How many times have you encountered a great product online but the lack of brand makes you doubt its trustworthiness? How many times have you written a business e-mail and wished that there was a great, professional logo beneath your name? Especially as an early-stage startup, your brand and overall design can make or break your success. This is where the Minimum Viable Brand (MVB) comes in, helping your tech startup with brand development and growth.
How does your MVP relate to your startup branding?
Many startups have an incredible vision and are building a game-changing technology with a strong impact on society. It is common practice to work on a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) first to validate the product idea early in the product development circle. Using the same analogy as the MVP, the MVB helps you to move fast and efficiently. When developing your MVP, functionality is for sure one of the most important topics. However, to prepare for launch, reliability, usability, and design also play an important role. By simply focusing on your product's features, you might neglect the general appearance of your brand. The combination of these elements is what makes your product appeal to your target audience and attract investors.
For a Minimum Viable Brand, you don’t have to go through an extensive branding process. It represents the brand elements you need to attract users, talent, and investors. In a nutshell, in comparison with traditional full branding, an MVB as an initial branding concept is a less time- and a less cost-intensive way to develop a brand early on, giving it enough flexibility for learning and growth. It starts to guide your venture and appeals to your audience. It is the sweet spot that unifies the minimum requirements of resources with your brand values to establish your startup as a professional player in the market, adding value and increasing ROI.
Why is basic branding important for early-stage startups?
- Consistency: Aligning basic branding elements such as logo, color palette, and typography across relevant touchpoints creates a consistent brand experience. No more color switches from one document to another.
- Sophistication: Consistency also indicates a higher level of professionalism, communicating a sophisticated, mature, and trustworthy brand. You can act confidently without worrying about your startup's appearance.
- Growth: A consistent and sophisticated brand attracts users, prospects, and investors. Thus, it enables you to get up to speed and reach the next growth phase.
- Efficiency: Last but not least, strategic branding takes a load off your mind and makes your business life easier. You will have more time to focus on other key activities and on developing your product.
What are the first steps to creating powerful branding?
When working together with a startup branding agency, you will realize that branding is not a logo made out of a free font and a gradient. By applying a strategic approach to all of our projects—independent of the size and stage your tech startup is at—, we make sure that your brand will support your tech business in an efficient and effective way. For your Minimum Viable Brand, we deliver the most important assets which will help your startup gain trust and visibility: your professional logo in different versions and digital guidelines with your color palette and typography, ready to be used for all marketing activities.
When is the best time to brand your tech startup?
If you are an early-stage startup looking to create your first brand and are short of resources, a Minimum Viable Brand is the way to go:
You set in place all the necessary pieces of your brand.
Also, if your startup is facing a turning point and you need to change your brand identity, an MVB guarantees efficient and successful results.
Once you have more resources available and learned more about your users and the market, you can take the next step of your brand development with more advanced brand elements like a fully branded website or product screens. Depending on the stage your tech startup is at, we will find a branding strategy that suits your needs. Quarterly, we launch a new round of BrandBoostX, our startup branding packages to help effectively communicate the value of your venture and get up to speed quickly.
Independent of the stage your startup is at, we ensure that you reach your business goals. If you need further inspiration, have a look at our case studies and the latest trends from the startup scene. Feel free to drop us a line for collaboration or to enquire about free spots for our startup branding plans.