Having a brilliant product or service isn’t enough. To capture today’s consumers, smart startups are first crafting a brand strategy—one that builds a forward-looking foundation for the company.
Suppose you’ve got an idea for a great new thingamajig. It could be anything—a luxury candle, affordable college education, or a product to prevent male-pattern baldness. You can’t get the concept out of your head. You have to bring it to life.
But you have no prototypes, and no experience with the intricacies of industrial design. No understanding of production and distribution. No web design experience. No detailed market projections. No money.
In this moment, logic would advise against obsessing over brand strategy—and it would definitely advise against hiring a pricey agency to help you do it. And yet, a growing number of startups are doing just that, seeing great success as a result.
Only a few years ago, product was king. Founders focused on getting a minimum viable product to market, fast—iteration could fix shortcomings. Brand strategy was a back-burner issue, one to address when time and budget allowed.
But today’s tech tools make it easier for founders to, well, produce a product. With design sprints, rapid wireframe and product prototyping, contract manufacturing, fulfillment-as-a-service, webstore design, and hosting services, some entrepreneurs can go from concept to first paying customer in a matter of weeks.
That’s a double-edged sword. Those tools that make it easy to rush a product to market? They’re available to everyone, and have resulted in unprecedented competition in the startup world. (According to Crunchbase, VCs closed more than 21,800 global funding rounds last year, continuing a multiyear trend of increasing deal flow and sizes.) Countless entrepreneurs are discovering that their supposedly game-changing idea has already been launched by others, or at best is being copied by nimble competitors.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Startups Spring 2019-Ausgabe von Entrepreneur.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Startups Spring 2019-Ausgabe von Entrepreneur.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
The Better Way to Fail
The next time something you do flops, here's a new way to learn from it.
Making the Midlife Leap
After getting laid off in her early 50s, Keri Gardner decided she wanted to control her own fate-so she bought a franchise with her 401(k).
A Quick Guide to Franchise Ownership Costs
Franchising costs money. Here's what everything means.
This Doughnut Franchise Is Hitting the Road
To grow, DonutNV needed a steady supply of delivery trailers. So last year, it started making them itself.
3 Steps to Find Your Perfect Franchise
There are many brands out there. Finding the right one is up to you.
This Fencing Franchise Is Ready for Growth
Superior Fence & Rail nearly doubled its sales in one year. How? By stepping back and focusing on fundamentals.
What Are a Franchisee's Role and Responsibilities?
If you're going to be a franchisee, you should know exactly what's expected of you.
This Dog-Training Franchise Is Zooming Ahead
After a rough few years, Zoom Room made major changes...and has emerged as a stronger, faster, very well-behaved business.
What's the Real Damage?
Most clean-up companies just fix messes, like fire or flood damage. But 911 Restoration's new CEO saw an opportunity to help with the other emergency they often encounter: customers' emotional trauma.
Mental Health Services, Franchised
The U.S. is facing a growing mental health crisis. Ellie Mental Health wants to be the solution.