15 Questions Every Start-Up Should Answer When Creating Their Branding Strategy |
Posted: August 28, 2019 |
15 Questions Every Start-Up Should Answer When Creating Their Branding StrategyAs part of the marketing strategy, the process of creating and implementing the new brand, or branding strategy, is perhaps one of the most important steps for any start-up. The brand will represent your company to the world (your future clients, consumers, providers, shareholders, distributors, and employees are just some examples). Here are 15 questions to get you started before you start designing your entire branding strategy:
Try to define a clear brand purpose for your new start-up. Why did you start this business in the first place except for selling a product or service? Will this purpose be welcomed by your consumers? What does your start-up stand for? What part of today’s society can the start-up improve? Try to search for something bigger than functional solutions. The purpose should be meaningful, emotional and bring people together. Click here to find more information about brand purposes and examples from global brands.
What are the strengths of your business? Is it a technical experience? A very qualified work force? A perfect customer service? A totally new and innovative product? Or a very solid industry knowledge? These are just a few examples, but they will make you realize what will seduce your future stakeholders. List them all and make sure your future brand promise will be backed up by these assets and skills.
Think of your future consumers. Who are they? What do they like? How do they behave? Why do they need your product? On the other side – who will you not do business with? Be specific and choose your niche. Your brand will need to attract and reach these future consumers in both a functional and emotional way.
Open the industry as much as you can. You can be selling biscuits and be in both the snacking and breakfast industries. A clothing brand can be in the clothing industry, but also be part of the rock & roll world depending on the style of the brand. Another example are Moleskine notebooks which have always claimed to be part of the “creative” industry (not just the notebook industry). This is why the brand recently opened a café for the creatives, to extend its presence in this industry.
And can you see how that offer can extend and transform over time?? Make sure you understand what you are selling and how it can evolve over time. Anticipate future trends and possible product extensions or evolutions.
Who else is trying to target these consumers? What do they sell, what are their strengths and weaknesses? List all possible competitors and analyze their behavior on the market. It’s important to think bigger than the product category. For example, cereal brands are competing with both other products from the cereal category, but also other breakfast products such as fruits, yoghurts, pancakes or bacon.
What is the extra value you will be bringing to the industry in order to attract your future consumers? What territory can you enter in order to be different from your competitors but still be relevant to your consumers? Here it is important to define what problem you are solving for your future customers.
Think of your future brand as a person. Is your brand going to be friendly? Glamorous? Sophisticated? Classic? Modern? Trendy? Ethical? Sporty? Is it going to speak in an approachable way? Or is it going to be more serious/humorous/professional?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|