Last week I had a chance to sit down at the virtual table with Fabian Geyrhalter, a top globally-rated mentor of the Founder Institute community, a brand strategist, as well as a three-time bestselling author.
Fabian is a brand strategist and creative director who has deep expertise in guiding companies through their brand transformations with his consultancy, Long Beach-based FINIEN.
He has been sought out by companies such as Marriott International, Tinder, Honeywell, Kaplan, and Randstad. His thoughts on branding have appeared in publications like Inc., Forbes, Entrepreneur, and the Washington Post.
All three of his books on branding became international Amazon best-sellers and turned into go-to resources for entrepreneurs and marketers alike. And his podcast Hitting The Mark gets founders of some of today's most interesting brands to speak about the intersection of brand clarity and startup success.
Fabian’s second book is called Bigger Than This: How to Turn Any Venture into an Admired Brand
In his presentation with FI last week, he touched on various ways brands can utilize an authentic approach to crafting a brand identity, one that resonates deeply with the consumer’s own personal identity.
Here’s a sampling of a few that stuck out the most with me:
STORY
Thanks to social media, brand stories need to have an authenticity to them that feels real in the eye of the customer, they must be unapologetically REAL.
Someone that stands out in the FI Global Community who epitomizes this characteristic is Abby Sugar, Founder and & CEO of PlayOut Apparel (FI Silicon Valley 2019 Graduate). PlayOut Apparel targets Gen Z consumers, and offers apparel and accessories for those who identify as non-binary or with gender neutrual lifestyles.
She recently gave a keynote for the FI Silicon Valley Fall 2021 cohort graduation event, where she dives deep into how her personal story as a queer, female entreprneur has shaped the identify of her company and vision for the future.
In Fabian's talk he singles out Fishpeople, a consumer brand that owns their narrative from net-to-table. They’re a brand where you get to know everything about the food you eat: from the fisherman who catches it, the boat he crewed, to the processing factory it was shipped from.
When you base the brand as simply as People and Fish, it too becomes apologetically REAL.
Their company doesn’t need a contrived narrative to explain their origin story— they simply tell a story that already exists on how their company works to bring food to your table.
Takeaway: Your story can be your brand positioning
CAUSE
Brands seem to try this tactic ad nauseum today, with well-known brands tagging along to any and every cause de jour, and without giving much thought to the individuals who are actually motivated on a daily basis in bringing visibility to their cause. From human rights and ecological sustainability, to gender parity and equity in the workforce, promoting causes based on what’s viral doesn’t translate well into being an authentic brand.
Fabian’s talk brings up the case study Bombas. Bombas is a sock brand on a mission to help those suffering from homelessness, because socks are the most requested item in homeless shelters. It’s a product that cannot be donated due to quality and hygienic issues. It also happens to be the most requested item for donations for those experiencing homelessness beyond any other clothing item. Bombas makes a concerted effort to donate a pair of socks to a shelter for every sale they generate, resulting in over 50M socks donated to the homeless community to date.
Takeaway: Directly connect your cause to the offering, and be honest about that cause, and ensure it’s scalable - those are the causes that attract talent and build authentic company culture.
TRANSPARENCY
If the past few years have shown us anything, it’s that the general public is losing trust more and more in government institutions, longstanding brands, and independent organizations.
Being a trustworthy brand is even tougher in the fashion industry. Fabian makes the case to look at the fashion brand EVERLANE, a clothing line that shows every facet of their manufacturing process. The apparel industry is notorious in their lack of transparency, and Everlane does the opposite to rectify that problem.
They rate and audit their factories to establish humane standards that are now being adopted across their industry. In short: they operate with radical transparency. They share their true costs of every good they buy — from materials, to labor, to shipping and markup — all of which work to instill trust in their customers.
Takeaway: Trust is bigger than the product.
Radical Transparency creates instantaneous trust — but you have to commit 100% to pull it off.
Becoming a niche leader can establish your brand in an empathetic manner, builds on your tribe’s values, and create solidarity.
Fabian touched on other key strategies like Belief, Delight, Heritage, Individuality, and Solidarity…to learn more about how to integrate these into your brand building goals head on over to Fabian’s website, use his brand building frame-work or simply follow his popular Instagram channel for free brand advice.
If you want to dive deeper and read more case studies about other brand traits, be sure to grab a copy of his book Bigger Than This: How to Turn Any Venture into an Admired Brand today.
Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.5 billion in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
