Strategic brand management, orbranding, is one of the steps you must undertake if you want your brand to be known. It is a continuous management process that will help you to create your start-up brand, prepare it for the market and maintaining it in the market.
Your start-up is your idea, you know all about it! Positioning, as an integrated part of branding, is all
about knowing:
•who you are as a business
•to well your target market
•exactly what differentiates your business from your competitors
You must fully know and understand your target market, including: who they are, what interest they have, what do they need, what do they like to do. Here are some tips of tools to conduct your target study.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE What makes you different from the others?
You must also study your competition and learn from their branding. See how they communicate, how they interact with their audiences. Doing so, you can find a way to stand out.
BRAND MESSAGE What is your core idea?
You must have a clear mind about your start-up values and mission. This is actually the starting up of your branding. Learn more about it on Unit 3 – Telling your story.
VISUAL AND VERBAL IDENTITY How do you want to be known?
You must have a captivating image and language. This is all about having a great logo/symbol, a good name, a catchy slogan. If you are not a designer, then trust on professionals to make your start-up look professional.
ONLINE PRESENCE Where do you want to be seen?
You must choose the right digital channels and tools (e.g. website, social media, SEO) to affirm your digital identity. Learn more about it on Unit 4 – Go further with your branding strategy.
MANAGEMENT PRACTICES How are you going to do it?
You must have a concrete business plan where you can define all your brand management practices. Follow a plan so that everything works in the best way possible.
In practical terms, positioning is a brief statement where you will describe:
•your start-up product or service
•your target market
•how your product or service will answer the needs of the target market.
When writing your positioning statement keep it clear, simple and concise.
THE FORMULA
For <your target market> who<target market needs><Your brand>is a <product or service category>That<main benefit of your product>. Unlike<what competitive alternatives does your brand offer>, <Your brand><what is your brand primary differentiation>.
PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
For World Wide Web Userswhoenjoy books, Amazonis a retail booksellerthatprovides instant access to over 1.1 million books. Unliketraditional book retailers, Amazon provides a combination of extraordinary convenience, low prices and comprehensive selection.
When writing your start-up positioning statement you have already identified what sets your product or service apart from the competition. It is all about that uniqueness only you can provide, plus the way you do it. It is all about standing out! There are many ways you can do it:
Your brand name can sum up all your start-up ideas and goals. Choosing a good name can be a creative challenge or an EUREKA moment! In any case here a some guidelines to have in hand.
When selecting a name you can choose from:
â‘ using your own name as the inventor and creator of the start-up
Branding is not only about the image, but it surely is a vital aspect. As it says: looks matter! You will need a strong level and solid visual design. Features like the logo, the colours, the fonts and typography will define your brand identity. If designing is not your major skill then you must consider ask for professional help.
Theseoptions include free versions so you can explore them and start learning. When feeling comfortable, go for premium versions as it includes professional features.
In any case, try and search for options that better suit your purpose.
Brand storytelling is a powerful marketing strategy. Telling the story of your brand is a good way of differentiating yourself from other brands. Even if you are not good at writing stories, you can easily pull down a narrative answering these key questions:
â‘ Who you are?
â‘¡What do you do?
â‘¢Why you do it?
â‘£How you do it?
⑤Where you are headed?
People don’t buy from companies. They buy from people. Find your unique voice. (Michel Unter)
These three elements are essential when creating and telling a clear, simple and straightforward story.
Create a brand persona, it can be a person, a character, a mascot or even an idea. You can built your story around it.
Pay attention to your brand “voice”, the sum of features that communicate your brand, the different languages you use to tell your story (e.g. your positioning statement).
Have a well structured visual language, which includes not only your logo but also a set of combined design elements (e.g. colours, fonts, illustrations, photography, videos).
You create a story to connect with your target audience but when it comes to stay in your customers' mind you have to create a slogan and a tagline.
Tagline
Slogan(s)
MacBook Pro: “A touch of genius.”
AirPods: “Wireless. Effortless. Magical.”
iPad: “Like a Computer. Unlike any computer.”
It is easy to see the difference. Your start-up tagline is a short sentence that defines your brand. A slogan can be created when you want to advertise a specific product or service.
At this phase you already know all about your start-up brand heart, your goals, mission and vision, your target audience, your promise, etc. You have already understood your target market needs and study your competition. Having this you can start creating your brand tagline.
Creative process
Alternative process
â‘ Brainstorm and search for other examples of taglines that could relate to your business
â‘¡Write a paragraph about your start-up (e.g. who you are, what you do, for who you do it and how you do it)
â‘¢Narrow it down to one sentence, like a Tweet (280 characters)
â‘£ Make it even shorter, with not more than five words
⑤ Test it and check for any similarities with other taglines
â‘¥ Match it with your logo to see if it works
If you feel stuck on the creative process use some online tag generators, it can be a good exercise to visualise words make combinations of words from where you can choose your tagline:
There are many options from which you can choose to share your brand story. The key is to pic the one that works for you and that is in line with your branding strategy and available resources.
Parisian love by Google
You can use online articles or white papers to share your brand. Just make sure your story is motivating and compelling. You can place it on your start-up website and for example keep a journal.Use online tools like ISSUU to create professional digital brochures.
Videos are always the best option to share a story. It can be a simple or a complex process. If you want to improve your digital skills take good pictures and create a video from scratch. Open Short Video Editor is a great option. You can also use online templates for video creation (Vimeo) but there is a risk of someone else using the same model.
From management processes, writing down narratives to logo design, branding requires a set of essential skills that makes you use digital devices and tools, handle information by creating, editing and communicating. It can’t all fall into one person. But you need to know exactly what skills are involved and manage which ones you are willing to improve.
Digital project management
This is a transversal skill. Aside mastering the basics of project management processes (planning, executing, monitoring and closing), you must know some digital management methods like Agile and Scrum.
Agile uses iterative or phased planning and continuous integration throughout the life of the project.
Scrum proposes principles and processes to improve delivery.
Knowing how to effectively manage your projects is both timely and cost-effective. Have in mind that these management methodologies take time to learn. You should invest in a certificate training.
Digital marketing
This is a highly demand skill. It includes having knowledge of marketing and communication strategies plus mastering tools and platforms that will help you maintain your brand online.
Digital marketing is when you apply marketing and communication strategies to promote products or services using digital channels like websites, blogs, social media, mobile apps.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) You need your customers to find you!
SEO consists of a set of strategies and techniques to optimise websites or blogs so they can be easily read by search engines like Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo. You can learn SEO at your own pace, there are several free online courses. Start at SEO Learning Center by Moz or with Google’s SEO Starter Guide.
Social media Not only for fun!
Your customers are all in social media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Google+, Sanpchat, Pinterest). You must master the skill of creating professional accounts to not only sell products or services but to engage with your target market.
These are powerful tools to create content, amplify content and a complement to other content strategies (e.g. blogs, videos).
E-mail personal and direct interaction!
E-mail marketing is how you communicate with your audience or leads through a simple e-mail. It sounds outdated but e-mail marketing still is a very useful tool, specially for start-ups as it is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies. It is the automation of your communication that will allow you to programme your e-mails and messages accordingly some key features. Start with MailChimp!
Digital business analysis
“If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.” (Peter Drucker)
It is important to know what data to collect and then measure to keep improving your results. To start you don’t need to be an expert. For example, social media platforms have tools that allow you to track your posts and pages. You can get vital information of your audience demographic. Understanding you audience will allow you to make good choices for your business.
In a role as digital business analyst you must have knowledge of:
• business strategic processes
• customer experience
• agile processes
• stakeholders engagement
• strategic use of data
• general use of technology
• product management
Digital design
A good brand needs a consistent design.
This skill is probably the most complex one, it demands some graphic design knowledge. If you are not a professional designer, get familiar with tools that can help you with:
… Just imagine a city where traffic speeds along smoothly and quietly, even at rush hour — this is my dream…This is our ultimate vision of the future… Smarter transportation with fewer cars and greater access.” We aspire to make transportation as reliable as running water, everywhere and for everyone.(Travis Kalanick, Co-founder)
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