If you’re reading this then I have reason to believe you use the internet seldomly and therefore may or may not have been exposed to the word “startup” before, but that’s fine because there’s a first time for everything.
So why don’t we begin with a common question: “what is a startup?”
Naturally I should proceed to answer right away but then I wish to burst a few bubbles by tackling the misconception about what a startup and what a small business is. First off, both are separate entities who are in the business of providing a product or service. So if you’re one of those people who say “I want to do business”... you’re grammatically wrong but contextually right. You will be in the “business’’ providing a product or a service but you won’t be DOING business, that’s a figure of speech.
OMG, it’s like saying you want to cook the pot when the pot is actually used for cooking. Get it?
Great, moving on…
What is a startup?
A startup is a business designed to grow fast. It achieves this by disrupting a practice:
bringing a new solution to an old problem; (think PiggyVest, Edenlife)
a new solution to a new problem (think Risevest, Getequity)
building upon an existing solution to create another one, just for a specific group of people. (think TalentQL)
While it can be argued that the word “disrupt” has been used quite often so much it’s lost its taste, startups must show they are bringing a new way to do things. It must be unique: banks were disrupted by Paypal and Paypal was disrupted by Stripe--the problem they are solving is quick payments (and savings) all from one place. This disruption model isn’t the same for a small business.
What is a small business?
This is... well, a business that operates by selling a product or service. The product/service usually being physical and the business providing existing solutions to existing problems. In some cases maybe with a twist, like doing everything online--this doesn’t make you a startup though. Simply because you can now automate transactions and processes using an app doesn’t make you a startup unless you created the app yourself and still, if that’s not a new solution then you pretty much didn’t do anything extra. Sorry.
One unifying factor however, is that whether you are a startup or a small business, eventually your business will grow and for that reason, it will become a brand.
What is a brand?
A brand is an experience a business becomes and/or projects. A business BECOMES an experience when all they do and who they are can be felt across all their offerings, e.g Apple. A business PROJECTS an experience when their product or service makes you feel something, e.g Marvel and Netflix.
For businesses, they must strive to project or become, in order to exist as a brand. This is because a brand does two things: it offers an emotional and a functional benefit. As in most cases, one is usually primary while the other is secondary and the only way both can work easily as Yin and Yang, on a primary scale is if the business has spent years on iteration and consistency.
Now what is an emotional benefit? It is the positive feedback of emotion you get when you are consuming a product or service. The answer to the “how do I feel about this thing?” question. Meanwhile the functional benefit is the purpose of the product or service itself. If it doesn’t serve that purpose then the functional benefit is lacking. (Why buy a boat when you live in the desert?)
From the list of startups below, let us explore some of the emotional and functional benefits they might have. (This is subjectively from my experience)
PiggyVest:
Emotional: Saving money makes me happy there’s something I can fall back on if there’s a rainy day
Functional: I can save money (and withdraw easily too) with an app instead of those thieving banks
Getequity:
Emotional: I can beat my chest and say I am an investor in a startup
Functional: Instead of having these opportunities go to VCs, invest in startups right from an app!
TalentQL:
Emotional: I don’t have to worry about the stress of hiring or getting hired
Functional: Get international-level jobs and talent all from one place
From all this, you will notice that one outweighs the other but they complement still. That, plus the fact that they are providing new solutions to problems and they have the potential to scale. A small business doesn’t have all of this in the bag.
Though having benefits and a solution is one thing that starts the build up to becoming a brand as a startup, what really gets you wet is your strategy.
What is brand strategy?
Hocus pocus, show me your focus. This is a trick in brand management where a brand strategist tries to align the business to its true north--whether it’s by purpose or by problem.
Before I continue please, there’s a difference between a brand strategist and a brand designer. The strategist does the actual corporate branding from start to finish through and through, the designer will give you visual design and colour coding--something the strategist can do, if they know their work. (Yes, this is violence)
Now, a brand strategy is the foundational framework of a business that builds its heart and soul into the product/service, the staff and the overall appearance. A brand strategy is meant to turn your business into a person and make them pleasing to the senses; attractive, seductive even. The purpose of humanizing a brand is to make it easier to interact with who it serves--people.
The brand strategy is a complete guide and road map to achieving maturity in a decade or more, taking it one step at a time to make sure the business is recognisable by the eyes, the ears, the tongue, the skin, the nose. A business that cannot fulfill at least two of these isn’t on its way to being a mature brand just yet.
Startups require a brand strategy because of the fact that they are bringing new solutions and they are built to scale--fast. The argument here is that if a startup scales and becomes more stable and less flexible as it used to be, what does it need to do to stay relevant?
Consult the road map.
Why do startups need strategy?
The other approach will be why should they have one? The great tech companies that exist today all began as startups. The decisions you can make as a tech business with over 150 employees aren’t same as what you’d do when you were a team of 15. Though some things will become much more prevalent while others will move into the background or cease to exist, your brand strategy can be any of those things depending on whether you use it, change it or dump it.
I will attempt to state three key reasons your startup needs strategy, using our highly unpredictable Nigerian economy as a chalkboard.
Purpose: this is arguably the most important reason (and feature) for which your startup needs a brand strategy. Purpose ties your business to a higher calling, a stronger much more grounded, people-centric vision. That way even if your industry is completely obliterated by the likes of Meffy and your IP or patent annulled, you can still build something else out of that purpose. The trick to this is that once your strategy is tied to a purpose that is somewhat aligned with the basic needs of human beings, you have won. What are these basic needs? Food, shelter, security, reproduction/longevity, possession and community. This is why your startup needs a strategy.
Distinction: just like how attractive people are easy to spot in a room full of regular persons, that’s how attractive brands are easy to spot in a market where everyone looks alike. Seriously, think about it. Your startup needs to have something that separates it from everyone else. Try this exercise and let’s see what it reminds you of:
- Tudum
- A bitten apple
- A red car
Chances are, you thought of Netflix, Apple and a Ferrari. These are elements of distinction: sound, oddity and design. In order to beat your competition, get users and scale your startup, you must have distinction. It’s not just in your product alone, nobody is going to appreciate a button or an API, they can’t relate to that. The trick is to find something your business can be associated with and consistently build on it, passing that one message: this is who we are.
Expansion: yes yes yes, everyone likes to say think big and look at the bigger picture but it’s ironic when startups that are sometimes called delusional, think big but not big enough for when their business becomes a brand. My beef with startups here is they feel they can do little to no marketing and expect results. Sorry boss, you’re not Elon Chukwuebuka Musk. Building your startup as a brand with expansion in mind gives you the bandwidth to operate within a large enough space where you can pivot, switch industries, or even start a completely unrelated but allied business easily. Expansion complements your purpose and let’s you build your product just as you are building your brand at the same time.
Last words, Frodo…
Finally, I believe during the course of this article you may have said “this guy doesn’t know what we face” or “he doesn’t know what he’s saying”. Your opinions are valid but so are my points and this piece as a whole. I understand that startups are hard and even harder if you’re providing financial services because your job doubles as a firefighter but understand that:
Brands take time to build and even if you don’t go all in, start with just the tip.
So take your time and build your product--but build your brand too with purpose, an element of distinction and with expansion in mind. In my next article, I will try as much as possible to explain how a startup can craft a proper brand strategy for themselves.
Until then I leave you with this, young Harry Potter: everyday may not be day one, but it is always an opportunity to be world class! (Dumbledore didn’t say this btw)