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Why Branding Can’t Be An Afterthought
Robert Wallace@robertawallace
“Over the next several years, marketing, branding and positioning, all under-appreciated disciplines in the valley will become markedly more important.
As barriers to entry continue to fall driven by cloud technologies, competition among startups will increase and the startups that reach their target customer bases with the best messaging, building the most effective brands, will win.We know storytelling will be the differentiator…[as it does in] every commodity industry...brand building investments should become a key part of the marketing efforts of the business.Ultimately, the brand may become half the value of the company and the true differentiator in the market place.” -Tomasz Tunguz (@ttunguz), Redpoint Ventures
Your product is not just a product; it’s an extension of your brand and
the primary driver of growth and user acquisition.
SIL O’ D , L INEAR APPROACH
Development: Silo’d approach to
developing an app
Design: If offered, always an afterthought, on the front-end and
tossed over the wallBranding & Positioning: Not offered OR always
after product is built
User Acquisition: Most think has nothing to do
with product build
SIL O’ D , L INEAR APPROACH
Development: MVP! MVP! MVP!
Design will surely fix it, right?
What the hell is Branding?
User Acquisition: Okay, now, how do we sell?
Design: World class visual and micro-interaction
design with continuous testing to ensure ease of
use.
Development: Well-architected, scalable,
gorgeous web and native iOS apps which focus on only the most essential.
Branding & Positioning: A brand, identity, and voice
that is woven into your product, resonates with users and differentiates
you from the competition.
User Acquisition: Built-in growth and viral hooks, as well as cost-efficient customer acquisition
systems to drive consistent growth.
AN INT EGRAT ED APPROACH
The Brand Promises are Literally Delivered through the Interface and Interactions (Voice + Tone)
The User Builds a Relationship with the Application (Brand Promise + Personality)
MODERN SOFTWARE / APP DEVELOPMENT CONSIDERS BRANDING
Other messaging apps exist. But the the lighthearted and endearing messages, the giphy’s all add to the experience.
MailChimp’s voice and tone is critical to their customer experience. The messages and tone adapts to how a user is feeling,
such as just having accomplished or completed a task.
Siri Easter eggs
“What's zero divided by zero?"
“Imagine that you have zero cookies and you split them evenly among zero friends. See? It doesn’t make sense. And Cookie Monster is sad that there are no cookies,
and you are sad that you have no friends.”
B R A N D I N G = E V E RY I N T E R A C T I O N Y O U R P R O D U C T H A S W I T H Y O U R U S E R
Slack’s distinct colors help it stand out in crowded enterprise messaging space
Emoji’s make the product more fun
and engaging
Built-in GIFs increase user engagement
Slackbot, Slack’s programmable robot,
assistant and sidekick builds a relationship with
users
Emoji responses “reward” team
members for good posts and incentivize
the behavior
Programmable slackbot
responses let your team’s personality
shine through
”Great branding isn’t just about the product you’re selling now, but about maintaining the sales momentum into the product you’ll be selling tomorrow.” - Ben Mack, Think Two Products Ahead
