Branding start-ups

Here’s a great example of a startup that got its branding right. Geoff Ross built a very successful brand with 42 Below, a company that’s almost completely brand driven. Let’s face it, most vodkas taste the same but from day one, 42 Below has had a good visual identity and packaging system, really strong brand advocacy and a clear ‘f*** you’ attitude. Love it or hate it, the company’s abrasive, cocky, in-your-face marketing has created quite a splash with what was once a small pebble.

The successful launch and subsequent multimillion-dollar sale of 42 Below seems to owe much to its slick brand strategy. And it’s not the only one. Homegrown companies Icebreaker and Orca also both seemed to have their brand strategies well nailed at launch.

There aren’t a whole lot of other New Zealand startups I can point to and say, ‘wow, that’s great branding’. Failing to invest in your company’s brand from pre-launch is a blind spot many startups suffer from. And it can prove fatal.

We often get called in to help young companies two or three years out from their launch. They started with a hiss and a roar only to find a few years down the track they’re not making the progress they’d hoped for. They realise they have a problem or they’ve missed an -opportunity, often, not always, because they’ve paid lip service to the importance of branding.

When they first set up they went through the scary stage of hemorrhaging money. Cash was short, so they prioritised. Their accountants told them the so-called soft, cuddly things like branding and design should be shelved. They concentrated on getting computer systems in place, the website up and running, and the company name on the door.

Sadly, with no clear brand strategy in place you’re leaving it to luck as to how consumers will think and feel about your brand. You then have little control over what that positioning is. This is not good news for startups. It can create barriers on how they price their product and interact with customers and retail distributors. They have no way of differentiating themselves from competitors.

Entrepreneurs can’t be blamed completely for their ignorance of branding’s importance. Brand strategy is largely ignored by our universities and is not taught in design schools. Many accountants seem to think branding has more to do with animal husbandry than real business. And while a tertiary marketing course might touch on it, chances are it’ll be a pretty superficial discussion at best.

You could argue that an amazing and unique product will always sell, so there will be no worries. But assuming, like most businesses, you don’t have that kind of truly amazing product (come on, be honest) then you have to try and create added value. You might achieve this by making sure your client services are outstanding, and that clients appreciate the value that is being delivered. This takes hard graft and certainly doesn’t happen by accident.

So here’s a tip: if you’re in startup mode you need to develop a firm understanding of what branding is. I repeat: a brand is not a logo; it’s what people think, feel and believe about a company or product. By not trying to help, shape and manage the creation of that mental picture, startups are missing a huge opportunity.

It is possible to change people’s thinking about a brand. McDonald’s is beginning to make a pretty good fist of it. After Subway arrived and positioned itself as fresh and healthy, McDonald’s launched its McCafe chain and began to offer tasty, low-fat salads and snack alternatives for kids and adults. It appears to be making a real effort to shift customer choice and to reposition the brand. There are other fast food chains seemingly content to be talking to a narrower and narrower group of people and not budging on their traditional message.

So what should you do if your company’s suffering from the brand strategy blues? You can hit the textbooks and the web for certain brand strategy tools. At best, that’ll get you 80% of the way there.

But great branding has the x-factor — a magic component of creative development. I know you’re thinking, well, he would say that wouldn’t he? But most people can’t achieve that x-factor on their own. You need someone with the right knowledge and talent to take the attributes captured by the brand-positioning tool and convert it into something really special that has strong emotive appeal.

According to everythingdesign.co.nz