DEFINING YOUR BRAND - From a Great Product to a Great Brand pt.1
We were invited by SETsquared, the world’s No1 University Business Incubator, to run a workshop for 15 startups on the principles underpinning the creation of a brand.
Prior to the event, SETsquared and Firehaus had shared their views on how startups will attract investment and ultimately scale. Central to that is moving from product focus to brand focus.
Entrepreneurs have quite naturally given most, if not all, of their energy on creating a product to build a business on. They’re probably experts in their chosen sector and certainly experts in the features of their product and the gap it may fill in the market.
What they’re not often experts in is succinctly articulating this to an audience that can exponentially grow.
We see the journey from early adoption to scale being catalysed by becoming a brand. And it’s in becoming a brand that this hard work begins.
But this imperative starts with a warning!
According to the Havas Group Meaningful Brands report of 2019 report, 81% of brands could disappear and European consumers wouldn’t care. It doesn’t get much better when you look globally either, with the figure at 77%.
So it’s not a journey to begin lightly and certainly not without independent, objective inputs.
Here’s a summary of From a Great Product to a Great Brand – Episode 1.
First up – what is a brand?
Contrary to popular belief, even amongst many marketers, a brand is not a logo. an identity, or a product. It’s a promise.
As expert author and international speaker, Marty Neumeier puts it,
‘a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization’. He goes on ‘A brand is not what you say it is, it’s what they (your customers) say it is … it lives in the hearts and minds of people’
For us, it’s a symbol of consistency, authenticity and trust. It personifies intangible values.
In the oft used quote (not least by me) attributed to Maya Angelou, this ‘heart and mind’ is positioned beautifully.
‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’
So to get started work through these three provocations.
Provocation 1 – Why does your business exist?
Based on shifting your focus from product to brand – from the features that matter to you to what matters to your customers – what problem does your business solve? How will customers position your business in their lives?
Provocation 2 – Who the hell do you think you are?
As Angelou noted, ‘people will never forget how you made them feel’. So the behaviour of your brand is critically important. This will ultimately permeate your culture and communications.
One useful framework you can use to help you come to a solution is Brand Archetypes. There are many excellent articles about this, but you might start with this good explanatory piece.
Provocation 3 – Do you have a cunning plan?
What is the mission that’s driving your business forward? The mission that will sit at the heart of your brand? Here are a few we’ve produced for brands in their growth phase.
To radically update the digital infrastructure currently underpinning the global economy, making it secure against future threats.
Simplify the process for purpose-ready businesses to find and fund community projects – and demonstrate the results.
Vittoria
To make the most advanced bicycle tyres in the world.
Provocation 4 – What’s your dream?
It’s frequently pointed out that during his famous speech on August 28 1963, Martin Luther King did not say ‘I have a strategy!’
King had a dream, a vision that others could share and buy into. What’s yours? What’s the mission of your business? What will the future look like when you achieve it?
Work through these four provocations. They look easy. They’re not. But winning in business doesn’t generally come easy.
And get in contact if you get stuck or if you’d like to share your results. We’d love to hear how you get on.