Does your startup have a branding problem?
Unless you have a likable personality —a strong brand—your customers will not hesitate to dump you for richer, better looking suitors. Ask yourself a few questions to check if your brand is strong and confident or feeling a tad insecure.
Will you feel threatened if a competitor clones your product?
When the folks at Pinterest were asked if they were worried about ‘me-too' products like Pinspire, they didn’t think much of it. Great brands know that the wannabes like the Samwar Brothers can dress like them and behave like them but customers prefer an original. It’s not unlike worrying if your girlfriend will leave you if someone tries to copy your sense of humor. It aint gonna work.
If a competing startup gets negative press, do you exhibit restrained jubilation?
Small people discuss people. Average people discuss events. Big people discuss ideas. The same applies to startups. If people are gossiping about your competitors, and if it gives you some joy because you feel it’s going to sabotage their chance of success, then you have a very fragile brand. Riding on other people’s failures versus your own strengths is a sign of trouble.
When a competing startup matches your SaaS pricing, will you feel compelled to cut yours?
It’s easy to get caught up in the race to the bottom. The hard part is keeping your prices high through better service and really caring about your customers. That’s a part of branding.
If people ask why you started your company, will you instinctively say “ to get rich”?
While most startup founders have a reason to start their company (mostly to solve a problem they had), some are enamored by thoughts of money flowing in. The promise of cashing out to Google and IPOs. Starting a company to get rich doesn’t inspire co-founders, employees or customers. And certainly doesn’t help with branding.
Branding isn’t about getting a good haircut and wearing nicer clothes. It’s knowing why you are building your product, having a clear well defined mission that users can believe in, building a strong internal culture that you can properly reveal to the world outside your company. Do it and your customer will never leave you for another rich handsome suitor.
