A BRANDING JOURNEY
make your brand memorable

WHAT IS A
BRAND?

A LOGO + A NAME

A LOGO + A NAME
do not make a brand!!

A BRAND IS MUCH
MORE COMPLEX

“Brand is just a perception, and perception
will match reality over time. Sometimes it
will be ahead, other times it will be behind.
But a brand is simply a collective impression
some have about a product.”
Elon Musk

Have you tried this?
Being Cheaper
read ‘free’
Being Convenient

Long Story Short
Being Cheaper Being Convenient
Takes TimeNot a Good Idea

A good brand story = a memorable brand
ONCE UPON A
BRAND...

Be
memorable
Think
long term
What you want to achieve
Create
Consistency
Connect
with clients
Standout

HOW TO MAKE A BRAND
MEMORABLE?

Some kind of
magic portion
Simple design
Good Story
Unique Personality
Good knowledge of customers

Some kind of
magic portion
Simple design
Good Story
Unique Personality
Good knowledge of customers

unless you selling the rainbow
and unicorns
No more than
2-3 main
brand colours

A simple and
easy to
identify
symbol

A unique look and feel

That being said, here’s the most important thing
you’ll change it later when you are big enough
Don’t obsess over your logo
or brand colors
pick something and stick with it!

Some kind of
magic portion
Simple design
Good Story
Unique Personality
Good knowledge of customers

When reading or hearing a story
our brains reacts as if we
part of it.

My 3 favourite
Brand story
frameworks
for start ups

1. The PSS Story
Problem Solution Success

Example: 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

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

Example: Equity Bank
“Equity bank entered the market with a clear goal:
Banking majority poor customers rejected by big
banks.”
The Underdog
The Big Dog

3. The Higher Purpose Story
Strong company culture
+
Vision going beyond the
product.

Example: Toms Shoes
“Toms Shoes came up with the tag One for One,
meaning that for every purchased pair of Toms
gives a pair to someone in need. TOMS exists to
improve lives.”
2 elements that are
part of TOMS culture

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

Some kind of
magic portion
Simple design
Good Story
Unique Personality
Good knowledge of customers

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
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
12 main brand archetypes

Some kind of
magic portion
Simple design
Good Story
Unique Personality
Good knowledge of customers

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
an example

Let me give
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…

Let me give
an example
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

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 placesas 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 do you have right now?

Step 1
more catchy? less generic?New Name?
more catchy? less generic?New logo ?
the most important part is to bring design
harmony to the brand.
Real colour scheme and design feel? ?

Step 2
whats your story and how do you tell it?
Personality ? Archetype?
the most important part is to bring design
harmony to the brand.
Real colour scheme and design feel?

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

STEP 4:
Which customers will this resonate with?

But that’s not all! Being memorable also means
building a memorable customer experience
which we’ll cover the next time we meet :)
WE’VE GOT MEMORABLE
BRANDING COVERED.

Hope you enjoyed the presentation and I’d love to
hear from you!!
magugz@brand2d.com
@onlymagugz
THAT’S IT FOR
NOW FOLKS.