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famous-folks: Why Every Company Needs To Invest In Their Brand,...

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:50:27 -0400

Why Every Company Needs To Invest In Their Brand, No Matter What Its Size

The importance of investing in branding is no secret to our industry. We live and breathe it every day, studying the subtle nuances between companies and the brands they present to the world. Often times, and especially with parity products and companies, their investment in their brand is the only thing that gives them an advantage over their competitors.

Whether you’re an established business, or a new startup, every company needs to invest in its brand from day one. As barriers to entry continue to fall and technologies commodify faster and faster, companies that reach their targeted customers with the best continued messaging will build the most effective brands and ultimately, businesses.

By investing in your brand early on, you gain a deep understanding of who you are, what you believe, and how you speak and act. This will guide every decision moving forward, and by consistently living up to the values you set for yourself and your company, your brand will be viewed by investors, employees and customers as real, honest and trustworthy.

It’s about more than having a logo, website and written values, though. While these tools are important, real winning companies don’t just paste their values on the wall and forget about them. They find ways to live them every day and use them to engage with their customers again and again. And if your brand engages on a deep, emotional level from day one, your company will have a much easier time attracting investors, employees, and the ultimate prize – customers.

Let’s take a look at two of the world’s tech giants, Apple and Microsoft, to see how investing in expert branding early on pays off. Apple, according to Interbrand’s annual brand value analysis, has the second most valuable brand in the world, at $76.6B. So what makes them so great? Apple has built a brand that is simple and elegant. From the design of its products to the way it speaks to its customers, Apple’s brand shines through everything it does. By investing in its brand, Apple discovered the essence of who it truly is and what its customers really want early on, and has been telling stories that connect emotionally with its customers ever since.

Microsoft has had a tougher go at building its brand. Their issue has been connecting with its customers. Early on, Microsoft was all about promoting its features and price of its products, without saying how they improved people’s lives. Unlike Apple, they tried to connect with people on a functional level, instead of a deeper, emotional one. As a result, they eventually fell behind Apple and have been reacting to their style of messaging ever since, which has no doubt cost them a king’s ransom in rebranding efforts.

The same sort of reactionary branding seems to happen during every election these days. Far too often, today’s politicians move to attack ads as a reaction to an opponent’s strong showing. Preferring to be the lesser of two evils, they dilute what they stand for and fail to connect with voters on a compelling, emotional level. Even in politics, though, investing in strong emotional branding can make all the difference, as was the case with President Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign.

Determining just exactly what your brand is (what it believes and says, how it acts, what it looks like) can be a daunting undertaking for any company, let alone time-starved startups. At Famous Folks, we like to say that “we walk a mile in our client’s shoes, and then walk further”. Through intense research and discovery, we gain a deep understanding of our clients’ business and their customers, then put that knowledge to work crafting the most engaging way to take them to market.

The fact that every company, especially startups, need to be conscious of every dollar is not lost on us either. It’s what led us to develop our Branding Packages, which gives new and established companies branding options to meet any budget. What’s most important for startups is not how much you invest in your brand, it’s that you do invest in your brand right from day one.

Ultimately, your brand, like Apple’s, could become a significant percentage of the value of your company and the only thing that sets it apart from your competition. Interested in taking a look at our various Branding Packages or have questions about branding? Give us a shout.

Real Time Contextual Data aligned to the ability to react with near real time responsiveness & agility is the future (could be current;) competitive advantage for your business, almost regardless of industry. Social is just a simple example of a use case.

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famous-folks: @spently #startups #recentgrads - We’ve mentioned...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:02:11 -0400

famous-folks:

@spently #startups #recentgrads - We’ve mentioned Spently before - you know, that cool Toronto-based company offering a cloud-based service that provides interactive email receipts? Spently was profiled earlier by The Metro as poster children for startups – the attractive employment choice for new grads in lean times. The article quotes Rebecca Basi, 23, who thinks working at startups is a viable option for many recent grads:

“I feel like if I were to work for a bigger company I would end up having less responsibility and not collaborate with others as much as I do now. Startups give me the ability to be more creative, hands-on.”

Not only will working with startups post-graduation allow for creativity, collaboration and increased responsibility, you’ll get the opportunity to meet and work with energetic, passionate and really smart individuals. If you’re a recent grad, get your foot in the door with a local startup today.

Not sure whose door to knock on? Send us a note » halifax@famousfolks.ca or toronto@famousfolks.ca

Two @CoralCEA members collaborating to bring innovation to market.

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