Seven mistakes to avoid when thinking about early startup branding

The seven most common mistakes I see emerging tech companies make when tackling their brand.

1) Assuming your customers will understand your new idea immediately - If you’re building something innovative or in a new market, don’t expect customers to grasp your uses-case(s) straight away. The first investment of your messaging and brand expression should be about making sure your product offer is intuitive to understand and crystal clear at demonstrating what customers gain from it. Remove the clutter and communicate the benefits beautifully.

2) Starting with a name before values - Don’t try and retro-fit meaning to a name you’re attached to. If you haven’t worked out who you are and what your values, mission and purpose are - don't commit to any name. If you’re struggling to connect value to a name you like - so will your audience.

3) Branding the product features and not the outcome - You don’t see airlines selling plane seats. They sell the beach. What is your beach? Brand that outcome as your unique personality and customer advantage!

4) Not researching the competition's brand values - Don’t create Pinterest boards of what you want to look like. Create inspiration for what your customer needs in the market. Don't be afraid to be bold - just make sure you don't look anything like the competition.

5) Focussing on just colours and a logo - Did you buy your phone or car because of its logo? Or the way it improved your life/made you feel. Yes, logos are vital but don’t get stuck down this rabbit hole. If in doubt make it versatile at different scales, hold colour well and be absolutely legible on digital.

6) Not building your brand to be flexible - Don’t run before you can walk. So many companies try to design their brand to live across assets or marketing materials that don’t even exist yet. Keep your brand toolkit light for small growing teams and easy to pivot with your product development.

7) Jumping onto brand trends - Trends are always traps. Prepare to blend into a sea of sameness otherwise. Authenticity and personality win every time.

If you are struggling to communicate your tech product beautifully and intuitively to your ideal audience - Book a call here for a free brand review.