Ready to rebrand? Wait! Read this first.
Save time and money by addressing these key steps ahead of your rebrand or redesign.
Reading time: 5 minutes
Many times, founders bring me on board after a rebranding effort fails or because a website redesign project is going poorly.
Often, they blame the agency or design firm—they didn’t understand our audience, their messaging was not resonating, or they weren’t quite getting the design right.
They just spent $40-$100k on a rebrand and a brand new website, and no one is happy.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve come across this scenario (actually, I can, but it pains me to do so). Founders can easily avoid this scenario by taking a few simple but rigorous steps before hiring a design firm.
♟️Position first
Branding goes for the heart, positioning for the head. Branding is about emotional appeal, and positioning is hard, cold, logical, and unemotional. You cannot build a compelling brand if you don’t position your startup first. Positioning defines who you are, why you matter, and how you differ from your competitors.
Don’t know what positioning is and why you need it? Read these two posts:
How do you know your startup has a positioning problem?
Positioning at different stages of PMF
✍🏽Message development by market and audience is next
You should define your market segments and target audience personas as part of your positioning exercise.
Once you have a clear, strong positioning statement, test that positioning by developing messages targeted toward your market segments and target audiences.
For example, if your product targets SMBs and entrepreneurs, those two target markets have very different needs and behaviors. Suppose your buyer is a CIO, and the primary user is a head of design or a head of product. Those audiences have entirely different motivations for buying or using a product.
Your message should speak to their core motivations and behaviors. Test these messages first with your target audiences. Refine and fine-tune your message before proceeding to rebranding. This doesn’t have to take months and months. You can do this quickly and effectively by running A/B tests or sending a survey.