This is a repost from the Scale Up Collectives Power Up newsletter, September 2024

This week we kicked off our latest series on sustainable growth and I sat down for a super interesting discussion on the power of brand and most importantly, how to measure it, with David Endersen from White Bear (brand agency).

As part of this notable shift from ‘growth at all costs’ culture, to one of sustainable, profitable growth - the role your brand plays becomes ever more important.

Catch up on the session in full here, or read on for the highlights.

What even is a ‘brand’?

There's a misconception that a brand is just a logo, a colour palette, a visual or verbal identity. But it's much more than that.

It's your story, it's your purpose, it's your positioning. It's how and where your business shows up, and when done well, it should translate right down into your internal culture.

Dave’s analogy of this is when you meet a person and the impression you’re left with. It's not just what they say, it's how they say it. It's how they turn up. It's everything about them. It's the gut feeling you get. And it's the same with a brand. It's the sum of impressions that consumers or potential buyers have about a business's product or service.

It's a very human definition. It's not very tangible, and that presents both opportunities and challenges when trying to understand the impact that brand can have.

How do we start to define ‘brand’ in order to measure ROI?

It's so easy to say what the ROI of a meta ad is, but it's not so easy to say what the ROI of investing in your brand is. It's much softer and it's a longer play. But it's 100% more important.

If we think logically, as customers, as a buyer of brands ourselves, we all know we pay more and buy more from branded products, even if they're exactly the same as their more poorly branded counterparts.

Brands command higher prices and higher volumes. And when we look at the data, effective brand building shifts the demand curve up to the right. Businesses can leverage that in the form of higher volumes, higher prices, or a combination of both, which then flows through into higher margins, more cash, higher business valuation, etc.

Ultimately, what makes a strong brand is the amount of impact it is able to have.

What are the elements of a strong brand?

The answer to this is rooted in the human brain, and understanding that humans take shortcuts. We don't like cognitive load. We create mental shortcuts so that we don't have to think too much. The brain doesn't like to spend a huge amount of time thinking about brands, believe it or not. And when given a choice of several products or services, people tend to pick the one that comes to mind easily or the one that they're familiar with. If a brand makes someone feel good and feel positively disposed towards it, they're more likely to remember it, and they're more primed to buy it when the time comes.

So when you’re developing your brand you need to consider the following four elements:

•Make it quick and easy to remember in the category. E.g. When you think of coffee you might think of Starbucks, or when you think of jeans, you might think of Levi's.

•Connect it to a customer's needs and expectations. E.g. If you want to cool refreshing beer on the beach, you would think of Corona rather than Guinness. Whereas if you want a relaxing drink in a cosy, warm pub in winter, you would think of Guinness over Corona.

•Make it stand out, make it distinctive. E.g. How often have you seen an ad for something that you thought you might be interested in and then just completely forgotten the name of the brand?

•Reinforce positive brand associations and leverage emotions and storytelling.

Dave boil’s that down to: build a distinctive brand that leverage’s storytelling and emotion, and use those elements to make your brand more distinctive, more memorable in your customers mind so that when they are ready to buy, they feel more positively disposed to you.

How do you start building a brand?

First of all we need to think of brand as an investment, not a cost. And it’s really important that you invest in your brand incrementally over time. It doesn't have to be a big, expensive, bang!

Focus first on getting your story and your positioning right, and weave that into how you talk.

You can build an MVP brand to get off the ground and build from there. It's a long term thing that you need to consistently nurture. It’s lots of little things, all the small touchpoints people have with you. Consistency is key. And ultimately you need to look for as many opportunities to get your brand out there and showcase it.

How do we measure it?

We touched on the impact a brand can have on sales, revenue, etc already. But to measure it fully we need to go beyond the macro metrics. Things like funding rounds where you got your story right, and people are able to buy into you because they understand your positioning and your vision.

Other things like NPS and employee satisfaction - all of this can be impacted by brand.

For example: Dave and his team worked with a HR platform and the only thing they changed was their brand, but every metric changed. Revenue increased multifold within a year. As did some of the softer metrics, like NPS, user adoption rates improved, churn and drop off rates improved.

Understand what metrics you want to influence and think about how your brand can help move the needle. Remember that brand isn't a ‘silver bullet’. It's a component part, but one that can have a profound effect when done right.

Who got it right? AirBnB

AirBnB successfully positioned itself as more than just an accommodation service by investing in brand values like community, belonging, and unique experiences. The company's branding strategy, which focuses on highly engaging visuals and rich customer stories, has helped it disrupt the traditional hotel industry.

Who got it wrong? Wonga

Wonga’s rapid rise was followed by an equally fast fall due to its failure to manage its brand reputation effectively. Known for short-term, high-interest loans, Wonga’s brand suffered significantly as a result of negative publicity and a lack of investment in repositioning its brand to address regulatory and public relations challenges.

Watch the full recording

Click here to watch the full recording of the conversation.