New Business Startups: Is Brand Dead?

This is more of a musing than anything else I guess, and it stems from a lot of the new client meetings we have here at The Design Loft, specifically with business startups.

Invariably we get people coming through the door looking for a new website, some printed collateral and some help with their marketing – whether that’s strategy or physical “doing the work”. We also get the usual SEO, PPC and online marketing enquiries from people who have either heard the buzz words (sorry, I hate that phrase) or have a genuine need for these services.

The only reason that I say all of that is that there is usually a huge lack of focus put on the branding or corporate identity of the startup.

Do Business Startups Value The Importance Of Their Fledgling Brand?

This lack of consideration of branding somewhat astounds me if I’m honest.

We always recommend that a new business sits down, defines it’s market, thinks about how best to get to that market and then start thinking up brand identity right from the get go. It seems obvious to me, but to be fair, I am in the industry.

Some key things that these new startups seem to just forget are relatively simple things; things like:

• how should I talk to my audience?
• what medium will work best when trying to target my audience, based on their demographic?
• what kind of colour palette does my industry command when I consider how my company will look, if indeed it does at all?
• can I afford to set myself apart based on the individual image and identity I choose, or will that alienate my target market – should I instead fall in with the obvious?
• do I have a company logo, brand mark and identity; and does than run across all of my marketing collateral – be it online, offline or otherwise?

Branding A Startup Business – Lostop Or Logo?

Let’s take the example of a typical Barnsley web design client who is starting a new business.

The conversation usually goes down this kind of route:

Hi there, I’m Mr Purple and I’m starting this fantastic new business up selling widgets. I need a new website for the business and some leaflets to send out, can you help please?

And the answer is yes, yes we can.

But…

Our reaction is normally to ask:

Ok, tell me about your company – what you do, why you do it, who are you talking to or aiming at dealing with. And more importantly, tell me about your brand; do you have a logo for example and are you pitching in as the cheapest around, the best around or both?

The client is normally ok with the first couple of points, but after that it tends to get a little grey.

Much of the time the client really hasn’t thought about the rest of it – they just “need” a website but actually don’t want to invest in a logo design, corporate identity or branding strategy.

When we mention a fresh and appealing logo to these new startups, we usually get the following response:

Well we can always add a logo later can’t we, we can’t really afford it right now.

Invest In The Brand or The Collateral?

Ok, fair enough – cash is always tight for a startup business but is it worth investing in a quality brand and spending a little less on the website?

Let’s be objective about this; a new business will typically evolve over the course of, say, the first year. It will usually evolve into something that’s not quite a true reflection of how the business was initially envisaged.

This means that the investment you put into the website on day 1 will actually need to be inflated to account for the evolution of the business being reflected on the web.

Instead, it makes me wonder if it’s worth investing that time and money into a solid and marketable brand and taking a step back with the website until the company has evolved into more or less what it will be for the next 10 years?

In Closing…

I try to help people with their business from the ground up, we don’t just give out websites and leave the business to it – we invest our time and effort in helping to make that business a success.

And so, I’d love to know your thoughts on how new startups can be helped in realising the importance of a quality brand and corporate identity, instead of seeing it as a bit of a luxury or something that’s for the “bigger businesses”.

Love to hear your thoughts in the comments.