Chapter 9:: Branding your Startup
Your Start-Up
"As an entrepreneur, one of the biggest challenges you will face will be building your brand. The ultimate goal is to set your company and your brand apart from the crowd. If you form a strategy without doing the research, your brand will barely float - and at the speed industries move at today, brands sink fast" - Ryan Holmes
As an entrepreneur and owner of many businesses, I believe ‘branding’ is more than what most people talk about out there.
Most people will tell you that branding is about the logo and the presentation of the company and its products. That is akin to skin-deep beauty. For me, branding goes deeper than that.
All that surface level stuff like appearance and image are just brand tactics that are driven by what the company chooses to represent.
Branding, the way I see it, is the heart of the company.
It should guide the business as to what they stand for, and what they represent; not just to the outside world and customers, but also to the internal staff and stakeholders in the business.
So branding should influence every decision you have in your business, not just your logo, colours, packaging and website.
Your brand should also influence what products you make, the staff you hire, what cups you buy for the kitchen, what tables your staff use, even what plants you choose to place in the lobby. Ultimately, you want to make sure that everything in the business represents your brand.
For example, it is well known that Google calls their offices a ‘campus’ and is set up accordingly with gyms, Sony Playstations, swimming pools, massage chairs and a whole bunch of other leisure activities. For them, this is their brand that represents innovation, a culture of interaction and a flat organisational structure. It’s much like that of a University.
The people they hire are also of a certain kin. They hire people who are smart but may not have the necessary experience. They encourage question-asking and innovation.
Most people don’t realise that this is all part of their brand. They see it as more of a management philosophy rather than a brand.
But Google has created this brand that attracts some of the smartest and brightest young people from across the world to their campus. All this helps to facilitate creativity and innovation that the company desires in order to keep ahead of the competition. This brand further fuels the company’s image as a market-leading innovator and a ‘cool’ company.
For most of us, it is important that you don’t fall into the trap of emulating these big businesses and their brands. Firstly, your company hasn’t reached that level. Secondly, I believe your brand should be unique to your own business. Trying to model after someone else’s brand will result in confusion for both the marketplace and for your own staff.
Most people that work for Google for instance, would have a hard time fitting into any of my businesses; neither would they be likely to be attracted by my brand.
See, at the end of the day, I believe the ‘acid test’ to branding is this: If you don’t tell anyone who you are, what will people say about you?
That is the essence to branding.
Dreaming up Your Brand
Personally, I believe the first step to branding is choosing who you are. ‘Who Am I?’ is the big question that you need to answer to create a successful brand.
In fact, I think this is one of the critical things that the founder of the business needs to get clear about. Because if the founder cannot articulate what the company is about, then no else can.
In your times of daydreaming for your business, ask yourself the following questions to start getting clear about your business brand:
What do we stand for in the marketplace?
What are the most important values of our brand and business?
Who do we choose to be?
For instance, in one of my businesses that I mentioned previously, where we supplied an application for hotels to sell their last-minute beds, we were focused on a horizontal play in the marketplace. That is who we chose to be as a business.
As such, our business needed to create a brand that was more tech-savvy and sophisticated. We had to project an image that we were smart and technologically innovative. Since our customers were hotel managers and marketers, we also had to dress appropriately and have the necessary corporate-looking business cards, brochures and website.
To build our brand in the marketplace, we created white papers and gave presentations to decision-makers in the industry. We also reached out to decision-makers at industry trade shows. We positioned ourselves as a technology-enabler brand and we had to look the part.
Our company also looked for a certain type of IT people who fit our culture and mould: intelligent, professional and smartly-dressed. We couldn’t have a ‘campus feel’ like that of Google as it would have been inconsistent with our brand image.
We couldn’t have the pool table in the centre of our office nor could we have the massage chairs; we had to be consistent in projecting our brand image and such things would not have fitted in.
Conversely, if we had chosen to be a vertical market play and provided a portal for all hotels to sell their last-minute hotel rooms, our branding would have been very different. We could have been more casual and fun in our brand image. The colours and fonts of our logo would have been fun-looking. There’s no doubt we would have also attracted a whole bunch of smart young people dressed in jeans who came to work each day. Dart boards and a foosball table would not have been out of place in the office either!
If we had chosen to use our platform to become this vertical play market for hotels, we would have used social media and mainstream media such as TV, travel magazines and radio to advertise our business; because it is important firstly to select the media that will reach your intended audience. Secondly, such media would also have fitted into our fun, outgoing brand that we would have developed.
Then there was a third market we could have entered at the time with the same technology. We could have chosen to develop our platform as a bank account aggregator, to allow wealth managers and high net worth people to use this platform to manage all their investments from a single dashboard.
If we had used our platform to enter this marketplace, our brand once again would have differed greatly from the other two. We would have packaged it a lot differently to make it look professional and trustworthy. We would have used corporate colours like blue to project trust, and the appropriate fonts and logos to give people that same impression.
In our communication we would not have emphasised technology as the main thing; we would instead have been highlighting the state-of-the-art security encryption technology. Our office address would have been in the centre of the financial district and the staff would probably have worn grey suits and ties.
In terms of promotions and advertising this business, we would have organised events and parties for financial sector and high society people to do presentations of our product. We would not have used Facebook, for example, to reach out to the high net worth clients that we were targeting, as this would be an inappropriate media. It would just not fit in our brand to have our ads appear next to an advertisement for a $10 fast-food restaurant.
In these 3 examples that I have illustrated to you, the technology platform is exactly the same. We would have just used it to apply to different industries and different target markets; yet the branding and activities for each of these markets would have been vastly different to each other.
So that’s where you need to spend time to daydream about what your company stands for, and everything that you do that can further enhance that brand. Once you are clear about your brand, it will important for you to dream about what activities you should be doing for your company. It could be what publicist you choose to hire, what media you choose to advertise in, what furniture you buy for your business, and what type of employee you choose to employ. All these decisions should help enhance your brand, not detract from the brand you are trying to create.
Once you have a strong brand, you will have no problems attracting the customers and talent to your business because your brand will resonate with them.
The Founder’s Influence on the Brand
Most start-ups begin with a handful of people. That’s why the founder’s influence in the brand is very profound.
In fact, knowingly or unknowingly, most companies end up with brand values that represent that of the founder, or very closely represent that of the founder. That is why it is absolutely crucial that the founder gets clear about what his or her personal values are, because it will have a pass-down effect on the company.
In the start-up phase, since the founder in most cases has not really put in the time to develop the business brand, the values of the company and the founder are often blurred.
That is where I believe self-awareness is important, because if you don’t even know what the values are that you stand for, then don’t expect others to be clear about them either. Where the founder is unclear about his values, his brand will attract confused people to work for him, or they won’t stay for long. The same will apply in the marketplace because if the market is confused, no one will buy from him.
At BIGIGoonttheNet, we started off as a bunch of fun people who liked to experiment and create applications that could change industries. Those values of fun, being radical, a bit crazy and innovative were the values that our company wanted to project.
One day, we decided we actually needed some business cards. So our Chief Technology Officer (CTO) said, “Why not let me have a go at it?” We agreed. What came out was the most colourful business card I have seen in my life! I thought, “Well, it fits in with our culture and our values, and it will really help us stand out in a crowded marketplace…so why not?”
The funny thing about this is that years later I met people that I had gotten to know while working with BIGIGontheNet; many of them still remember the fancy business card we had. In fact, we had become known as ‘that crazy bunch of people’!
The only thing you need to watch out for is that, as your company grows, everyone must grow with the same brand values and corporate culture so that your brand is being strengthened at all times. If you end up having different departments with different sub-cultures, that will result in conflict within your business and could also harm the brand your company has worked so hard to build over the years.
You need to choose for your brand to stand out in its own unique way, that’s consistent with your vision and brand, and that appeals to the marketplace in a different way to everyone out there. That is the key to creating a powerful brand.
The point to note is here is that successful companies can have vastly different brand values and cultures. Some companies have a very authoritative culture that pushes their staff to the limit, others like Google are more laissez-faire in their approach; yet companies can be successful regardless of where they are in the spectrum.
Brands Values Can be Re-Prioritised
A point to note here is that brands can change and evolve, and sometimes it is absolutely necessary to do so as you move through different levels of business maturity.
As I mentioned, with BIGIGonttheNet, we fostered a culture of innovation, fun and craziness in the early stages of the business. However, as we grew, it was important that the company adopted values that were more reflective of where our company was at.
While we still maintained a culture of innovation and daydreaming, the value of fun and craziness slipped away a bit and was replaced with other values such as efficiency and customer service excellence. It was necessary that our brand values evolved as the company matured, otherwise we wouldn’t have customers buy from us and the company might have been chaotic.
If you have studied many tech companies such as Apple, you would realise that their brand and company values also had to change as the business grew bigger. And many of those initial people who were there at the start of the business no longer felt they were a part of Apple and left the company.
The same thing happened to us - as we grew the business, I had some of the founding team leave the company. My COO (Chief Operating Officer) left 2 years after the company was founded, simply because he felt that he wasn’t having fun anymore. It wasn’t about the money at all because the business was indeed more structured and making more money. He just felt like there was no fun, so he quit but remained a shareholder of the company.
In fact, my CTO also left at around the same time for similar reasons. Unfortunately, as we became more established as a business, reality kicks in and we have deadlines to meet with corporate clients. That killed the fun in the business for them, yet it was a necessary evolution of our company and brand.
However, it is important to understand the distinction here was that while there was re-weighing of the brand values from ‘fun’ to ‘professional’, the company’s brand of being a market disruptor and a game-changing technological company remained the same.
The distinction I want to make here is that while brand values can be re-prioritised to adapt to changes in the environment and to the stages of company growth. It is important for the company to maintain its brand essence and the unique way it creates value for the marketplace at large.
Warning: Don’t Emulate the Big Boys!
A word of warning here: it is not always wise to emulate the brand and the brand values of large companies. I know you might be a big fan of people like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk and their brands. However, they are at an entirely different stage in their business; so for you to emulate them rather than find your own brand identity could result in a lot of confusion for all the stakeholders in your business.
In addition, if you look at big companies like Mercedes Benz and BMW, they have very consistent branding over a long period of time. They have spent literally millions of dollars of advertising in their brands. They both are successful and attract different types of buyers for their cars.
The BMW positioning of being the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ tends to attract a younger crowd who are perhaps more savvy when it comes to car features. On the other hand, Mercedes Benz’s market position of being a prestige car to show the world that ‘you have made it’, tends to attract a different crowd altogether.
My suggestion to you is that, as a start-up, you don’t have millions of dollars to spend to build your brand. So don’t try to be like the big boys and adopt their branding practices or values. Be yourself, be clear how you want to stand out in the marketplace, and take small steps to build that brand -starting with your product, your team, and your office (even if it is a garage).
As you grow, then acquire more items and exposure yourself in the right media so that your brand grows.
Once you are clear about your brand and how your company is unique in the marketplace, it empowers your marketing efforts in the marketplace and helps your company to grow. Remember, without a clear brand, you will find it hard to communicate why people should buy your stuff. But once you have that brand clarity, it’s time for you to get down and do your marketing and sales!
Conclusion
It is important for you to spend time dreaming up what your brand stands for now, and dream up how you want your business to be in the future. Think about how the values in your brand might change. It’s also important to get clear about what your own values are, make sure that your values are not in conflict with that of the business. Finally, remember to consider your brand in each business decision that you take along the way so that your brand always remains consistent.