Brand for start-ups

In honour of the new smartcompany.com.au site, today’s blog is dedicated to brand for start-up businesses.

There are a lot of snake oil salesmen out there. People who will happily tell you that they can “create” you a brand that will launch your new business into the marketplace with a sizzle and a bang.

Of course, what they are talking about is a campaign and some basic identity elements – the brand markers that I’ve talked about before. But buyer beware and definitely don’t be fooled. What you are buying is NOT a brand, because the simple fact is you can’t buy one.

You can only build a brand action by action, decision by decision, over time. Read any book by successful entrepreneurs and the story they tell about their brands is remarkably consistent.

What you can do as a start-up is be deliberate about what you are building. Be clear about your intent and put in place the foundation elements that will over time deliver you a brand.

First foundation element. Figure out what your core beliefs are. What is important to you and why? Are you like Apple and put design and user experience above all else? What will you trade on and what is a non-negotiable? Are you like Patagonia and protecting the environment is the most important thing even if it means your products will be a bit more expensive.

Whatever your beliefs are, act against them and embed them in your decision-making processes. Hire people who share the same beliefs, contrary to what many say I don’t believe you can “teach” people to share your beliefs, they either get it or they don’t.

Shared beliefs from the outset lead to strong core values downstream and that is the foundation of the kind of “cult like cultures” that are the hallmark of great brands. That starts on day one.

Second foundation element. Spend time asking yourself what is the motivation behind starting the business – what is your why? Too many times when I ask that question the answer is “to make money” – well that’s a bit of a given. Unless you are starting a social enterprise or non-profit, being profitable is a condition of staying in business. However, it is the result of everything else you do, not the reason why you do it.

To quote start-up guru Guy Kawasaki: “if you make meaning you will probably make money, but if you set out to make money you will probably not make meaning and you will not make money.”

Getting a handle on your “why” is probably the single most important foundation for your brand. Without it you will struggle to position what you are doing in your marketplace. You will find it hard to hire the right people. You will continually be pushed around by from hype to spin and back again. Taking the time to understand your why will be the single most important time you will spend – and no one can do it for you. Don’t outsource it, don’t even be tempted to.

Last foundation element. Answer the questions: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? And how are we doing it? They will help you to understand and position yourself in your marketplace.

What are you jumping into? Know what else is out there, not so you can copy it, nor so you can “differentiate” against it, but so you can be deliberate (there’s that word again) about what you are doing.

Whether you want to disrupt the status quo, slot into a niche no one else has noticed, or just provide a legitimate option to something already out there, you can’t begin to build your brand if you don’t know your environment.

So with apologies to all the snake oil salesmen out there – that’s how start-up businesses get a brand. No magic creative elixir, just understand the foundations of what you believe, why you are starting the business and your positioning in the marketplace you plan to enter. Align everything you are doing to support those things and in a few years you will have something that could begin to be called a brand.

Good luck!

See you next week.

Michel Hogan is a Brand Advocate. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia and in the United States, she helps organisations recognise who they are and align that with what they do and say, to build more authentic and sustainable brands. She also publishes the Brand thought leadership blog – Brand Alignment.