Our Startup Branding Journey - What Makes A Brand Memorable?

Our startup branding journey PART1 Whatmakes abrand memorable?

Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat

Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat That’s us

Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat That’s us That’s who we want to be

WE NEED A BRAND! For that,

For real! We even wrote about it: See CLICK TO READ

WHAT IS A BRAND? Ok, first problem:

A LOGO A NAME+

A LOGO A NAME+ donot make a brand! (wetried)

COMPLEX A brand is a lot more

« Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product. » - ELON MUSK

So, that’s where we’re at: We have a name. We have a logo. We don’t have a brand

We tried things to stand out in the live chat industry0$ Being cheaper (read « free » here) Being the convenient choice (SEO + Integrations)

Long story short, Being cheaper: Being convenient: NOT A GOOD IDEA CLICK TO READ MORE TAKES TIME

Which brings us to… …BRANDING

What we want to achieve here: BECOME MEMORABLE STAND OUTTHINK LONG-TERM CREATE CONSISTENCY CONNECT WITH CLIENTS

Yup, I know we’re ambitious But we’re determined to try, and fail, and try again. Until we get this right.

share our process with you We thought it could be nice to Starting with all our pre-rebranding research

A BRAND MEMORABLE In this deck we’ll see what makes

- Simple Design Some kind of magic potion - Good story - Unique personality - Good knowledge of customers

Some kind of magic potion - Simple Design - Good story - Unique personality - Good knowledge of customers

No more than 2-3 main brand colors Unless you are selling rainbows or your name is Google

A simple and easy to identify symbol

A unique overall feel

That being said, here’s the most important thing we’ve learned: Do not obsess over your logo or brand colors… Pick something and stick with it!

When hearing or reading a story our brain reacts as if we were part of it

Here are our 3 favorite brand story frameworks for startups

1. The PSS Story Problem Solution Success

The example of Dropbox: « Drew Houston, Dropbox’ founder, was tired of forgetting his USB so he thought of a cloud-based ﬁle hosting system that would solve his problem. » The Problem The Product as the solution Success is pretty self explanatory

2. The Underdog Story Small business passionate about product and customers VS Big corporate business with impersonal customer service

« Snapchat entered the market with a clear goal: Fighting privacy invading networks like Facebook with an app where your messages aren’t kept in a database» The Underdog The Big Dog The example of Snapchat:

3. The Higher Purpose Story Strong company culture + A vision going way beyond the product

« Buffer is a social media scheduling tool. Yet, they are also known for their extreme transparency and journey toward a new ways to operate as a company» The example of Buffer: 2 elements that are visionary and big parts of Buffer’s culture

What’s right for you depends on the actions you want to inspire 1 PSS Story 2 Underdog Story 3 Higher Purpose Story Mainly sales focused. You want people to solve their problem using your product. Mainly relationship focused. You want people to have an emotional connection to your product. Mainly inspiration focused. You want people to drive change and make the world better.

The 5 dimensions of brand personality 1 2 3 4 5 Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophistication Ruggedness Down-to-earth Family-oriented Small-town Honest Sincere Real Wholesome Original Cheerful Sentimental Friendly Daring Trendy Exciting Spirited Cool Young Imaginative Unique Up-to-date Independent Contemporary Reliable Hard-working Secure Intelligent Technical Corporate Successful Leader Confident Upper-class Glamorous Good Looking Charming Feminine Smooth Outdoorsy Masculine Western Tough Rugged

The 12 main brand archetypes The Magician The Creator The Innocent The Explorer The Sage The Lover The Ruler The Hero The Caregiver The Maverick The Jester The Regular Guy/Girl

The Magician ! Understand the rules and laws to make customers’ dreams come to life. Magicians yield miraculous results which makes them look magical.

The Creator ! Non-conformists who design products that help customers be creative. Creators are perfectionists who are found of good design and like thinking out-of-the-box.

The Innocent ! Eternal optimists who think people are inherently good and seek to make the world a happier place. They often provide simple answers and have strong values.

The Explorer ! They help customers cross boundaries and experience something outside of their everyday life. Explorers love adventure and love to learn by experience.

The Sage ! Not the coolest kids on the block but certainly the smartest. Sage brands value research and information. They love educating customers.

The Lover ! Lover brands are all about relationships and beauty. They strive to make customers feel special and help them build connections with others.

The Ruler ! Ruler brands love being in control. They are leaders by nature and are dedicated to make their customers feel successful and important.

The Hero ! Underdogs that end up winning using their skills and will- power. They often have an enemy to fight against and empower customers to achieve their full potential.

The Caregiver ! Caregivers are dedicated to take the best care of their customers. Their mission is to help others and protect them the best they can.

The Maverick ! They live to break the rules and go against established conventions. Maverick brands are different, but they have this cool kid image that’s oh so attractive.

The Jester ! Jester brands are fun. They live in the present and want to enjoy life and see customers have a good time. They don’t like to take themselves seriously.

The Regular Guy/Girl ! They live to keep it simple to be more accessible. All they really want for them and their customers is to belong to a community.

Forgive me for stating the obvious but: You can’t build a memorable brand if you don’t know what’s memorable to your customers!

Let me give you an example

Let me give you an example Company X’ customers are mainly young freelance designers like this cool handsome young man

Let me give you an example Company X’ customers are mainly young freelance designers like this cool handsome young man This might be memorable to them: good & innovative design, a dribble social media link, references to freelance work, good looking mobile version of website…

Now, company Y

Now, company Y They mainly sell to 40+ corporate sales VPs

Now, company Y They mainly sell to 40+ corporate sales VPs This might be memorable to them: testimonials of other enterprise customers, strong focus on KPI, ROI and efficiency, a professional, formal customer service

Doesn’t care much about KPI and ROI Doesn’t care about your brand’s Dribble profile

Cool, cool, but how do you know what’s memorable to customers? 1. Hang-out in the same places as they do 2. Do one-on-one interviews 3. Look at the content they share 4. Study the look and feel of softwares they use

Becoming memorable is our ﬁrst challenge. ! And here’s how we are going to achieve that!

What we have right now Live chat software? What? Looks like an antivirus Name is kinda generic and hard to spell (capital or small « i », all together or spaces)

STEP 1: New name: more catchy, less generic New logo: more « chat like » Real color scheme and design feel: the most important part is to bring more design harmony to the brand We’re working on it and will release more info soon. Stay tuned ;)

STEP 2: What is our story and how do we tell it? There are too many pop-ups / box based solutions interrupting customers (live chat, marketing automation, feedback boxes…). You can’t test them all at once and it’s annoying to switch.Problem Solution Success Build a tool that puts everything together and can be a live chat by day, lead gen tool by night… Time will tell :)

STEP 3: We want to try a very different brand personality:

STEP 3: We want to try a very different brand personality: 2 Excitement Daring Trendy Exciting Spirited Cool Young Imaginative Unique + The Maverick

STEP 4: Which customers will this resonate with? Young, marketing savvy website designers looking for a chat solution for their clients Digital marketers & growth hackers looking for new ways to generate leads

We’ve got memorable branding covered ! But that’s not all! Being memorable also means building a memorable customer experience. READ ABOUT IT HERE

That’s it for now folks! ! Hope you enjoyed the presentation and we’d love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us @customericare Chat with us on customericare.com

Also, ! if you you want to follow the rest of our branding journey, you can sign up for our newsletter CLICK TO SIGNUP (Next order of business: How to create consistency)

Aurelie Chazal Consultant Aurelie Chazal Hi! Is there anything I can help you with today? We let you add a chat window like this to your website (How cool, right?!) SOO, CHECK US OUT!

Our Startup Branding Journey - What Makes A Brand Memorable?

Customericare

Our Startup Branding Journey - What Makes A Brand Memorable?