The Secret Behind Big Brands And How Entrepreneurs Can Learn From It

Fabian Geyrhalter — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:27:19 +0000

This was one of many topics I was asked about by a croatian startup site prior to the speech I gave two nights ago at the University of Zagreb for the Founder Institute. The interview was published in croatian, which you can peruse here if you speak the language (and want to analyze and help me understand why the Backstreet Boys invaded my Brand Atmosphere), but for the rest of you, here it is:

Startups, especially the ones you will be talking to in Zagreb, are mainly in their early stages. Do they even need branding in that stage? If they do – what kind of branding do they need?

You can never start thinking about branding early enough. Branding is the DNA of your new venture. An idea is only an idea until it is generating revenue, so basically an idea without an audience is worthless and in order to connect with, and build an audience you need to brand your venture: Position your venture in a manner that connects with your audience, craft a name that reflects the positioning, then translate it into a powerful overall brand identity that sparks emotion.

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Fabian Geyrhalter speaking at the University of Zagreb for the Founder Institute, October 22, 2014

How can you brand yourself online when you are still a small startup, with a very small team and a limited budget?

You brand yourself by walking the walk: by representing the positioning of your startup, by talking in the right way to the right audience. That can be done without monetary expenses, if the brand positioning has been done the right way. You can learn about the 5 ingredients to a strong brand foundation here.

When is the right time to hire someone (or a company) to help with branding?

Hire a consultant before you make decisions on the positioning and the name. After that you could bootstrap, if you truly need to, and conduct a complete re-branding/branding upon receiving funding or customer traction. Do be aware though that when you decide to go lean on branding it will be harder to find traction and funding, and that customers quickly get attached to your branding, especially as a new company, so once you decide to invest in proper branding you will have to re-educate your audience on the new ‘you,’ hence I advise to work with professionals from the get-go if at all possible.

Can you put together some sort of “emergency branding kit” for startups? What would that “kit” be made of?

Absolutely, and I provide more in-depth tips on each topic through these links:

1. A powerful positioning statement

2. A meaningful name

3. A timeless brand identity design

4. A website that resonates

Last but not least create only a few social media channels, only the ones that A) work for your audience and that B) you will update frequently (daily, or every other day).

It gets really difficult for a startup to choose their company name. It has to be unique, it has to be international, it needs to mean something. How do you achieve all of that and more with just one word?

It’s tough, but it’s do-able. All it takes is time and the right guidance. It’s one of the most important branding tasks, so don’t give up quickly and cheat by settling for the ‘wrong’ domain name (anything not .com as a rule of thumb – some guidance on that topic here), or a misspelled name (think ‘lyft’). You can, but it will weaken your brand’s strength, its searchability, spread by word of mouth and it often makes it more costly to purchase the .com domain later on as a recognized company.

How can a startup’s target audience help with forming a brand? What kind of feedback can that audience provide and how can a startup brand create an emotional connection with their potential customers?

Startups often have an idea, then search for an audience. That audience in turn tells the startup what they actually use that idea (product/app/service) for and the startup adjusts its offering to the new audience, and the new usage of its offering. Happens all the time. I preach to startups to be very clear about their audience from the get go. Only if you truly understand a few target ‘personas’ can you focus on them and connect with them emotionally, and emotion is what branding, and often selling, is all about. Once you connect, you tell the audience what they will love, not vice versa.

What is the secret behind those huge, well known and beloved brands and what can small startups learn from them?

Most huge brands got there because they filled a void (innovated at the right time) or had a better offering, but they all connected with their audience on a deep emotional level. So the ‘secret’ that I believe startups can adapt from the big guys is to invest in what’s most important: your audience. Most startups don’t invest in branding at all, instead they pour all their resources into product development.

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The Main Obstacle That Stands Between You And A Successful Brand Identity

Fabian Geyrhalter — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 19:02:20 +0000

You created a robust business (or launch) plan and a solid brand platform. You hired a great branding firm to tackle the important task of creating a brand identity on time and on budget. What could possibly go wrong?

There’s one thing that can come between you and a winning brand identity: You.

Before you start your hate mails, think about it with me for a second. You have superior taste in art and design. You know your new service or product better than anyone else. You need to see it succeed. How could you possibly turn into a road block? Because of exactly these reasons you will want to create a brand identity that you will like. Colors that speak to you, shapes you like, a concept that resonates with you, fonts that feel current to you. That’s a whole lot of ‘you’ even though this is not at all about you, it’s about Julian, Rich and Adrienne. Your target personas. What you need to like is that your new brand identity will resonate and be liked by them.

Will you like the new brand identity design? You surely should. Does it matter if orange is your color and that you prefer sans serif typefaces? No, it does not. Nor does it matter what the Designer or Creative Director ‘likes’. What matters behind every creative decision is why it was made and how it will further improve adaptation by your customer. This is extremely difficult as an entrepreneur, or even CMO, to personally detach from, but it is what will make the brand ID a success for your audience and in turn for yourself.

Meet Adrienne: Excerpts from a Brand Platform for a FINIEN client depicting Target Persona A

We advise our clients to dive deep into 3-5 target personas with us. We give them names, research and ‘listen’ to them. We encourage our more advantageous clients to create life size cardboard figures of them to place around the office. Next time you nod your head during a creative presentation and say ‘I like this, the colors are beautiful, the type is cool and the concept really resonates with me,’ take a step back and say ‘Adrienne would really like this, these colors disrupt her world just enough to stand out and I see her adopting the icon easily.’ You will like what you ~~see~~ say.

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