Branding Startups

A Process Roadmap

by Brenton Smith

PART 1

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From “THE IDEA” to “THE BRAND”

Startups often have “THE IDEA” that they hope will make them the next big company to watch. However, many start-ups are at a loss as to how to brand their company and reach their audience.

This is where a professional brand team comes in. A brand agency helps companies in many industries and stages of life. Start-ups are near and dear to Station16’s heart; they are eager, driven, scrappy, confident, and ready to take on the world. This entrepreneurial spirit is infectious. Our team often thinks of ourselves as start-up founders. We have helped launch a number of start-ups over the years, including a handful of our own ventures. It takes focus, commitment, and an attention to detail to make it work.

Start-ups that stay focused learn quickly that grit, determination, and ingenuity can make all the difference. Your brand and marketing are part of the recipe for success. Your brand needs to be working for you 24/7, so that your ground game can be strong.

Where do you start? How do you create a brand that will stand? Take a risk, and let other people into your vision for the company and help you build the story you want to tell. The most successful companies are those that add to their story. They bring in diverse perspectives and insights and use those to make the company stronger.

Engaging a brand agency broadens your team and brings in more eyes and ears to help you voice your brand story more powerfully and effectively than you can alone. A brand agency builds brands, so that you can build software, services, goods, and processes.

Let’s map out a brand formation experience for a start-up. What some call brand development, we refer to as BRAND FORMATION. They are similar, but also distinctively different. See our Brand Formation article for more on that.

In Brand Formation for Start-ups, we recommend the following process and workflow with your Brand Agency Partner.

Collaborate

Discover

A great brand agency partner invests in your story, getting to know you as well as your company’s needs and goals.

Inquire

A brand agency partner works with you to define and identify your audience. Knowing your audience is key to your brand. With a clearly defined audience in mind, your brand partner can craft a message and a brand that connects most effectively with the target audience.

Plan

Your brand agency partner will help you develop a plan that maximizes your timeline, budget, and brand to reach your target audience quickly.

Ideate

Offer

What are you offering your audience? Why should they do business with you? Define the Pain Points, Value Props and ideal Customer Experience for your audience. Resources: Strategy Canvas and Customer Journey Maps can also be very helpful here.

Message

How should you approach your audience? Your message needs to be authentic and sincere for people to relate and connect. How are you speaking to their felt need and offering a promise that they believe?

Create

Identity

Core Logo, as well as an Identity System (supporting visual elements, icons, colors, typefaces/fonts, etc)

Collateral

Design content in some of the core vehicles you will use to reach and interact with your audience. This could be everything from business cards to an email template. Every business has different needs. They can be better defined and expanded as you prepare for launch and distribution.

Content

Web, Social and Content: design and build the brand site, and customize social channels. Create a plan for how to use your site and channels and create content to fit that plan. This could be everything from original photography, to graphics, to animations and videos and more. You and your brand partner can define the need, scope and execution.

Once you have built your brand, you have to launch it and tell the world that you are open for business. There are many ways to do this, particularly for a start-up. We’ll cover the launch and more in an upcoming article.

Part 2 Launch + Distribute + Iterate

(future article)

Brenton Smith

Co-Founder + Creative Director

Brenton is driven to help build strategies and creative for brands that helps them grow and fulfill their goals.

More about Brenton on our team page.

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