Ask HN: What place should "branding" have at a tech startup?

6 points by clin_ 12 years ago | 4 comments

This story is part self-serving rant, part curiosity about HN's perspectives on this.

A while ago I worked for a startup that built mobile apps in the edtech space. Our apps had decent traction for the market we were in, but it didn't look like this was going to become a "venture scale" business anytime soon. We had just received a bridge loan to keep us afloat when the CEO decided that what the company lacked was branding and better "storytelling".

So instead of the normal avenues for app promotion: reaching out to communities, building an email campaign, advertising, etc., the company spent $30,000 (a large chunk of our remaining runway) for a "brand" consultant to teach us copywriting. At the same time, we were holding meetings with an advisor who spent time putting together indecipherable brand decks where he talked about "using spiral imagery to indicate upward progress for students"—it felt like a scene out of "Mad Men".

Throughout this period, I was making the argument to the rest of the team that we needed someone with digital marketing experience who knew what an A/B test was, and that these other efforts were ineffective and wasteful. I wasn't winning the argument and growing increasingly frustrated at the money being hemorrhaged on "branding" and left the company.

So I guess my question is this: was my antipathy towards the emphasis on branding efforts justified? or is there still a place for mad-men style advertising at the tech startup? what evidence is there on this question, in either direction?

interpares 12 years ago |

My thoughts, in random order:

-As long as humans still respond to storytelling -- something we've been doing for as long as we've been around -- branding will have a role.

-Nothing is more central to a brand than having a good product that people want. No amount of storytelling can replace this.

-$30K to spend on a consultant at this point in the startups life seems silly. It might have been better to just get all your employees together and engaged in brainstorming with some kind of framework to guide you, like this one [1].

-A/B testing and branding should work together. The most important thing you can test is your offer, the basic way you convey yourself to your clients and prospects. Focus on optimizing the copy first, not the color of the buttons.[2] A great way to do this is by listening to how your existing customers describe their problem, your product and how the two relate. Use their words.

[1] http://www.cezary.co/post/79977288955/marketing-fundamentals...

[2] http://www.groovehq.com/blog/long-form-landing-page

lifeisstillgood 12 years ago | |

Read this one, not my drivel.

lifeisstillgood 12 years ago |

We sell. Branding is a short cut to remind people to whom we are selling, the reasons, the story, the emotions of our product or service.

Consistency of branding in the digital age should be trivial. Starting a brand from scratch always was and always will be a vast undertaking.

If I have any advice, its to run away from brand consultants and get the founders to a therapist - the best brand for a start up is the raw honest and open drivers behind the founders. That may not be an attractive brand, but it will always be a genuine one.

As for A/B tests - they are great to find out which form of your story people respond best to, but again are not a way to discover your own personal story.

Mine? Still looking :-)

lifeisstillgood 12 years ago | |

I know it's bad form to ask, but could someone let me know the reason for the downvotes, - it seems sensible advice and i am close to following it myself !