Designers can draft a logo. Building a brand is harder.
A BRAND CHANGES EVERYTHING. A brand gives your business a personality, it creates a face to the world that people can recognize and relate to, it gives your customers a sense of confidence and trust.
Do you even know what a brand is?
During my work with startups and growing businesses with Emory’s RAISE Forum and others, I see great ideas and business models every day that will never make it big. As soon as you say, “We’re going to be the Uber of <your thing here>,” you’ve tied a giant weight around your neck. You’re not a disrupter, you’re not unique, you’re not my friend.
A business without a brand is a commodity. A company without a new vision is a me-too. “We’re a cloud-based, SaaS platform that…” is a collection of code and software that’s being applied to a new category. That’s fine but you’ll always be selling features and pricing along with a bunch of other folks. Good luck!
A BRAND CHANGES EVERYTHING. A brand gives your business a personality, it creates a face to the world that people can recognize and relate to, it gives your customers a sense of confidence and trust. According to a former CEO of Proctor & Gamble (still one of the world’s best brands), “A brand anthropomorphizes your company,” turning your business from a sales organization into a friend of the family.
You might succeed without a brand. You might think that a logo, a website, and a color palette is a brand, and you might think that a VP of Sales and Marketing is what you need first to get your NewCo off the ground. I’m here to tell you that everyone from the CEO to the sales teams to the customer service folks will be more successful and more effective if you first take the time to develop your brand.
Your investor pitch will surely be better with a clear and compelling vision of your brand. And if you're not closing deals the way you think you should, look at your brand before your look at your prices.
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