I recently served as a branding advisor for a one-day workshop called Path 2 Branding organized by Inner City Advisors. Advisors like me were paired with small business owners from the Bay Area and together each team discussed the company’s brand and opportunities to strengthen them.
One of the really cool outcomes of the event was the collection of advice from each of the advisors to the question:
What’s one piece of branding advice that you’d give to entrepreneurs whose small businesses are in the early stages of growth?
Here are the answers for you to learn from:
“1) Listen to your customer. Make sure you’re designing for a clear human need. 2) Stay focused. The best start ups do one thing well and build from there. 3) Live in beta. Prioritize bringing experiences to the world quickly vs. lingering in the planning stages. They are invaluable opportunities to learn and hone your offering. And don’t forget, design is never done. Find a way to tap into your customer’s feedback around your offering and use it to iterate, refine and grow your business.”
Heather Emerson, Senior Program Lead at IDEO
“The early stages of growth present a unique opportunity to infuse your brand into all aspects of your growing organization. Think about how your operations, partnerships and customer touch-points all can work together to reinforce the core values you bring to your customer.”
Jason Lorentzen, Business Designer at IDEO
“Clarity and conviction are incredibly powerful. Knowing who you are, why you’re in business, and what you’re hoping to bring to your customers is how you create connections and build your business.”
Jill Levinsohn, Business Lead at IDEO
“Communicate a brand that honestly conveys who you and your team represents. From a design point-of-view, your brand is a visual way you engage your customers and tell a visual story about who you are and what you represent. Be introspective and thoughtful and understand who you are – this will help to clearly define your company philosophy, values, and narrative. Then, bring on a designer that can help you use color, typography, and visual language to communicate this aesthetically.”
Nastasha Tan, Senior Interaction Designer at IDEO
“Be bold. There are a million distractions for prospective clients out there, to cut through the clutter you have to be bold and grab their attention. One of my favorite simple tests is the following: is your branding/communications/marketing expected or unexpected? And is it relevant or irrelevant to your prospects? If it’s not BOTH relevant AND unexpected, then you aren’t trying hard enough and will be drowned out by your competitors.”
Julian Aldridge, VP Branding and Activation at Charles Schwab
“Know what makes your brand unique.”
Lisa Meares, Managing Director, Brand Strategy at Charles Schwab
“In the realm of branding and design, “good enough” very rarely is…and most of us aren’t even qualified to know it when we see it. A well-defined brand and professionally-developed visual identity is one of the best investments a startup or small business can make. It will help them to better understand their Mission, and enable them to project inordinate credibility and sophistication to potential customers, vendors, partners, and mentors. Don’t skimp on brand or visual identity!”
Andrew Sather, Chief Creative Officer, Managing Partner at SPAN Agency
“Your brand is the shortest distance between your dreams and the hearts of your customers. Draw a straight line, make it clear and never stop redrawing it.”
Jason Turner, Chief Executive Officer, Managing Partner at Span Agency
“Harness the vision. At no other point in the future, will you be so close to the original intent that became this endeavor. Vision happens at the very beginning, and is motivating enough to change careers, drop everything, move a family, etc. Vision is powerful, and it’s important to understand why it is powerful, and then be convicted to bring it to life without compromising, while still balancing the challenges that will undoubtedly occur. Do the work (which starts here and now) to harness the vision and refine it into the form of purpose which will act as a guide for every single decision you make, from the biggest decisions, to the absolute smallest decisions. Every single thing you do matters, and without this foundation, it is much more difficult to relive the excitement you had at the beginning which got you to this place you are now.”
Chris Robb, Partner, InHouse Creative
“You’re going to have a brand wether you create it or not. If it’s not something you proactively define then your customers (and non-customers) will define it for you. New business owners often think they can’t afford design — but the choice isn’t between design and no design; it’s between good design and bad design. Find a design partner who can help you tell your story.”
Christopher Simmons, Principal, MINE™
“The biggest challenge you will face is trying to get your customer’s attention. Your competitors are trying to do it and so are a million other businesses and causes. People today are so inundated with messaging and advertisements and pitches, that we have become really good at tuning them out. The solution is: be different. Human beings are hard wired to notice what is different. Be different, and your brand will be a little less easy to ignore.”
Alex Ryan, Co-Founder, Distill
“Stay focused, and be unique. In branding if you don’t know what your company stands for neither will your customers, and if that idea isn’t different enough from your competitors they probably won’t care.”
Amadeo DeSouza, Co-Founder, Distill
“Know what success looks like to you. Have a plan but be ready to adapt that plan to changing market conditions. Be flexible but don’t lose sight of our vision. Have fun.”
Carrie Holt, Brand Manager, Chevron Products Company
“Nail down a strong positioning statement before developing any branding or marketing strategies. It is imperative to understand your category, your competition, your target audience, and your point of difference.”
Brady Mullin, Partner, Strategy at Dean Rath
“First and foremost, know your product or service. That will help your branding communicate in the simplest, most memorable way possible.”
Jon Hicks, Partner, Creative at Dean Rath
“A brand = name + emotion. In order to elicit emotions among your customers, strive to help them change. This means you should help them to become somebody new or to feel something desirable (fun, love, success, status, sex, revolutionary fervor, etc), even if only for a moment. Your message and communication should always reinforce your brand’s theme of change.”
Gary Sanchez, Independent Consultant
“Take some thought early on with your business in positioning of your product or service. Key elements to consider include:
• Identify your target audience – Who do you serve? Who are your customers?
• Define your point of difference – How are you different?
• Determine your Frame of Reference – Who are we? What business are you in?”
Ed Macias, Senior Brand Marketing and Innovation Professional / Brand Strategist Consultant, Windsor Foods
“Branding is not your logo, your colors or your typeface. Branding is the ecosystem that reinforces what people feel about your product or service.”
Jeffrey Tanhueco, Art Director/Designer at Majorminor
“A brand is born from the inside out. Decoration can’t save a bad product, but design can.”
Rob Martin, Principal at Majorminor
“Define who you are today and it will guide and inspire your development over the long haul.”
Sherri Pittman, Executive Vice President, Metropolitan Group
“Articulate the deeper purpose behind your business and what it stands for. Ensure that what ‘you personally stand for’ and what ‘your business stands for’ are congruent. Customers certainly buy products & services based on features and benefits that fit their needs. But before all of that, they first tune in and make a decision based on the resonance of your values and theirs. When you integrate these deeper elements of your brand into your communications, you set yourself up to attract more of the right customers.”
Ryan Rigoli, Co-Founder of Soulful Brand
“Avoid hubris. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking, “Our product is great and it will sell itself – why so much fuss about branding?” I’ve often heard this kind of remark from start-ups, especially when dealing with products developed by “left brain clients” such as engineers, software developers and financial services companies. While the benefit of your product or service may be crystal clear to you, don’t assume the same is true for your prospective customers. George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Having the right branding is crucial to creating a durable connection with your customers.”
Michael Llewellyn-Williams, Founder of BrandMechanics Inc.
“Manage your passion. You started a business because your passionate about it. But understand that passion doesn’t instantly pass on to consumers, understand that its is through consistent, thoughtful and strategic branding that this transfer of passion happens. “If you build it they will come” does not apply here.”
Mashama Carter-Thompson, Art Director at 510media
“Be sure you can answer this question: “What problem are you trying to solve for whom?” In other words, who needs what you have to offer and why do they need it?”
Mary Jo Cook, Chief Impact Officer at Fair Trade USA
“Stay true to who you are. Stay focused on your mission and values and resist temptation to expand outside of your core competencies and “reason for being.” It is important to establish your identity through consistent presentation of your brand–clearly stand for something in the mind of the consumer.”
Julie Palley, Board Vice President at East Bay College Fund
“Be clear not only with what your brand is about, but more importantly, what it is not.”
Judy Chen, Chief Marketing Officer at Earthbound Farm