Building your brand; a step-by-step guide for startups.

How important is your brand to the success of your business? As it turns out, it is extremely important. According to Bonfire, 91% of customers are more likely to choose a business that they feel is authentic with their branding. And it gets even better; a 2017 study found that 86% of customers say that brand authenticity is their most important reason for choosing a brand. 

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So it is obvious that to build a functional business, you need a proper brand. The good thing is that building an authentic brand isn’t rocket science, and this article is the best step-by-step guide for building that brand. 

How Do You Build a Brand 

Building a brand is like a fact-finding mission. You need to construct the right brand and presence for your brand out of thin air. The optimal brand identity for your startup empirically exists, and while building one requires some creativity, you cannot endlessly color outside the lines. There is a particular brand message and feel that suits your business goals and your customers the best, and your job as a founder is to find it; not invent it.

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There is no better example of this than Apple. In the mid-90s, Apple was merely a niche computer maker that was trying to survive in the market by making everything it could and giving people a plethora of choices. Steve Jobs returned in 1996 and plainly said; stop all the crap, and the rest is history. Apple could not have survived on its previous trajectory, and it took Steve Jobs to know it. As a founder, you probably don’t have Steve Jobs to help you say stop the crap. But you have yourself, and that is why it is super vital for you to go on this fact-finding mission to discover what your brand should be. 

Define a Brand Purpose

Building a brand is more than just making money. Of course, you can authentically build a business for just making money, but successful companies often have a deeper why to them. Why does your startup exist outside of just making money? Any venture can make money. Why did you choose this specific venture? This is the lighting that you have to get in a bottle to build an authentic business. 

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Afterward, you need to define a vision statement, which is figuring out what success looks like for your business long term. Where do you want your business to be in ten years? What impact do you think it would have made, outside of money, in those ten years? That is your brand purpose. 

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Understand Your Audience

Figuring out your brand purpose and understanding your audience are ideally two steps that should be embarked on at the same time. You need to understand what your audience wants from you if you want to build a brand that connects with them. If your target market doesn’t care for options and prefers simple solutions, then creating a brand purpose that sells your startup as a complicated behemoth is probably counterproductive. 

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Founders need to understand that their ideas, while theirs, need to be validated by the market. A good idea only becomes a great idea when the market validates it. Therefore, that interaction between your ideas and the market is necessary to create a functional brand that will outlive you. 

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That is why creating a brand message is an exercise in finding a middle ground between what is important to you and what is important to your consumers. One way to understand your audience is to send out simple Google form surveys or even just ask them questions to get a feel of what they need and what messaging will resonate the most with them. 

Analyze Your Competitors 

When we speak about the market we are often in danger of speaking like there are only two participants; the seller – you, and the buyer — your customer. But that is hardly true. There are at least three classes of participants in the market or four if you count the government. 

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The third participant in this context is your competitors. Do you have people who are selling the same service or products as you are and are generally speaking to the same audience? If not, great, you have to forge a new path. And if you do, it’s also great because you can now learn from the successes and failures of others. 

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You need to understand the brand messages of your most important competitors and then look for opportunities and gaps where they fall short. Is there something they are doing that you can do better? Is there something they are doing that you should avoid? Figuring out the answers to these questions should give you a clearer idea of what your brand messaging should be. 

Develop Your UVP

Even the best brands are nothing but aesthetics without substance if there is no unique value proposition nested within the brand. A brand isn’t just a cornucopia of looks and ideas. Any pop shop can sell that. A brand – or rather — a good brand is a differentiating metric. It is easily defined as what people remember when they think of your startup and what differentiates you from other options in the market. 

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You cannot have a full and authentic brand if you don’t have that unique value proposition nested in between it. Amazon, for example, has a brand that puts the customer first every time. Everyone can tell you that is what Amazon promises. That is their unique value. Amazon tells you this; anyone can deliver the fridge you ordered from Taiwan in a drunken haze in less than a week, but not everyone can give you the best customer care service while at it. 

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That is the level that your startup should aspire to if it is going to be a business that works.

Create Your Brand 

Now that you understand your brand purpose, understand the needs of your customers, understand what your competitors are offering, and know what your unique value propositions are, it is time to create your brand. 

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If you are a designer and have experience creating visual guidelines for businesses, then this part should be right up your alley. If you aren’t, you should probably speak to professionals who will help you create guidelines for visuals, messaging, and online marketing for your company. You cannot whisper what your brand message is into your customer’s ears — you have to go out there and market it.

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That is why it is important to hire marketing professionals for this part of your job. Of course, you should still supervise this entire process and offer clear and detailed instructions about what your brand is and what emotions it is supposed to elicit in people.

Act Your Brand

The easy part is creating a great brand and a fantastic message. Anyone can create the AWS logo and say they have the best customer service in the entire world. Anyone can say they want to deliver elegant and simple computers to the world. Any business can say whatever they want is their brand. Sears, for instance, has consistently branded itself as where America shops. But that is not true today and has not been true for a long time.

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Your brand is a promise. And the only time people are going to take your startup seriously is when you deliver on what your brand promises. Businesses cannot brand themselves as low-cost and then suddenly become more expensive than alternatives they aimed to disrupt. That is precisely what is happening to Air BnB for example. Once that happens enough times, people lose trust and pivot to other providers.   

Conclusion

By meticulously defining your brand purpose, understanding your audience, and developing a clear value proposition, you can differentiate yourself in a competitive market. Crafting a cohesive brand identity, including a memorable name, professional logo, and consistent visual elements, helps establish a recognizable and trustworthy presence. 

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As your startup grows, continuously monitor and evolve your brand based on feedback and market trends. Regularly seek input from customers, track performance metrics, and be prepared to adapt your strategies to stay relevant. Consistency and authenticity are key to maintaining a strong brand that resonates with your audience. By investing in your brand and staying true to your mission, you can build a lasting connection with your customers and set the stage for long-term success.

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