Believe it or not, the lean startup methodology can be applied to more than just quickly building a tech company. In fact, it works equally well with helping a company establish a strong brand, if you know which concepts to implement.
In this guest blog post, Robert Furtado (founder of Course Compare and Mentor for the Toronto Founder Institute) outlines how some of the most important principles from the lean startup methodology can be applied to creating a lasting brand.
When you think of a big corporate branding campaign, what do you see? Most people I ask imagine Don Draper, the protagonist in AMC’s hit TV series Mad Men, pitching Heinz ketchup, or some other fully realized product, to a room full of clients.
If Don Draper and big corporate branding are synonymous in your mind, you should know you’re not alone. Many corporations today still approach branding like it’s 1969. But the old way of doing things simply doesn’t cut it for cash-strapped startups in search of product-market fit.
In fact, the same principles Eric Ries popularized in The Lean Startup can be applied to the branding process to create a more efficient – and much less expensive – path to powerful branding.
At its core, lean startup methodology uses a scientific approach to testing hypotheses about your minimum viable product (MVP). Essentially, the process involves building a bare bones prototype, measuring results of that prototype in-market, learning from those results, then repeating the cycle until you’ve created a product for which there is significant market demand.
The minimum viable brand works much the same way, beginning with the core components of a business’ brand and testing each one individually with your target market until your startup is primed for growth. Whether you’re still deciding on your business name or preparing to pitch angel investors, here are the essential ingredients of a healthy brand story you should be testing with early adopters.
Promise
Can you summarize your value proposition – why a customer should choose your company to solve his problem – in a single sentence? Your brand promise is an hors d'oeuvre-sized version of your positioning statement (see below), and it’s arguably the most important thing you’ll need to grasp if you want to launch a successful startup.
Consider Southwest Airlines, one of the most successful budget airlines operating in the world today. Herb Kelleher, co-founder and former CEO of Southwest, once said: “I can teach you the secret to running this airline in 30 seconds. This is it: We are THE low-fare airline.” Kelleher believed that once someone understood this fact, he could make any decision about Southwest’s future as well as he could.
Your Brand promise isn’t just a signal to potential customers—it doubles as an operating manual for your company. No wonder it’s been successfully guiding the actions of Southwest employees for more than 30 years.
Positioning
The world’s best brands are positioned as aspiration enablers. Founders commonly use product benefits as a stand-in for effective positioning statements. But stories and irrational impulses are what change behavior. Not facts or bullet points. In fact, detailed arguments raise people’s analytical defenses, making it more difficult to form meaningful connections.
Consider the following ad campaigns by Hewlett Packard and Apple. Which was more successful at tying its products to a collective aspiration, and which fixated on product benefits in ways that failed to capture the customer’s imagination?
Positioning can be complex, but there are three critical questions you can ask yourself to unlock a unique positioning statement worth testing right away:
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How will your brand help your customer get from A to B in their lives?
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Which space are you trying to occupy in your customer’s mind—can you tap into previously held biases and beliefs?
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Who else is there competing with you? How are you different than your competitors?
Personas
Persona mapping is the creation of fictional profiles for your target customers that include personal attributes, goals, motivations and attitudes. They help you remain clear about who your audience is, so you can align branding with customer goals and needs as your business – and the marketplace itself – changes overtime.
When I launched Course Compare, Canada’s first online marketplace for tech education, I was sure my target audience included twenty-something professionals looking to upgrade their digital skills. More than one-thousand customer interactions later, I can tell you high school students, non-technical managers in their 40’s, and even retirees keen to take web development courses are every bit as essential to our success.
Chances are you don’t know your audience as well as you think you do. Writing down and constantly updating detailed personas will help you fine-tune your branding efforts while also tracking changing customer needs overtime. With careful research an observation, persona mapping may help you identify entirely new market opportunities and even business ideas you hadn’t considered before.
Personality
Try a thought experiment with me: Imagine Apple and Microsoft as people. Now imagine taking them out on a date. How are the experiences different? What's the mood in the room? The substance and tone of the conversation?
If you can sustain an imaginary dialogue and picture Microsoft or Apple across the table from you—and you aren't just playing footsies with Bill Gates or Steve Jobs right now—then these brands have done their homework.
So, here’s my question: Who is your brand? That may sound like an odd phrasing, but people relate to people, and if your brand feels like “people,” then your prospects will relate to you.
Brand personality matters because it'll inform how your brand interacts in the marketplace, from the colours and imagery you choose for your website right down to the way you engage followers on social media.
Build, Measure, Learn—Repeat
Of course, there’s more to branding than what’s listed here. Naming, pricing, product experience and a variety of design and strategy considerations are also paramount to communicating a unique story customers will remember and tell others about. But idea-stage startups should systematically test their core brand story—their promise, positioning, personality and market assumptions—before buying services from a branding agency or doubling down on growth.
Simple landing pages, low-spend social media campaigns, electronic surveys, blog posts—whatever your tactics, testing the essential elements of your minimum viable brand will save you considerable time and money as you determine what exactly you’re bringing into the world.
Robert Furtado is the founder of Course Compare, Canada’s online marketplace for tech education. He is also a mentor at the Founder Institute in Toronto. If you’re interested in learning in-demand digital skills, you can check out Canada’s top-rated coding bootcamps, web development courses, digital marketing courses, UX courses, product management courses and more at CourseCompare.ca.
