Branding Startups Building Visual Identity

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Good afternoon, Good morning, United States.

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This is Mike Sefsky from Postline from Merrick Studio.

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Today, we will be talking about the branding for startups.

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And we have two special guests today,

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Sofia Dimitrova and Jordan Petrov of Fiction

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Agency. Hello guys, how are you doing?

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Hello.

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Hello Mike, doing great, thank you. Thanks for having us.

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Well, thank you for joining.

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Your agency has a very strong portfolio and I know that

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you've got offices in Berlin and in Sofia.

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Guys, if you could tell in a few words of introduction,

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what is the company doing?

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I think we lost Sofia for a second.

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I hope she will be capable of joining, but let's continue.

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Okay. Sofia is back with us.

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Okay. So we didn't reach the first question.

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If you could introduce briefly what are you doing?

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What are your roles within the organization?

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And what kind of clients you are working with?

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Hello.

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Thanks for having us.

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First of all, I'm Sofia,

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and I'm an art director at fiction.

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So we founded the studio five years ago with the main

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idea to combine strategy and forward thinking design.

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And we specialize in startups who have the ambition to,

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you know, grow their business,

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and we basically help them to bring their visions to life and

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to create a positive change and difference

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and impact for the society.

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Yeah.

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We are also based in both Berlin and Sofia,

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which gives us

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quite different point of view.

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And yeah, maybe Jordan can also

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thank

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you.

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So I'm here representing the strategy team at fiction today.

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And I think that Sophie really made a great short

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pitch, but in addition, we aim at creating experiences that

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accelerate the long term change and of course enable growth for our clients.

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However, is not the only thing that drives us.

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One of our other primary goals is to also

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with everything we do affect customers mindset as well

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towards terms like setting and innovation.

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And basically anything related to enabling people to

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develop their creativity as innovation

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in our understanding is not necessarily

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creating something incredibly new that hasn't been

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out there but also solving a very simple and fundamental

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problem in a new way that makes

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people's lives easier.

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So I think that these are the main

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things that we believe in and stand for.

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Okay then, thank you for this.

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So as you mentioned, one of the locations is in Berlin,

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which currently probably the biggest startup

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hub in Europe.

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Yeah. I've been to Berlin for several times.

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I had a few very good clients and partners over there.

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And on one hand,

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this is a great environment to launch a startup and to

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provide some services to a startup, but on the other,

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it's extremely competitive.

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So from your perspective, what are the main challenges

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when it comes to the, let's say startups as an industry, yeah,

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like the startup industry?

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Yeah, okay. I'll try to tackle this.

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So first, Berlin is currently a great place to be.

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Trends of becoming the central startup in

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Europe really accelerated throughout the last few

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years because of what happened with Brexit.

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And also Berlin is a city full of

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cultural diversity, so many galleries, exhibitions, events.

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So it's not a coincidence that both two of my partners,

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our creative director and our art director are based in

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Berlin because, yeah, it also provides a lot of

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different point of views over a lot of

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artistic and societal problems, rich cultural life.

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And the other thing, challenges that we would say

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that we meet in the industry,

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Nowadays, the startup world is going crazier and crazier every day.

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The speed with which new companies appear is increasing rapidly.

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And for many brands,

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the demand and strive for innovation and launching

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cutting edge better proposition leads to launching increasingly

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more digital products that are aiming at addressing narrow

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consumer needs.

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So

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it's very often that in this

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effort to kind of create something for everyone,

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companies often forgot and overlook their initial mission,

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the purpose with which they've been created in the

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search for short term profit and

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making their investors happy.

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And this is actually a trap.

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This is also reflected by the emerging new market categories.

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Actually, market category creation became something like

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sports for startups and the ultimate goal for many of them.

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So in this effort to deliver innovation,

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businesses are falling into the trap of often are falling into

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the trap of not being understood by potential

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consumers or clients.

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And this can have very detrimental effects that are not expected.

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So we see that it's often

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capitalized by seeing buzzwords in developer

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position that actually don't bring meaning to consumer mind.

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So what I mean by that time, I mean AI,

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artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, etcetera.

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Those are really, really powerful technologies that

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enable

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a plethora of new use cases, etcetera.

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However, they're just tools, utilities and

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contextual propositions.

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So really don't mean value for consumers and

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they don't care about what the product is powered by,

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but how it could serve their needs.

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At the same time,

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we can see that which is actually a great trend issues

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such as climate change, mental health,

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the diversity of the workplace.

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They have become critically important to many workers.

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And this pressure basically any business into

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changing how they approach their product development process.

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What are the internal processes and the practices that they

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follow in order to be in line with

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what people actually want.

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So

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this also leads some companies to a trial because it's super

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easy for consumers to smell brands that just do

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things in these areas in order to project a good image,

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but somehow they do not behave in a truly authentic way.

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So yeah, what we're seeing is that both employees

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and consumers and users, they seek

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purpose beyond disruption more than anything before.

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Business leaders need to ask the difficult questions about

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what's value building a purpose led brand to bring to their organization.

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This needs to be a priority for founders from day one,

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from the very moment that they start and then make sure that

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despite all the challenges that they meet over their path,

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they don't derail from this fundamental purpose.

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So I hope that this addresses your question.

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Well, I think you provided even like

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a short overview of the entire startup scene,

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Because I need to admit that also from my experience

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at Verix, we are receiving requests for proposals from

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startups, which are, let's say,

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mentioning blockchain and AI and machine learning.

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And sometimes even when we recognize what is the actual

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need or what the product or service is meant to do or

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deliver, there's no necessity of introducing them.

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But they look good on the pitch deck when someone's applying

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for the investment.

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Yeah?

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Just using the buzzwords.

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Yeah, they might work well for investors,

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but as it comes to actually communicating value to

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consumers and users, they do not help that much.

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Okay, thank you for this.

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By taking this chance, I wanted to encourage our audience in

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the comment section below this post.

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You can actually ask your own questions and we will be happy to answer them.

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Now question to Sofia.

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Since we are talking about communication a little bit,

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where the branding actually starts?

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What does the branding come to?

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If you could introduce us to that topic.

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Yeah.

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So the best way to start is really to ask

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yourself, like, how I can help my customers to become a

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better versions of themselves.

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And it's also really critical to know your audience,

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to know their pain points,

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and yet to know who you're talking to and

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really not to try to please everyone because

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but instead to, like, be more intentional of

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who you're making your products for and building

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your product based on their needs and desires instead of

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the other way around.

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So, yeah, great brands.

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They usually have a loyal tribe,

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but they also have people who don't get them and or don't

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like them, and that's totally fine.

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But, yeah, overall, the brand is just a unique story that

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consumers recall when they think of you.

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It could be colors, a specific color or

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or a sound or, like,

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it could be a component of many things.

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And this is what builds the trusted relationship between

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the brand and their user users.

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And I think also very important part is that

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you use your visuals to

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be based on your brand identity and not the other way.

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Because after all, your visuals are meant to express who you are.

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And, yeah, it makes sense first to figure out that.

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In in short, I think, yeah, it's a good start.

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Alright.

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Well, thank you for thank you for touching this because a couple

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of years ago, a like like me,

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like ignorant would say that branding is about, you know,

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designing a logo and picking the right colors for your website.

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Yeah? With all due respect.

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Of course, I know that it's much, much more,

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but it took me a little bit of time to understand it.

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So perhaps question to Jordan.

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Jordan, what is the scope of branding actually?

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How wide this work is?

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Yeah, thanks for bringing this point because this is actually

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a conversation that we have more often than not as often

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people when as they talk about branding,

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they discuss visual assets, visual identity, color,

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typography, logo, and all things like this.

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But that's not branding, that's actually what we call visual design.

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And usually the process starts from defining

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your purpose, discovering it, then

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discovering the positioning,

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your benefits, the true value that you bring to the people

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that you care about, the personality of the brand,

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the aspiration and the emotion that needs to be conveyed

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throughout all assets.

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So then this is a fundamental strategy

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that needs to be translated into how the branded expresses itself.

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And this goes through the verbal,

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visual and very often through the sound identity

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systems of a brand, especially with the rise of podcasts

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and audio advertising, sound identity becomes more

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important than ever before.

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So yeah, I think that this explains

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why a brand is so much more than the logo.

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And of course, the color palette,

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the corporate typography, imagery, and the specific

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styles of photography are really critical for the

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perfect embodiment of your brand DNA.

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And so you're able to convey the underlying story for what

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you're presenting.

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However, this only matter if there is

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enough and real substance underneath.

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Okay,

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thank you for touching in this and thank you for explanation

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because I think this is something very, very important.

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Today, we mentioned, let's say,

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the aspect of feelings and emotions, and we also,

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mentioned the aspect of technologies of technology used

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as a buzzword, but used also as something useful.

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Now, Sofia, question to you.

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On what we should actually focus more?

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Shall we focus more on emotions,

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or shall we focus more on, let's say,

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technological aspect

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while delivering branding?

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Well,

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features matter, definitely,

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but they are not enough.

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It's for successful launch of a product,

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you really need the balance between the both,

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the rationale and the emotional part.

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And, yeah, it's really more about the technical side of

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a product, but also about

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how it makes people feel when they interact

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or use the product.

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There is no branding without a successful business because

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you can have, like, a great super attractive

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design and messaging, and you can convince your customers

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to, like, try your products.

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But at the end of the day,

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if you're not really solving a problem for the people,

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then your product won't deliver on its promise and people won't

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really come back.

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So there's nothing more important than to really

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identify the true needs that drives people on the first

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step, like, beyond the obvious

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and to pay attention to to it.

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Alright.

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Okay then.

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So so okay.

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So we covered, let's say, variety of topics. Yeah.

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But from time to time,

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there comes a moment when basically you need to,

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let's say, prioritize few things,

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some factors while, let's say,

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creating something and coming something.

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And my question to Jordan would be,

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how can extreme focus

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be a strength according to you?

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Let's say because you mentioned before this meeting that this

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is very important in your profession and if you could

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explain how this can be how this would be powerful.

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Yeah, this is really great question and

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something that

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we really aim to make our,

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the organizations that we work with

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to see and to kind of embody into

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how they operate.

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So just imagine what kind of joy

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everyone experiencing their life

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as you have something

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that completely meets your needs.

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And it provides you with a refreshing feeling of lightness

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and freedom that comes from not having the

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burden on yourself to make choice,

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it saves you time and just feeling great that

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someone else out there knows exactly how to take care of you.

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And I think that this is really nailed by most of the

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consumer brands out there but this is also that could make or

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break business to business brand.

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So if you want to achieve excellence with your products,

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the counter intuitive way is to solve a problem for just

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one super specific niche and then make this

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solution of this problem to stand out.

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This is how you should manage and make your brand

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stand out for something in the user's mind.

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It's very lucrative to kind of try to

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deliver something little to everyone,

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but then this is exactly the part of irrelevance.

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So a very

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simple, super, very example that I could give to

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our listeners is to think about the supermarket versus a

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really good small bakery shop.

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So the little shop down there in the street,

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it embodies this idea more than anything else.

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Their fresh baked goods are so good that they're

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always top notch and customers come along from

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miles around.

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So just they know what the weighs them there at the bakery.

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And yeah, you can also get bakery from the supermarket,

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but it's some kind of something mediocre and it really

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doesn't drive the same feeling and emotions.

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You don't go there especially for that,

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like you go for a bunch of other stuff.

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Yeah, you go there when you just don't have a better option.

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So this is also

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important in the terms of community building aspect.

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In order to build community among a particular set of people,

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one brand cannot try to be all things to everyone and to all people.

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It really needs to connect with a set of beliefs to a

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particular group of people.

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So yeah, I think that this is what we mean by extreme focus.

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And I just want to wrap up this little discussion that we

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say that you should just do one thing and not do anything

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else, but every great brand is it's known for one thing.

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So as you have a very,

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very clear promise and you're able immediately to deliver

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on this, then

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you can also suggest your consumers to solve another

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problems of theirs, but they already trust you.

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You build their trust and they're very likely to also

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want to get something else from you.

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The way to achieve this is not to try to communicate

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hundred things at once, which is actually what happens

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into the communication of a lot of

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marketing folks out there.

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It's really a common trap.

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I hope that this

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provides clarity to the question about having a focus.

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Well, it gives a lot, yes.

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Sometimes I really like this comparison.

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Very great question, by the way.

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I agree. Thank you.

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But but, you know, very like like,

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I'm noticing on my professional life that, for example,

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lots of startups, they when I ask them, for example,

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for a user experience research purposes that they aim

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to declare that they are for entire population for example.

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Like someone is building an application which is meant

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for example to control your spendings or your well-being.

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And according to the founders this could be let's say

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suitable for eight years old ladies as well as let's

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say adolescents as well as let's say junior professionals

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so people who are let's say twenty five-thirty yeah and I

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think such product doesn't exist.

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Or it may be created,

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but first you need to find some

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initial group of users that would appreciate it.

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So another question

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goes to Sofia.

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What

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does the community mean for you?

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Like because if you have, let's say, like,

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a dedicated group of potential users or consumers or so on,

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there is something which, let's say, is called community.

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Yeah? What does it mean to you from your perspective?

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Well, I think community nowadays means really,

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in short, sharing the same values and the same goals.

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And it unifies the people

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based on, like, what brands they choose, for example, and,

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like, what they care about.

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And this builds the sense of community.

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And in this sense, the effective branding is all about

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creating connections.

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By tapping into customers' emotions and their own

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identity, brands build actually a connection with

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their audience, which is beyond just the functionality

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of the product, but it's also based on

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the way this brand makes makes them feel

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about themselves.

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And, yeah, people usually feel very strong affinity

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towards the brands that they love that really extends

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beyond the functionality.

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You know?

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You don't really buy a certain

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T shirt because,

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like, you know, when when you just

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prefer a certain brand, other T shirt might have the same function,

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but you just choose your brand because of their values,

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not just because of how the T shirt looks

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particularly.

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Yeah.

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Maybe the T shirt is not the best example,

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but I hope you got the idea.

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Yeah.

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If I could chime in for a second, but

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it's actually a great example.

23:15 → 23:19

Just think, for example, a brand

23:20 → 23:24

that provides also t shirts by Patagonia, and yeah,

23:24 → 23:26

that has a really strong mission.

23:26 → 23:31

It's also important to mention here that for so

23:32 → 23:35

many people out there currently, community

23:35 → 23:38

is very quantitative metric, how

23:38 → 23:43

many followers you have on different social media channels.

23:43 → 23:47

This is not at all what the brand

23:47 → 23:48

community could extend for.

23:48 → 23:49

So

23:50 → 23:53

as you see someone that has the same brand of backpack like you

23:53 → 23:57

have or they just discovered the

23:57 → 24:00

same super cool kickstart gadget

24:00 → 24:03

that is, for example, has environmentally friendly

24:03 → 24:05

benefits, etcetera.

24:05 → 24:10

You just know that this person somehow relates to your

24:10 → 24:12

values and you care about the same stuff.

24:12 → 24:14

To your circle.

24:14 → 24:15

Yeah, yeah.

24:15 → 24:18

It could really create a super strong,

24:18 → 24:22

strong shared sense of connection.

24:22 → 24:25

This could be also achieved with full brands and basically

24:25 → 24:26

any brand could do it.

24:26 → 24:29

But it's also really interesting

24:29 → 24:33

in terms of globalization to think about that,

24:33 → 24:34

because especially here in Germany,

24:34 → 24:37

there's so many great local brands for, like,

24:37 → 24:39

talking about backpacks.

24:40 → 24:43

Yeah, I I have a particular one that

24:43 → 24:44

I really like.

24:44 → 24:46

And every time when I see someone with it, like,

24:46 → 24:50

somewhere else on the other part of the world, think, oh,

24:50 → 24:52

they might be from Germany.

24:52 → 24:54

And, yeah, it's just like

24:55 → 24:57

Yeah. Really, really Yeah.

24:57 → 24:59

I today,

25:00 → 25:04

more and more people are trying to support local

25:04 → 25:07

ideas and businesses and, yeah,

25:07 → 25:11

to really have a more diversity instead of

25:11 → 25:14

monopole of, you know, like,

25:14 → 25:19

of big, big, big companies that we all know that

25:20 → 25:21

are quite famous.

25:21 → 25:22

Yeah.

25:22 → 25:25

I think that it would be it would be great to sum it up

25:25 → 25:29

that community is actually the great outcome

25:29 → 25:33

that a really well established brand could lead to.

25:35 → 25:36

Well, agree.

25:36 → 25:40

So we could say that the perfect world could be a world

25:40 → 25:43

of thousands of little small brands.

25:43 → 25:44

Yes?

25:44 → 25:47

That's the but on the other hand on the

25:47 → 25:50

other hand, as a branding expert,

25:50 → 25:53

would you be able to imagine a market where there is

25:53 → 25:56

known such thing as a brand which would be, let's say,

25:56 → 25:59

like a recognizable worldwide, like Coca Cola or

25:59 → 26:01

Netflix, for example?

26:04 → 26:06

Yeah, thanks for mentioning this.

26:07 → 26:12

As we discussed and chat about branding with different folks

26:12 → 26:17

out there, we really don't like when there is just a

26:19 → 26:22

certain number of really the biggest ones,

26:22 → 26:26

the most successful brands that have been used for all examples.

26:26 → 26:27

And

26:28 → 26:32

we believe that currently in

26:32 → 26:35

every category surround us that

26:35 → 26:37

have so ingrained behaviors.

26:37 → 26:40

It's just unthinkable and very hard to imagine

26:40 → 26:44

how it could ever become different.

26:44 → 26:48

And this immediately changes, a new brand comes along and

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actually changes everything.

26:51 → 26:56

It's nowadays more common than anyone

26:56 → 26:59

than any time before for new businesses to emerge and

26:59 → 27:03

become super wildly successful by simply doing what

27:03 → 27:07

customers want and not by look and chance,

27:07 → 27:09

but purposefully and super intentional.

27:09 → 27:14

So here is the key thing, no matter the category,

27:15 → 27:15

really

27:16 → 27:19

put your customer interest at heart.

27:19 → 27:22

And I think that

27:24 → 27:27

the best example about introducing the thoughtfully

27:27 → 27:31

developed brands into a category that's previously

27:31 → 27:34

wasn't brand driven at all could be witnessed and is

27:34 → 27:38

already mainstream with the rise of the FinTech category

27:38 → 27:42

for example, and just thinking about what

27:42 → 27:45

N26 today means in Europe.

27:45 → 27:48

But there are lot of local examples like for

27:48 → 27:53

example, GetSafe in the Insurtech space and

27:53 → 27:58

Tomorrow Banking that really aims to engage a

27:58 → 28:01

very niche segment of customers.

28:01 → 28:05

Also the gorillas in Germany and

28:05 → 28:08

they're just huge now because of

28:09 → 28:12

their ability to tap into the identities of their ideal users

28:12 → 28:16

and yeah, to actually create this sense of community.

28:17 → 28:20

So yeah, I personally believe that

28:20 → 28:22

the ultimate disruption

28:23 → 28:27

is for one to prove that Google brand can come from

28:27 → 28:31

totally unexpected, unsexy, or even if you say

28:31 → 28:33

it's dog category

28:33 → 28:35

Pardon?

28:36 → 28:40

A bit Yeah, it's really like this.

28:40 → 28:44

So think rental or car insurance, real estate,

28:44 → 28:48

healthcare diagnostics, women health, contact lenses,

28:48 → 28:53

erectile dysfunction, all of these categories

28:54 → 28:59

embodying themselves a huge number of customer problems and needs.

28:59 → 28:59

And

29:00 → 29:04

as the brand starts to speak openly and

29:04 → 29:07

actually provides a good solution to this problem,

29:07 → 29:11

then they just don't have real competition in

29:11 → 29:12

these categories.

29:12 → 29:15

And it's a lot more easier to build a strong brand

29:15 → 29:18

than for example, to go into the consumer space,

29:18 → 29:21

I think t shirts or even backpacks where you have

29:21 → 29:25

already thousands of really strong brands out there.

29:25 → 29:29

But still it requires from them to be a little bit

29:29 → 29:31

not a little bit, to be both,

29:31 → 29:36

to be a risk takers because that's it takes

29:36 → 29:38

guts to to do that,

29:38 → 29:42

to be really different from your sector.

29:42 → 29:46

Like, especially nowadays, it's we can think about

29:46 → 29:49

banks that go not the typical

29:49 → 29:53

stereotypical, boring way just because we already

29:53 → 29:54

had few examples.

29:54 → 29:59

But for the first one who did it was definitely a big leap.

30:00 → 30:01

Yeah.

30:01 → 30:04

I think that this is what

30:04 → 30:08

disruption could be translated into a meaningful way,

30:08 → 30:10

exactly what you said.

30:12 → 30:14

Bold and

30:16 → 30:19

taking care of your customer's needs.

30:21 → 30:25

Not being afraid to get into unexplored territories before.

30:26 → 30:29

All right, thank you for this.

30:30 → 30:34

Jordan, so according to you, what you just said,

30:34 → 30:38

what categories would benefit most from the

30:38 → 30:40

branding in the next few years?

30:40 → 30:43

What verticals, what industries?

30:46 → 30:49

Yeah, so like I mentioned,

30:49 → 30:54

I think that it's the industries that are still

30:54 → 30:55

about to see

30:57 → 31:00

an explosion in the digitization,

31:00 → 31:02

for example, Insurtech,

31:02 → 31:05

which is already very quickly developing, real estate,

31:06 → 31:08

even construction.

31:08 → 31:11

Those are some

31:11 → 31:14

categories where you currently definitely don't have something

31:14 → 31:17

like Nike on your mind.

31:17 → 31:19

Also in the health space,

31:20 → 31:23

I think that the digitization is

31:24 → 31:28

just starting and there's so many pure petty

31:28 → 31:31

carriers as well as different

31:31 → 31:35

diagnostic approaches and few methods that appear

31:36 → 31:41

that will basically allow consumers to take a lot

31:41 → 31:44

better care for themselves in the preventive stage.

31:45 → 31:49

So the development of a lot of diseases will cease as these

31:49 → 31:52

new categories have been developed.

31:53 → 31:57

So yeah, I think that we have to look at

31:57 → 32:03

the very traditional industries that are everywhere around us.

32:03 → 32:07

And we really don't currently associate with cool

32:07 → 32:11

startups, with cool brands, with flash images.

32:11 → 32:15

I think that all of those are basically open areas for

32:15 → 32:19

innovation and for developing brand new

32:20 → 32:24

better propositions that will engage people.

32:24 → 32:28

I think we start to see more and more examples in these

32:28 → 32:32

fields that you mentioned, like especially in terms of

32:32 → 32:36

mental health apps, like, also given the situation

32:36 → 32:41

last one year and a half with the isolation and the

32:41 → 32:46

state of the people, like and, yeah,

32:46 → 32:47

also woman health care.

32:47 → 32:48

And,

32:49 → 32:52

I think it's more and more

32:52 → 32:54

growing in the last years,

32:54 → 32:57

but there's already really good examples in these fields that

32:57 → 33:01

are already doing what we talked about.

33:03 → 33:04

Yeah, it's already happening.

33:04 → 33:10

But still, if we imagine the entertainment category, for example,

33:10 → 33:13

there's so much more opportunity.

33:13 → 33:15

Those are really great examples.

33:15 → 33:19

We're constantly looking with the team at new

33:19 → 33:21

brands that emerge and

33:22 → 33:26

beyond all places around the world, and it's amazing.

33:28 → 33:31

There any category

33:32 → 33:34

that is not strived for disruption and that is really

33:34 → 33:38

boring and couldn't be the home for

33:38 → 33:40

a new global brand.

33:40 → 33:45

So people just need to look at the places

33:45 → 33:50

that don't look exciting right now because this is actually an opportunity.

33:50 → 33:52

This means that

33:52 → 33:56

it's still a free space on consumer minds to be owned

33:56 → 33:59

by another strong brand.

34:00 → 34:02

Right. Thank you for this.

34:02 → 34:06

It looks like we've one question from the audience from

34:06 → 34:07

Wojciech.

34:07 → 34:11

Wojciech asks, is it possible to say how much time

34:11 → 34:13

it takes to build a brand?

34:15 → 34:16

Tricky one.

34:17 → 34:21

Yeah, this is a tricky question and

34:22 → 34:23

it's

34:24 → 34:28

also kind of the question that every

34:28 → 34:33

organization that comes in touch with us asks.

34:33 → 34:37

Usually to go through the whole process and

34:37 → 34:41

to really develop a brand starting from the

34:41 → 34:47

scratch without a battery of user insights

34:48 → 34:51

and the foundation to start from and to build it.

34:51 → 34:56

The process could take up to a year

34:56 → 34:59

and yeah, this includes the whole

34:59 → 35:03

discovery process, the whole strategy definition

35:03 → 35:07

and more than anything alignment between the key stakeholders.

35:07 → 35:09

And

35:09 → 35:13

here, the most tricky part is to start from internal

35:13 → 35:17

alignment, just making sure that the vision is

35:17 → 35:19

articulated to the team in a very,

35:19 → 35:23

very clear manner because this could be an enabler for speed

35:23 → 35:25

and agility and growth.

35:25 → 35:29

And then of course it should be also clearly articulated to the

35:29 → 35:32

customers but this is where the main focus is.

35:32 → 35:38

And I strongly believe that the only modern way to

35:39 → 35:42

actually manage branding as a tech company

35:42 → 35:46

is to treat it like a product

35:46 → 35:49

management process because in product you continuously

35:49 → 35:53

iterate, you test different better propositions,

35:53 → 35:56

experiment and then you learn and improve based

35:57 → 35:58

on the learning.

35:58 → 36:01

And this is also how I think that

36:01 → 36:05

an organization should manage their brand because

36:06 → 36:11

the brand development process is also a learning process and

36:12 → 36:15

you continuously need to improve based on how well you

36:15 → 36:19

manage to solve your user pains and the feedback

36:19 → 36:21

that you receive from them.

36:23 → 36:27

And once you have the strategy, then yeah,

36:27 → 36:32

of course, it comes the implementation into the visual parts.

36:32 → 36:33

Then you have

36:34 → 36:37

also some time where you explore

36:37 → 36:42

directions and you just see where it goes,

36:42 → 36:44

you discuss, and, yeah, it's a process.

36:44 → 36:45

It's really

36:46 → 36:49

back and forth between the client and and the queue.

36:49 → 36:50

So

36:51 → 36:55

takes time, but the result is the most important.

36:55 → 36:59

If you ask about the design production and

36:59 → 37:04

the part where we can help with the actual delivery and

37:04 → 37:07

articulating the strategy and creating the deliverables.

37:07 → 37:10

Yeah, we can do this in three months,

37:10 → 37:12

more or less for a startup.

37:12 → 37:14

But then the actual brand development,

37:14 → 37:18

it also includes the brand activation phase,

37:18 → 37:21

the roll out to the internal team,

37:21 → 37:27

to the customers and actually going through a series of activation

37:27 → 37:31

activities that will enable you

37:31 → 37:33

bring everything to life.

37:33 → 37:37

And as it comes to rebranding,

37:37 → 37:40

it could be even more complex because

37:40 → 37:44

when an organization has been around for many years

37:44 → 37:49

and wants to help a turn in its direction,

37:49 → 37:53

actually, it could be much more complex because some

37:53 → 37:58

audience groups needs to still feel safe.

37:58 → 38:01

They shouldn't be afraid at some point.

38:01 → 38:05

At the same time, you need to kind of

38:06 → 38:10

decide on how to make the shift from moving from one area

38:10 → 38:12

in the consumer space to another.

38:12 → 38:16

And yeah, this could be a

38:16 → 38:19

really, really challenging process.

38:19 → 38:20

But as it comes to rebranding,

38:20 → 38:24

we believe that the only approach that works out there

38:24 → 38:27

is not to go into a revolutionary

38:27 → 38:30

mode with the branding, but just

38:31 → 38:33

to make evolution.

38:35 → 38:37

Thank you very much for this.

38:37 → 38:40

I would like to also thank you Wojciech,

38:40 → 38:43

which came up with this question.

38:44 → 38:46

I think this would be the final

38:46 → 38:50

one for today, but it's crucial.

38:50 → 38:53

And it had been slightly touched through other

38:53 → 38:58

questions, but this would be probably a good wrap up for the

38:58 → 39:00

for the end of today's session.

39:00 → 39:05

So according to you, how can branding help in shaping

39:05 → 39:06

your product decisions?

39:06 → 39:06

Yeah.

39:06 → 39:09

We each startup or each tech company is about

39:09 → 39:11

to deliver totally different product.

39:11 → 39:13

This may be, for example, a bank account,

39:13 → 39:15

virtual bank account.

39:15 → 39:16

This might be a smartwatch.

39:16 → 39:19

This might be a new pair of shoes just like you mentioned.

39:19 → 39:20

Yeah?

39:20 → 39:23

So how branding, so something that

39:23 → 39:27

you deliver may determine my future decisions of a protocol

39:27 → 39:29

or service that I'm about to build?

39:33 → 39:37

So just to recap,

39:39 → 39:43

would you mean how you can develop better products by

39:43 → 39:44

working on your brand?

39:44 → 39:47

Or I haven't got the question.

39:48 → 39:52

How can branding help in shaping your product decisions?

39:53 → 39:55

Okay, okay, yeah.

39:55 → 39:56

So yeah, this

39:57 → 39:59

is also great and very practical question.

39:59 → 40:04

If you really do it right from the start and you know

40:04 → 40:07

what you stand for and you have defined your purpose,

40:08 → 40:12

then this purpose and your long term vision,

40:12 → 40:18

is usually great to have some shape developed for the next ten years.

40:20 → 40:23

It's okay for a lot of things to not go in the right way but

40:23 → 40:26

you need to know why you started

40:26 → 40:29

what you're doing and what's your overlying purpose,

40:29 → 40:33

which is not something that changes in year.

40:33 → 40:37

So this provides you with a very clear value map

40:37 → 40:41

that you can use in a very good way in your

40:41 → 40:45

product decision making and save you a lot of time and effort.

40:45 → 40:50

Because what we see today in a lot of organization is

40:50 → 40:54

as it comes to having an MVP or version model

40:54 → 40:59

of a product, and then what features we need to add next or to suggest next.

40:59 → 41:04

And if you don't have clearly established brand strategy and

41:04 → 41:08

purpose that is articulated with clarity to the whole team,

41:08 → 41:11

then there are some crazy things that happen.

41:11 → 41:15

Every person of the team has different ideas and all of

41:15 → 41:18

these ideas are good by themselves.

41:18 → 41:19

And then

41:20 → 41:24

we can get some of the user requests because it's typically

41:24 → 41:28

normal for different people out there to request something that

41:28 → 41:32

they think they would need and will do their job well.

41:32 → 41:36

And if there isn't a very clearly

41:36 → 41:38

established purpose in the organization,

41:38 → 41:41

then the management could decide that

41:42 → 41:46

many of these ideas and future suggestion they make

41:47 → 41:50

perfect sense in terms of business opportunities or in

41:50 → 41:53

terms of new problems to solve.

41:53 → 41:53

So,

41:54 → 41:58

yeah, and at the end you can create a mess,

41:58 → 42:02

just start adding features that have nothing to do

42:02 → 42:06

with your initial vision of bringing you closer to

42:07 → 42:09

of realizing your purpose.

42:09 → 42:12

So that's why having a clear established purpose

42:12 → 42:17

and mission, it could serve as

42:17 → 42:19

a compass for the product development teams.

42:19 → 42:22

And I think one of the best

42:22 → 42:29

activities you can do when a product team is revising their roadmap

42:29 → 42:32

is to also kind of

42:33 → 42:34

see and reflect

42:34 → 42:37

on what part of their

42:37 → 42:40

mission they want to achieve into, let's say,

42:40 → 42:42

the next quarter or the next six months.

42:42 → 42:43

So

42:44 → 42:47

if you make sure that every single person on the team,

42:47 → 42:49

they understand what's the mission,

42:49 → 42:53

then all of these future ideas and suggestion won't come out

42:53 → 42:56

of context and they'll provide some strategic ways

42:57 → 43:00

for your product, for your startup to be able

43:01 → 43:06

to move forward with realizing its potential and its purpose.

43:06 → 43:11

This is what I think is the main benefit of

43:11 → 43:14

having well established branding.

43:14 → 43:17

And I believe it could be a very powerful tool for the

43:17 → 43:21

product organization as well, not just for the marketing.

43:22 → 43:24

All right then, thank you very much for this.

43:24 → 43:29

I think that it was a very good summary of today's session.

43:31 → 43:33

Thank you very much for joining.

43:33 → 43:35

Thank you very much for your time.

43:35 → 43:39

I would like to highly encourage everybody who

43:39 → 43:42

will be watching this show later

43:42 → 43:43

on today.

43:43 → 43:46

If you have any questions to Sofia and Jordan,

43:46 → 43:48

please feel free to reach out to them.

43:48 → 43:50

Fiction agency is yours.

43:50 → 43:53

Feel free to contact them in case of any further questions

43:53 → 43:54

or perhaps some projects.

43:54 → 43:55

Yeah?

43:55 → 43:56

When it comes to us,

43:56 → 43:58

when it comes to Merrick's live session,

43:58 → 44:01

we will be back in two weeks talking a little bit about the

44:01 → 44:07

conditions and the environment of establishing a startup in Malta.

44:07 → 44:10

So thank you very much guys. Have a good one.

44:10 → 44:13

I hope that the weather in both locations is much better than

44:13 → 44:15

both times.

44:15 → 44:17

And thank you again.

44:17 → 44:19

Thank you very much, Mike.

44:19 → 44:23

You're also great facilitator and it was it was awesome

44:23 → 44:25

to chat about branding with I

44:26 → 44:30

hope that we managed to provide some practical tips for

44:30 → 44:35

anyone who is interested to the topic as this is

44:36 → 44:38

more than anything that we want to do.

44:38 → 44:40

A lot of people ask us, well,

44:40 → 44:44

how to do our branding and what we need to do next, etcetera.

44:44 → 44:49

So yeah, I managed that we managed to bring some practical

44:49 → 44:53

tips and for anyone to use something out of it.

44:53 → 44:54

Thank you guys.

44:54 → 44:58

It was great and I look forward to your next session in two weeks.

44:58 → 45:00

I'm pretty sure it will be great.

45:00 → 45:00

Thank you.

45:00 → 45:02

Thank you for having Thank

45:03 → 45:03

you.

45:03 → 45:05

Have a good one. Bye.

45:05 → 45:06

Bye. Bye.

45:06 → 45:08

Have a great rest of the week, everyone.