It used to be you thought about your brand once your product was built and launched into the market, if you thought about your brand at all. Modern app and software products consider their brand, voice, and personality from Day 1.

1. Why Branding Can’t Be An
Afterthought

2. Robert Wallace
@robertawallace

3. “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

4. Your product is not just a product;
it’s an extension of your brand and
the primary driver of growth and
user acquisition.

5. SILO’D, LINEAR APPROACH
Development: Silo’d
approach to
developing an app
Design: If offered, always an
afterthought, on the front-end and
tossed over the wall
Branding & Positioning:
Not offered OR always
after product is built
User Acquisition: Most
think has nothing to do
with product build

6. SILO’D, LINEAR APPROACH
Development: MVP!
MVP! MVP!
Design will surely
fix it, right?
What the hell is
Branding?
User Acquisition: Okay,
now, how do we sell?

7. 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 INTEGRATED APPROACH

8. 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

9. Other messaging apps exist. But the the
lighthearted and endearing messages, the
giphy’s all add to the experience.

10. 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.

11. 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.”

12. BRANDING = EVERY INTERACTION YOUR
PRODUCT HAS WITH YOUR USER
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

13. ”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

14. robert.wallace@tallwave.com