Having a product is great but do you have a brand that captures consumer imagination and is built for the long-run?
In the startup world, especially, the focus on short-term growth often means that investment in longer-term elements, ie brand, fall by the wayside. Whether a startup or trillion dollar business, you should never stop investing in your brand.
A brand is so much more than a logo or a colour scheme and your values have to mean more than some post-its stuck on a wall. It's everything you do, say, think and create. It's how you hire, retain staff, build culture, provide solutions to problems and acquire customers.
With increasing competition and greater consumer demand for brands to stand for something, to neglect investing in your brand because it seems too hard, time-intensive, costly or simply, unimportant, is a mistake.
Here are some simple steps to help you think about and build greater structure into the brands you're building and the stories you're telling along with examples of brands who nail purpose and some who miss the mark.
11. Where to begin…
Why do you exist?
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Where do you sit in the market?
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How do you express yourself?
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BRAND
12. What do you do, who for and why?
Purpose
Vision
Mission
13. Purpose
The ‘why’
• Why do you get out of bed every day to invest your time,
energies and efforts into building your business?
• Why is that important?
• Why should anyone care?
14. Vision
The ‘What’
• What is it you do, make, sell or provide?
• What is it you don’t do?
• What would someone tell their friends/colleagues about
you?
16. Tell me a story
What’s the brand narrative?
What are the key brand messages?
What are the key product messages?
17. Positioning
Where do you sit in the market?
How do people around you look, sound, feel and behave?
What channels are they using?
Where is the window to carve out a unique, ownable and believable
position?
18. Values
What are the core brand values?
These are NOT just words you stick on the wall. They underpin every
element of your behaviour and your culture. Make them REAL.
19. Personality
How do you brand values bleed through to your personality and in turn
your tone of voice?
THINK does this resonate with your target audience?
21. Who is the target customer?
Where does your brand sit on the curve?
Who is the primary target?
Where are they? What do they sound like? What other brands do
they engage with? What’s the best way to reach them?
Who could be the growth audience? Use your data, insight, market
knowledge & common sense!
22. Audiences & the potential challenges
Identity some of your target audiences and the potential challenges
in reaching them/selling to them
What might their reasons be for not engaging?
What are the messages/activities/approaches you can take to
overcome them?
23. Cross-channel approach
There is not one golden channel to reach your customers. How are
you creating repeatable and scalable activities that can work across
the following:
• DIRECT MARKETING
• EVENTS
• REFERRAL
• PRESS
• ADVERTISING
• CONTENT MARKETING
• PARTNERSHIPS
• SOCIAL MEDIA
• PAID MEDIA
50. Pronto
Eat First: Chef made meals, delivered to you
Take Eat Easy: London’s favourite restaurants,
delivered
Ad campaign: Go home hungry (we’ll do the rest)
Deliveroo: Proper food. Proper Delivery
Ad campaign: From our chefs to your door
Godo: Food that delivers emotions
Maple: Stay in, eat up
We know the food and food delivery
space is a crowded market. There’s
multiple brands vying for people’s
attention and all with a very similar
message.
This is why we have to create
standout with a product and brand
proposition that will put Pronto front of
mind for Londoners when deciding
what to eat for lunch or dinner.
51. What are we here
for?
SOLUTION
Create a new food infrastructure to provide
restaurant-quality food you can live off at the touch
of a button by using technology to underpin every
element of the process; from the sourcing of
ingredients and use of predictive analytics to
reduce wastage to the creation of a highly efficient
delivery infrastructure and the most convenient
ordering experience.
PROBLEM
We need food to survive but we’re
surrounded either by unhealthy
and uninspiring options that are
nutritionally unbalanced and
unsatisfying or by unaffordable
and inaccessible food that costs
too much to live off.
52. Why do we exist?
To provide a global food solution where anyone,
anywhere, can access high-quality, affordable
and nutritious food in the most convenient way
possible.
53. We sum it up in one
line…
PRONTO: FEEDING LONDON
We hope this will grow into:
Feeding Berlin, Feeding Manchester, Feeding Amsterdam and – one day - Feeding the World
55. Pronto key brand messages
● Pronto puts the joy back into food and enables you to spend more time doing what matters to you by creating
healthy, affordable and delicious meals brought to you in the most convenient way possible
● Pronto takes London’s favourite meals and recreates them using fresh, natural and real ingredients to make
them as nutritious and great tasting as possible.
● Pronto revolutionises the way people consume food through world-leading technology, exceptional customer
service and full control over the entire experience to ensure the highest quality at every touchpoint.
● Pronto was created by three founders, passionate about creating a more affordable and sustainable way to eat
that focuses on food as a fundamental source of nourishment that maintains our vitality, our health and our lives.
THE GOOD – GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE, QUALITY PRODUCTS.
QUEST FOR DELIVERING HAPPINESS IS A SYNONYM FOR PURSUIT OF GOOD – SERVICE ORIENTED GOOD.
THE TRUE – SEARCH FOR TRUTH AND ADVANCEMENT OF HUMANKIND’S COLLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE.
TO ORGANISE THE WORLD’S INFORMATION AND MAKE IT UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE AND USEFUL.
SIMPLICITY AND BEAUTY IN THE PRODUCTS.
Narrative – why would I care about you?
What’s the key brand messages you want to convey – you can’t have them all!
Why would I buy you as an individual.
How can you carve out the different messages to the different audiences you want to reach?
Emotional reasons to buy = I’M GOING TO FEEL GOOD, I’M GOING TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT MYSELF, YOU’LL MAKE ME FEEL SMARTER OR MORE EFFICIENT.
WE WANT EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT OUR BELIEFS. GIVE ME A REASON TO BELIEVE WHAT I ALREADY WANT TO BELIEVE.
Rational reasons to buy = PRICE, CONVENIENCE, SAVING
