How to brand a start up business.

When you are looking to start your own business it’s easy to put your brand at the back of your list of things you need to do. Money can be tight and most of your investment is probably being used to get your product to market. Of course, you can’t really have a brand without a product but it’s very difficult to establish a product without a brand. Competition is tough and you need to stand out in the market. When you look at the brands you admire, their product and brand are seamlessly integrated. Their message is clear and consistent and their product delivers on that message. This doesn’t happen by accident.

Strut and Fibre is a brand we started from scratch. We created the name and developed the brand with the same strategic process we use with all our client's brands.

• Identify what the key attributes of the business are. What is it the business does?
• Identify what the personality of the business is. How do you want to be perceived?
• Identify our source of authority is. What gives you the credibility to operate in your chosen market?
• Identify our promise is to the customer. What impression do you want to leave the customer with every encounter with the brand?

By asking these questions and building a brand model from the answers we were able to achieve the following.

• Establish what our tone of voice should be.
• Provide a route to finding a name for the brand.
• Understand and start to explore what the visual direction and brand identity should look like.
• Create a brand blueprint document that would not only provide a creative brief but also a tool to communicate to partners and suppliers how to position the brand.