Brand is not a four letter word. It is a key element to the success of a company.
A panel of industry leaders from Casper, Red Antler, Tumblr, Derris & Company and Niche with experience on every side of brand marketing spoke to Cornell Tech students about the importance of building a brand.
What is brand?
Brand is more than just color schemes and logos. It is how a company presents itself to the public, what it stands for and what it hopes to accomplish.
Katherine Barna, head of communications at Tumblr, described brand as the key themes a company wants to address.
“When I talk with our internal teams [about brand] it’s about—what do we stand for?” Barna said. “What is the association we want people to have with out name?”
Brand is Important
The market is flooded with startups and often the only differentiator between one company and the next is their branding.
JB Osborne, CEO at branding company Red Antler, told students product isn’t as important as it once was. The brand is where a company will succeed or fail. There are a lot of similar products out there and even if one product is better, it is easy to assume they are the same.
“At the end of the day you have to assume your product is incredible and it becomes about building a brand that’s differentiating you and adding value to that,” Osborne said.
Product vs. Brand
A brand without a solid product is pointless. Alternately, the best product in the world could fail if the the brand isn’t right.
Lisa Frank, executive vice president at Derris & Company, a PR and Communications firm, works closely early-stage brands and emphasized the importance of the the product.
“The product has to be there. It has to be amazing, or why are we even talking about this brand,” Frank said.
But Osborne believes the brand can also help to make product decisions. “If you know what you stand for it can help you make product decisions. The two have to ultimately be intertwined,” Osborne told students.
Say What You Mean in Plain English
When communicating the brand, companies should speak plainly or customers won’t understand.
Rob Fishman, co-founder at Niche, a company connecting social media creators and brands, shared this piece of advice from first hand experience. In an interview, he once referred to his company as a platform and the interviewer informed him that readers wouldn’t know what that meant.
“Jargon is bad and it’s against your brand,” Fishman told students. “You need to come up with a simple way to talk about what you’re doing.”
Don’t Wait Too Long to Brand
Strong product is important, but Philip Krim, co-founder and CEO of Casper, encouraged students not to wait too long to think about branding.
“For us we set about building a brand and product around the same time,” Krim said. “We knew they were critical to the business.”
Osborne gave students advice on when it is time to consider seeking outside help from branding companies like Red Antler.
“The common thread for any business to decide when to [reach out to a branding company] is when you are ready to double down with the thing you’re doing,” Osborne said. “Do you believe in it enough and have a vision of where you’re trying to go that you want to do it right? Because bringing in a partner is for when you’re ready to do it.”
