Branding for Startups - Initialized Capital

Copyright Viget Labs, LLC This document is CONFIDENTIAL and should not be shared without permission.
Branding for Startups
Initialized Capital
Ally Fouts
February 2019

1. What makes someone adopt a product?
2. How does a brand advance product
adoption?
3. What’s a brand strategy?
4. How does this apply to my startup?
5. How do I get started?
6. Get out what you put in.
What we’ll
be covering:

You started a business because you
have a product you want people to
adopt, and you’d like to expedite the
adoption of that product.
Fact #1

What makes someone
adopt a product?

LOGIC:
I have evaluated this product’s
attributes and functionality and
have decided that it fulfills my
needs. I want it.

EMOTION:
OMG I love the way this product
makes me feel. I want it.

Your brand’s job is to help you
advance the expedited adoption of
your product.
Fact #2

Your brand is how you
communicate, in a clear and
compelling way:

Who you are.
What you do.
Why you do it.

It’s your organizational story

THE CLEAR AND COMPELLING COMMUNICATION OF:
Who you are.
What you do.
Why you do it.

Why does an organization
need a story?

Stories help us understand.
Our brains are hardwired to detect patterns,
which is how we discern meaning.
1

● We detect a visual pattern and we know it’s a face.
● We detect an audio pattern and we know it’s a
friendly greeting vs. a hostile one.
● We detect patterns in information (or stories)
and we better discern the meaning of that
information.

Stories help us make decisions.
Stories simplify information, which makes life
easier on our dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
2

Michael Vaughan. (2014). Entrepreneur. Know Your Limits, Your Brain Can Only Take So Much.
““As people received more information, their
brain activity increased in the dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex, a region behind the forehead
that is responsible for making decisions and
controlling emotions. But when the
information load became too much, it was as
though a breaker in the brain was triggered,
and the prefrontal cortex suddenly shut down.”

“As people reach information overload...they
start making stupid mistakes and bad choices
because the brain region responsible for smart
decision making has essentially left the
premises.”
Michael Vaughan. (2014). Entrepreneur. Know Your Limits, Your Brain Can Only Take So Much.
“

Stories make us feel and act.
A little tweak of chemistry.
3

When we hear or see a story that captures our
attention and transports us into the world of the
story, our brains release oxytocin, which makes
us more sensitive to social cues around us.
Paul Zak. (2013). Greater Good Magazine. How Stories Change the Brain

““Once a story has sustained our attention long
enough, we may begin to emotionally resonate
with story’s characters. Narratologists call this
“transportation,” and you experience this when
your palms sweat as James Bond trades blows
with a villain on top of a speeding train.”

In many situations, social cues motivate us to
engage to help others, particularly if the other
person seems to need our help.
We start to feel what the subjects in the story
are feeling and often act upon those feelings.

How does a brand
(organizational story) advance
product adoption?

Brand stories help your customers:
● Remember and understand you.
● Make decisions based on that understanding.
● Like you, help you, and become willing to associate
themselves with you and respond positively to your
asks.

To effectively leverage a brand to
advance the expedited adoption of
your product, you need a brand
strategy.
Fact #3

Brand:
The distillation of your organizational story.
Adoption:
A decision driven by both logic and emotion.
Brand Strategy:
How you make your organizational story come to life.

Method 1:
Communication
How you make your organizational story come to life:
Method 2:
Functionality

Brand Strategy Method:
Communication

When you make your organizational
story (brand) come to life (brand
strategy) via communication (words and
images) you affect adoption (emotional
and logical decision making) this way:

Logical Decision Making:
I see that their food is better because it
doesn’t have antibiotics or hormones,
the animals are raised outdoors, and
it’s grown locally. I’d eat there.

Emotional Decision Making:
These folks are funny. And honest.
And modern. And smart. And
self-aware. I like them. I’d eat there.

Brand Strategy Method:
Functionality

When you make your organizational
story (brand) come to life (brand strategy)
via functionality (features / experience)
you affect adoption (emotional and logical
decision making) this way:

Logical Decision Making:
I can see them preparing my food. The
ingredients look fresh. I can see them
cooking the food and cutting it up, not
frying or microwaving it. I’d eat there.

Emotional Decision Making:
This feels really modern. It doesn’t feel
like a fast food place. It feels sleek and
natural. I’d eat there.

So how does this apply to my startup?

To achieve expedited adoption, your
brand strategy’s communication and
functionality executions need to work
in tandem.
Fact #4

Talking the Talk
&
Walking the Walk

All Hat No Cattle Syndrome
AKA

By distilling your organizational story (brand) and
making it come to life (brand strategy) through
communication (words and images) and
functionality (features and experience) you can help
advance the expedited adoption (based on emotional
and logical decision making) of your product.
Theory

By distilling your organizational story and making it
come to life through communication and
functionality you can help advance the expedited
adoption of your product.
Theory

Honestly assess your current
branding situation.
1

Buckle up and just try to stay
consistent.
Easiest...

Identify your core set of brand
attributes and your primary
communication problems and goals.
A Little Harder, But Still Not Bad...

1. In matters of taste, your taste matters. To be
known as a trusted curator of premier ideas and
experiences our taste has to be impeccable.
2. Our story is telling your story. We have to stand
out, but we can’t overshadow.
3. Why matters. We have to explain why what we do
actually matters.
4. Keeping it real. Build something real out of the
connections we’ve made.
1. The price is premier but the look is not. Polish
makes it psychologically easier to pay a premium
for value.
2. Now that we’re so connected, the ability to
connect people seems less valuable. The digital
age has commoditized many of our personal
connections — downgrading both their
significance and quality.
3. Ideas are getting cheaper. It’s getting harder to
charge a premium for access to information.
4. Male, pale, and stale. When people want inspiring
and innovative ideas, they don’t turn to an
organization that’s perceived as outdated or
out-of-touch.
Problems Goals

Start brainstorming ways to
articulate your brand in a clear,
concise, and compelling way.
Getting Trickier...

Brand
(The distillation of your organizational story):
Food With Integrity

Brand
Hey Dude Where’s My Food?

Start shaping your brand strategy.
If you have designers and writers in-house,
they can start building your style and voice
and tone guides using your core attributes,
problems & goals, and brand articulation
statement as their foundation.
Trickiest...

As with most things in life, what you
get out of your branding depends on
what you put into it.
Lastly

MVP
experimentation
hypothesis
evolution
revision
97
Branding
legitimacy
conviction
consistency
stability

When, executed well, your brand
can give you instant credibility.

Your brand provides value
both internally and externally..

Your brand allows you to
always be pitching..

Copyright Viget Labs, LLC This document is CONFIDENTIAL and should not be shared without permission.
Thanks.
Initialized Capital
Ally Fouts
February 2019

Branding for Startups - Initialized Capital

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