A startup’s guide to brand strategy: 4 steps to bootstrap human-centered design - by Megan Colgan...

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This workshop walks through 4 step by step methodologies based on design thinking principles for how to bootstrap customer insights and begin a brand strategy. Each step is illustrated by a concrete example of a brand and UX refresh conducted at Startupbootcamp Istanbul for Benimcep, a secure online-marketplace for people to buy and sell smartphones at a discount and under warranty. Presented in the final month of the accelerator, it serves as a gut-check for entrepreneurs to see how well they understand their target customers and if they built a brand experience based on that understanding. Presented by: Megan Colgan is co-founder of The GO Project and a mentor and entrepreneur in residence at Startupbootcamp Istanbul 2014 helping with brand development, customer experience design and marketing strategy. (Find her @MegColgan) Workshop Philosophy: Empathy is the impetus of great design. Customer empathy—a fundamental understanding of a customer’s values, needs, perceptions and emotions—is at the core of designing a successful product, a successful user experience and it is at the core of designing a successful brand. Studies like the Stengel 50 and an analysis by co:collective on Storydoing, prove that brands that connect to and deliver human value are more successful in acquiring customers, creating advocates, earning customer loyalty, and performing financially. Such success is rooted in authentic customer connection which requires digging much deeper than aesthetics and tactics. It requires talking to and understanding customers through constant feedback and iterative testing.

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Based on 10 years of

empirical research* on

50,000 brands, Millward

Brown & Jim Stengel

developed a list of the world’s 50 fastest growing brands…

*Crown Business; December 27, 2011

just picking one of these for advertising

or corporate social responsibility purposes…

Building an entire customer experience based on a deep understanding of your customer and what

value your company truly has to offer their lives.

how can your startup do this with a

bootstrapping budget and timeline?

benimcep gives consumers the ability to buy and sell discounted used smart phones securely online.

They recently launched with many sellers. Now, they are

trying to reach Turkish buyers.

GOAL = acquire buyers

LOGO & SLOGAN

UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION

GOOGLE AD WORDS

CPC

FACEBOOK AND SEARCH ADS

OPTIMIZING SEO

VIRAL VIDEOS

OFFERS & PROMOTIONS

BLOG CONTENT

MARKETING CAMPAIGN

write a sentence…

find your customer’s specific persona to

learn & empathize their values & needs…

Based on self-generated market research & the

founder’s knowledge of Turkish culture, benimcep

predicted a possible customer could be…

• High usage of smart phones

• Purchase goods online

• Look for deals

We still didn’t know if or why students would actually be

interested in purchasing a used smartphone online.

These questions & answers are the foundation of any successful

brand, marketing campaign or sales pitch.

It is as simple as talking to

a handful of customers over

a few days.

1. Trust

2. Credibility

3. Reliability

4. Status

1. Friend Recommendation

2. Warranty

3. Oversight

4. Consistency

5. Affordability

6. Parents Buy-in

7. Convenience

build your brand & customer experience

to fulfill your customer’s values & needs…

1. Trust

2. Credibility

3. Reliability

4. Status

1. Friend Recommendation

2. Warranty

3. Oversight

4. Consistency

5. Affordability

6. Parents Buy-in

7. Convenience

• Look

• Personality

• Voice

• Values

1. Evokes feelings

2. Keeps promises

3. Honors a relationship

4. Stays consistent

DEFINITION FRAMEWORK

Purpose The role & reason you exist. Empower consumers with more secure

options to reach their lifestyle aspirations.

Personality

Your voice. How you communicate in all ads, websites, emails, calls, etc

Credible, Reliable, Sincere, Modern

Value Filters

The questions you ask ourselves when opportunities and choices arise.

1. Be trustworthy 2. Consistently attend to customer needs 3. Ensuring security 4. Make things easy

Reasons To

Believe

The tangible features, benefits, platforms, process, or platforms that deliver your brand promises in reality.

1. Pre-checks phones 2. Customer service always easy to access 3. TurkCel & KVK partnerships for warranties 4. Simple UX & partners for discount prices

It may sound counter intuitive, but the best brands

choose one of the five.

benimcep is “evoking pride”

because customers feel buying a

smartphone is a significant

investment in the lifestyle they

want. It’s about feeling proud of

their purchase, finding a good

deal and choosing the one that

best fits who they are.

benimcep is “power” because customers feel

buying a smartphone is a

significant investment.

They wish to feel

empowered with secure options to reach their lifestyle aspirations.

design your logo and all advertisements, marketing campaigns, offers, product experiences and communications to deliver on your brand promises…

LOGO

Trendy, Comedic, Modern, Certified PERSONALITY

• Funny viral videos, discount offers

• Facebook advertisements, Google Ad words

MARKETING

TARGET Young adults in Turkey who ‘like’ or search for

smart phones

Apple/Android inspired, variety of colors in

advertisements LOOK

• Customer service & sponsors at bottom

• Focus is on sliding advertisements

• Buy and sell main call to actions as tabs on the top

WEBSITE UX

LOGO

PERSONALITY

MARKETING

TARGET

LOOK

Credible, Reliable, Trustworthy, Sincere, Modern

• Win over early adopters with discount offers

• Reward early adopters for brand advocacy and driving

recommendations to friends

• Use Sence Bence for social sharing & less ads

Public & private university students

‘Square’ inspired, Consistent, Clean & Advocated

• Customer service & sponsors featured

• Focus is on simplified ‘why’ & ‘how’

• Buy and sell main call to actions as tabs on the top

WEBSITE UX

Even quick & dirty bootstrapped customer testing…

1. Ask ‘Who?’: It is as simple as writing a sentence

2. Find your customer’s specific persona to learn & empathize their values & needs…

3. Build your brand & customer experience to fulfill your customer’s values & needs…

4. Design your logo and all advertisements, marketing campaigns, offers, product experiences and communications to deliver on your brand promises…

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