Start-up Branding

How to create a customer-resonating brand—

without the customers!
January 23, 2007

Copyright 2005
Parker LePla – Integrated Branding and Communications
www.parkerlepla.com 206.285.5280
 About Parker LePla
• Currently working with more than 25 clients throughout the
U.S.
• Average 10+ years of experience per employee with
technology, healthcare, business-to-business and not-for-
profits
• Authors of the books Integrated Branding and Brand
Driven

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 A strong brand…

• Gives customers clear emotional and logical

reasons to choose you
• Delivers on the brand promise with every
customer interaction, including service,
marketing, sales, facility design, product
design, etc.
• Results in unbreakable customer loyalty

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 What are your favorite brands? Why?

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 Let’s put these brands to the test

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 What is integrated brand?

• It is “the promise you keep” in all customer

experiences
• Integrated branding includes
– Messages
– Visual branding
– Tone and manner
– Employee and management actions (across
the organization)

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 The integrated brand process

1 Brand
discovery

2 Brand tool
agreement

Brand
3 implementation
Customer
experience

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 The customer experience

The goal of integrated branding is to create a

• consistent
• compelling
• differentiated

. . . customer experience.

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 Discovering an organization’s brand

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 What customers value—define what’s
relevant
+
Antes Drivers
Requirements: Elements that build
R differentiation
The Minimum Expectation
e
l
e
v
a Neutrals Distinct
n
c
Neither relevant or Unique with little relevance
e
distinctive

Differentiation

Liabilities
-

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 Start-up branding issues
• No customers to interview for what they
value
• Often, no product to demo to prospects for
feedback
• Branding dependent more on founder vision
and market situation, less on customer value
– You decide what unique customer
experience to offer
– Still need to conduct market and
competitive research

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 Launch, test, refine
• Engage all current stakeholders in the initial
development of the brand
• Bring in the customer voice as soon as
possible
• Build in feedback mechanisms from the very
start
• Brand benchmark via report cards

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 Delivering the customer experience

Brand tools help your employees deliver this

unique customer experience

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 Brand tools

• The actionable way you define your promise

• Include: mission, strategic role, principle,
personality, values

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 Brand tools
Tool Used as
Mission Your big goal
Ben and Jerry’s operate the company
in a way that actively recognizes the
central role that business plays in society

Strategic Role Category + Value

Home Depot organizes store around
do-it-yourself projects

Principle Compass
Volvo introduces safety features
before required by law

Personality Face
Target features sophisticated clothing
designers

Values Boundaries
Tom’s of Maine doesn’t test on animals

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 Brand implementation
• Start-up marketing communications
– Company naming
– Product naming
– Taglines
– Logo
• Additional marketing
• Living the brand

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 Company naming
• The best is the enemy of good
• The bland is the enemy of the memorable
• The descriptive is the enemy of
differentiation

--A good name is memorable and differentiated

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 Company naming
• Brand meaning is built into names over time
– No one liked Amazon, Starbucks or
Expedia the first time they heard it
• URL availability is now driving naming
decisions
• Start from your brand tools, brainstorm
options, vet via the internet
• Base selection upon how well it meets your
criteria and brand tools, not how well you
like it
• The trademark lawyer is your friend

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 Some Parker LePla examples
• Talyst
• Sotto
• Whistling Rabbits
• Carbonated Studios
• Zoka Coffee
• Alluvion

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 Product naming
• The rules are different for products
• Don’t make the customer confused, have to
decode, or work too hard
– Descriptive is often fine
• Don’t name company and product same thing
– Eliminates growth options
– No brand equity transfer route for future
products

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 Taglines
• Memorable is good
• Avoid “ing” taglines; corporate-speak, too
long
• Don’t speak from your point of view, but
from your customers
• Don’t generalize, but be specific
• Great examples:
– You are now free to move about the
country
– Don’t leave home without it
– Got milk?

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 Logos
• Use a professional to create your logo
• Give them your brand concepts to work from
• Expect several directions for you to pick one
to refine
• Different is good

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 Finally…
• Put a stake in the ground—you can’t be
anything to anyone if you’re everything to
everybody
• Don’t fear being different—our favorite
brands are ones with personality
• Use your brand as a filter for decisions—
discipline and dedication will get you far

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 Your turn

Q&A

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