to attain market share against your chosen industries best will be a challenge. Before you think of the end goal of your startup, It’s vital that you consider the importance of establishing a strong brand in the early stages.
So, how crucial is brand definition for early-stage startups? And, to begin with, what is a brand?
Branding
You’re missing the most important component of branding if you think of it as a gorgeous logo and some pricey press stunts.
Sasha Strauss presents a simple blueprint for developing an effective, long-term, market-impacting brand in his Google lecture, ‘Branding is the New Normal.’ What I appreciate most about his approach is how straightforward it is:
“A brand is a combination of a topic that your audience is curious about, and a belief system that intersects with it.”
This makes the task of establishing your brand easier:
- Choose a significant activity or topic that your customers are passionate about.
- Make a belief system for that subject.
There are numerous advantages to spending the effort to answer these two questions.
- Aid team alignment by offering a model for decision-making, particularly in the areas of customer experience and product.
- It might assist you in focusing your product messaging on the most important aspects.
- Assist you in developing a strong emotional bond with your consumers and workers.
Establishing the Topic of Your Brand
The very first goal is to figure out what your customers care about. Your brand issue should be specific enough for individuals to have strong opinions, yet wide enough to encompass more than simply your product.
Consider the following brands and topics:
Nike have built themselves as a brand that supports many facets of competition in football, basketball, golf, etc, which make this their topic. However, they just so happen be involved in design and development of sportswear and equipment. Apple pride themselves as a brand that puts their competition to shame, due to their slick design elements that push the boundaries of how technology should be presented, making this their topic. But they just so happen to specialise in software and electronics. Both have implemented a successful branding strategy.
Make Your Belief System Visible
Few people were better at developing ideologies than the ancient Greeks, with Aristotle being one of the most well-known ones. He maintained that the state’s role is to enable people to live well, rather than just to live. He pondered what it meant to have a good life.
Aristotle, if he were an entrepreneur today, he would most likely create a successful brand. His theme would be “living the good life,” and his philosophy would be translated into a fantastic line of products that would assist clients live better lives.
This raises an interesting subject for businesses to consider:
What is the proper way to approach topic?
Looking at the extremities, both positive and negative, might help you tease out your convictions. Evaluate a rival and think how their product fails to achieve a key quality that you consider vital. Consider what an unattainable ‘perfect’ solution would look like — and try to find standards that you can aim for in your own product, in order to establish a strong sense of branding.
Using a prior example, Apple always makes sure to create simple clean designs for their electronics, and that they are easy to use. Apple’s stance on technology, is electronics should viewed as polished and refined. Consumers will purchase products from Apple, purely based on the idea that products must attain a certain clean look.
Entrepreneurs frequently focus on their customer’s problem when asked about their beliefs. Your customer’s problem, on the other hand, should be something actual, not something you believe. You should concentrate on what you consider is the correct approach to approach about your topic, not on the issues.
Linking Brand & Product
We are encouraged to promote benefits rather than features in traditional marketing. Brand marketing goes a step further by connecting with people’s values. Benefits and beliefs, on the other hand, are frequently linked:
[brand belief] is something we believe. That’s why we created a technique to [benefit] via [feature].You can engage emotionally with consumers, colleagues, and even investors when you talk to them on the level of their values.
What are your core beliefs?
Branding is everything. Without your branding, you provide your customers one less reason as to why they should invest in such a product or service. Analysing examples like Apple and Nike, give us a detailed point of a view of what they have prioritised. They both understand that there are a vast number of competitors that provide the same service as them. So, what do they do? Provide their products and services in such a way, that both fits the identity of their brand, while simultaneously presenting themselves as a brand that can offer something their competition can’t, even if they’re in the same industry.
Amit Khanna, 7startup Founder
Amit has 18 years of experience in the industry and an MBA. He supports entrepreneurs with every aspect of their business including concept and product development, investor presentations, and fundraising. Amit & 7startup assist startups in the pre due-diligence process and help connect them to our vast network of investors. Reach out to us today and see if we’re a fit!
