6 steps to successfully building your start-ups brand
As a founder there’s a constant juggle trying to understand what’s best to do for your startup, nonprofit, charity or B Corp. It’s stressful and really can take a lot of courage to keep going.
Often there’s a strong push and pull between what you should invest in - a good accountant, the product, software, branding, packaging, a website - where do you even begin?
Now, having worked with a number of startups over the years, we’ve been able to see what makes the ones that last special - when it comes to building their brands. So we thought we’d share what we’ve observed and learned along the way.
Step 1: First things first
Create your MVP - a minimum viable product. What’s the basic product or service of your business that you know works, and that you know there’s desire and demand for? This is the part to invest your blood, sweat and tears into before anything else. Without it you won’t know if you have a viable business.
Things to think about here:
What is the purpose of what I’m creating?
Is there proof people are interested in a business like mine?
What makes my product or service different?
What does this look like in its most basic form for me to test and get off the ground?
Step 2: Start with the foundation
Once you know your MVP has demand, we really would recommend investing in your brand strategy and the tools that will make it easier for you to sell or promote your business, while you build recognition for that business. Brand strategy is about thinking long term and really considering what the business stands for. The aim being that whatever is discovered in this process helps to guide the rest of the business in how it looks and how it functions.
Things to think about here:
What’s your vision - what’s the future you want to create with your brand?
What’s your USP?
What are your values - what do you stand for as a business?
What’s your mission - what are you doing in the world and how are you doing it?
Who are your target audiences and competitors - how will you stand out?
What’s your brand's personality - how should you aim to come across to your audience?
What’s your proposition - how do you convey what you’re about to your audience?
How do these things guide the rest of the business?
Well let’s take an example of a sustainable clothing brand - Perhaps the brand vision is that all clothes in the UK will be made sustainably in 20 years. That might mean that you have these values:
Everything in the business should be sustainable - to practice what you preach and inspire & encourage others.
Make sustainable fashion accessible - perhaps you do this through design (the way the brand looks, the way the clothes look and ensuring the clothes you make are durable) and price points (making sure they’re affordable) so sustainable fashion starts to reach larger audiences.
These values then may have a knock on effect on :
Your suppliers and who you employ and engage with.
The kind of packaging you end up using.
The kind of product lines you have.
Perhaps you want the way you speak to your audience to feel natural and friendly rather than preachy.
And perhaps you want the design of your brand to feel a particular way.
Having an understanding of your brand strategy is like having a map on where your business should focus.
Step 3: Invest in your brand identity
Step three then is to embody everything you stand for and infuse it into how you communicate both visually and through written or spoken word. A lot of businesses usually start with a basic logo for their branding. Now there’s nothing wrong with this - you work with what you have at your disposal and that’s why entrepreneurs are successful. But in this phase you’d be creating the visual and language tools you will use to create recognisable consistency alongside your strategic ‘map’.
Why is it worth getting a brand identity over a logo?
Well, as explained in our blog post here - a logo is a piece of the kit, but the identity is the full kit.
When done well this kit should last you a long time before you change it, it should grow alongside you and its job is to help you build brand recognition and equity, through consistent, clear and recognisable design and language. Having just the logo is a lot like having only a screwdriver when you’re doing a DIY project and you actually need a full tool belt.
So what’s should you expect at minimum in this kit?
A Logo - it should work in full colour and single colour. We would also argue it’s wise to make sure the logo work in a variety of lock-ups for optimal visability
Fonts
Colours
Usage Guidelines
When you have a well considered identity, this should make it easy to understand how your website could look, how your packaging could look, how your ads could look, how your product looks, how everything you put out into the world looks in a clear, consistent branded way. Which leads us onto our next step.
Step 4: Make sure your ‘home’ is recognisable
Now we’re putting the branding into action where you’re ensuring at any given point that you are 1. recognisable and 2. you make it easy for others to understand what you have to offer. Some things you might want to think about:
How does your website look?
Do you have a pitch deck?
If you have a product how does that embody your branding?
How does your packaging look?
How do your socials look?
What templates do you need?
Do you have stationery? and what do your emails look like?
If you have a physical space like a shop or restaurant - how does that space embody your branding?
Step 5: How do people find out about you?
Once you have your MVP, brand strategy, brand identity and ‘home’ set up - how will people find out about you in a way that’s right for your brand? It’s likely you’ll have a number of ways to share your business with the world - how can you instil your brand strategy into this process? Some things to think about:
Have you considered your marketing strategy?
Are there relevant and appropriate happenings in the world you can tap into to promote your business - Christmas for example?
Are there publications or websites you can pitch to?
Can you do guest features and guest articles?
How can you use your socials effectively?
Are there any events you can participate in?
What’s happening in your local area that you can join?
Can you create an event yourself?
Can you invest in paid for advertising and what’s the best way to approach it? (PS you can do way more than just advertise on Instagram).
Step 6: Use your learnings to build your brand
Once you have the basic components to work with, you have all you need to build the brand really.
When working with a designer you can ask for templates for your own team to work with, or why not work with them on retainer? So you can focus on the important stuff while you rely on an expert to help you get these things created. The important thing is really taking stock of what’s worked and what hasn’t, so you’re able to build on and adapt your strategies.
As a small business ourselves we understand how hard it can be to get started, so we hope you found this guide useful for finding the right starting points for each step in the process. It’s a worthwhile investment into the future of a business you know has a future.
And if you ever need a helping hand with your branding - please do get in touch for a free consultation. We the creative agency that grow brands and businesses by doing good in the world, and we always love to hear about new projects and meeting other founders.
At Kireli, we are the London Creative Agency that helps grow brands and businesses that want to do good in the world. If that sounds like the ethos of your brand or business, and you’re looking for a creative agency that also believes in doing good, get in touch. Let’s see how we can make the world a better place together – hei@kireli.studio
