Why Your Startup Needs a Brand, Not Just a Logo

Just not one that takes six months to launch.

You go to launch your company, and what do you need next? A logo, right? So, you call up your niece, Emma, who took one graphic design class in college to see if she can whip something up that you can use to get this thing rolling. You settle on something that’s good enough, and you go.

However, as you start building your company, you start to realize everything you put out there is starting to look like sh*t. And after using every Canva template available, your brand lacks consistency, and you have no identity. If people already didn’t know who you were, they really don’t now.

Now, don’t go blaming Emma for where you are. Instead, try to reflect on where you might have gone wrong.

You got a logo, not a brand.

We’ve seen far too many companies come through our doors who tell us they want to look like Nike or Apple or Rolex. But what do all three of these companies have in common? A brand system which, when adhered to, results in consistency.

If you were walking down the street and saw a Nike ad without the swoosh, you'd still recognize it as Nike because of their entire brand system: the colors, the photography, the messaging. That's the power of brand consistency.

And you too can have one. You just have to know the ingredients to achieve an effective brand system – and it doesn’t have to break the bank or take half a year to complete.

If done correctly, you can accomplish:

• Brand Recognition: A cohesive brand makes you instantly recognizable to potential customers.
• Trust and Credibility: A consistent brand presence builds trust and establishes you as a legitimate player in your industry.
• Emotional Connection: The right visuals and messaging can evoke emotions in your target audience, making them more receptive to your brand.
• Marketing Efficiency: A brand system streamlines your marketing efforts by providing clear guidelines for all your creatives.

Building Your Brand System: 4 Key Steps

An effective brand system goes beyond visuals. It's the voice, the personality, and the overall experience you want to create for your customers. Here are the four steps to get you started.

1. Know Your Audience

Become obsessed with them. The biggest mistake is creating a brand for yourself, not for the people you’re selling to. If you know your audience’s likes, behaviors, and interests, you’ll appeal to them naturally before the sales pitch.

Demographic data is a good place to start, but also think through behaviors: What kind of car do they drive? Where was the last place they went on vacation? What kind of phone do they use? Where do they go to get their news?

Answering these questions can be your guiding light as you start to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP) and what will appeal to them most.

2. Do Competitor Research

As much as you need to know who you’re selling to, you also need to know who else is selling to them. Doing competitive research is a crucial step in your ideating process for a multitude of reasons:

1. You can glean inspiration for what you want (or don’t want) to do with your brand.

2. You can find ways to stand out among the pack.

3. You can blend into the pack (which can also be equally effective, depending on your audience and industry).

Start looking at their visual and verbal brands. How are they appealing to customers? Where are they reaching customers? This will give you a sense of what you want to do — and what you want to steer clear of — all at the same time.

3. Find Your Voice

When most people think of a brand, they think of the fun visual elements but tend to neglect the verbal part of it. Going back to the Nike brand example, everything they say is powerful and direct, where the words on the page are almost more impactful than the visuals of their brand.

The messaging of your brand is your personality, and it’s a crucial part of your overall identity. If you neglect defining your brand voice and tone, you’ll be left with a brand that is like a teenager trying to find themselves, with no clear direction as to who they are.

4. Establish the Visual Basics

Notice how we are just now getting to the visual side of the brand? The part you ran to immediately, skipping the crucial first steps? Once you’ve done all the legwork of making sure your brand can be effective, let’s talk about what you need to make it look consistent, recognizable, and effective.

You may not be ready to invest $50K+ in a full brand design, and honestly you shouldn’t. When you’re starting out, having a few fundamentals in place will give you the foundation you need to start making a name for yourself. Then you can build your brand out further as your needs change.

At minimum, a basic startup brand system should include:

Company Name: This can be the hardest and most emotional decision for founders. But it’s crucial you land on something that’s ownable, clear, and relevant to what you do. Also consider other companies — will this name cause confusion with your customers? Is it memorable? Finding the right name for your business can make or break you.

Logo: This visual cornerstone of your brand’s identity creates the foundation for the rest of your system. Is it modern? Is it soft and curving? Does it only contain letters or is it a combination of a visual and your company name? As a symbol of your business, it often reflects what you do, what matters to you, and intentionally evokes certain emotions from your customers.

Color & Typography: If the logo is the cornerstone, color and typography make up the backbone (switching from construction to anatomy, but you get it) of your brand’s visual identity. The right color palette speaks volumes before a single word is even noticed. Color is so important that companies even register for a color trademark to protect it. Colors also have different emotional associations depending on the culture, so think it through and do your research when picking out a palette.

And when it comes to your typography? Simple text can become a powerful expression of your mission when your typography is right. The typeface you select carries your message with a visual tone and voice that’s crucial to nail down. When typography aligns seamlessly with the rest of your brand, your message not only reaches but resonates with your audience.

Shapes & Patterns: Going beyond mere decoration and cool vibes, shapes and patterns are essential visual tools that amplify the brand’s identity and enforce visual consistency. They can become symbolic cues that create an emotional connection and make your brand easier to spot in the wild. These elements drive home every aspect of your brand narrative across all touchpoints.

Photography: Much like color, typography, shapes, and patterns, having a photography style that best represents your brand is the bare minimum for building a cohesive and effective system. Dark and moody, light and bright: every photo in your marketing materials will make customers feel a certain way. Being aware of how photography styles impact your target audience — and knowing the impact you want to achieve — can help you decide on the best direction. Setting style standards for your brand’s imagery ensures consistency among your assets and a stronger overall system.  

Get It Done Right, But Get It Done Fast

Because we work with early stage companies, 99% of the companies we partner with have fallen into the pitfall of launching with just a logo. And we understand the pressure of getting your company off the ground. Launching a product and establishing a presence takes priority, and branding can sometimes feel like an afterthought.

That's why we created brand sprints: a streamlined process to build a core brand system quickly.

This can look as basic as refining your current logo with a few adjustments, adding depth to your color palette, defining some brand shapes, patterns, and photography styles to throwing it all in the trash and starting over.

In either case, our goal is to never spend more than two months on the brand, giving our clients (and us) what we need to effectively reach and appeal to their target audience.

We’d never want your brand to be the thing that’s holding you back from growth, so whatever it is you need to reach your next stage — whether that’s launching your company, rebranding to effectively reach your audience, or pivoting to something new — we’ll work with you in a way that makes sense to get you there.