Our startup branding journey

PART 1

What makes a brand

memorable?

Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat

Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat

That’s us

Hi! We are CustomerIcare Live Chat

That’s us

That’s who we want

to be

WE NEED A BRAND!

For that,

For real!

We even wrote about it:

See

CLICK TO READ

WHAT IS A

BRAND?

Ok, first problem:

A LOGO A NAME+

A LOGO A NAME+

do not make a brand!

(we tried)

COMPLEXA brand is a lot more

« Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it

will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective

impression some have about a product. »

- ELON MUSK

So, that’s where we’re at:

We have a name. We have a logo. We don’t have a brand

We tried things to stand out

in the live chat industry

0$

Being cheaper (read « free » here)

Being the convenient choice (SEO + Integrations)

Long story short,

Being cheaper: Being convenient:

NOT A GOOD IDEA

CLICK TO READ MORE

TAKES TIME

Which brings us to…

…BRANDING

What we want to achieve here:

BECOME MEMORABLE

STAND OUTTHINK LONG-TERM

CREATE CONSISTENCY

CONNECT WITH CLIENTS

Yup, I know

we’re ambitious

But we’re determined to try, and fail, and try again. Until we get this right.

share our process with you

We thought it could be nice to

Starting with all our pre-rebranding research

A BRAND MEMORABLE

In this deck we’ll see what makes

- Simple Design

Some kind of magic potion

- Good story

- Unique personality

- Good knowledge of customers

Some kind of magic potion- Simple Design

- Good story

- Unique personality

- Good knowledge of customers

No more than 2-3 main brand colorsUnless you are selling rainbows or your name is Google

A simple and easy to

identify symbol

A unique overall feel

That being said, here’s the most important thing we’ve learned:

Do not obsess over your logo or brand colors…

Pick something and stick with it!

Some kind of magic potion- Simple Design

- Good story

- Unique personality

- Good knowledge of customers

When hearing or reading a story

our brain reacts as if we were part of it

Here are our 3 favorite brand story frameworks for startups

1. The PSS Story

Problem Solution Success

The example of Dropbox:

« Drew Houston, Dropbox’ founder, was tired of forgetting his USB so he thought of a cloud-based file

hosting system that would solve his problem. »

The Problem The Product as the solution

Success is pretty self explanatory

2. The Underdog Story

Small business passionate about

product and customers

VS

Big corporate business with impersonal

customer service

« Snapchat entered the market with a clear goal: Fighting privacy invading networks like Facebook with an app

where your messages aren’t kept in a database»

The UnderdogThe Big Dog

The example of Snapchat:

3. The Higher Purpose Story

Strong company culture

+

A vision going way beyond the product

« Buffer is a social media scheduling tool. Yet, they are also known for their extreme transparency and journey

toward a new ways to operate as a company»

The example of Buffer:

2 elements that are visionary and big parts of Buffer’s

culture

What’s right for you depends on the actions you want to inspire

1

PSS Story

2

Underdog Story

3

Higher Purpose Story

Mainly sales focused. You want

people to solve their problem using your

product.

Mainly relationship focused. You want people to have an

emotional connection to your product.

Mainly inspiration focused. You want

people to drive change and make the

world better.

Some kind of magic potion- Simple Design

- Good story

- Unique personality

- Good knowledge of customers

The 5 dimensions of brand personality

1 2 3 4 5

Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophistication Ruggedness

Down-to-earthFamily-oriented

Small-town

HonestSincere

Real

WholesomeOriginal

CheerfulSentimental

Friendly

DaringTrendy Exciting

SpiritedCool

Young

ImaginativeUnique

Up-to-dateIndependent

Contemporary

ReliableHard-working

Secure

IntelligentTechnical

Corporate

SuccessfulLeader

Confident

Upper-classGlamorous

Good Looking

CharmingFeminine Smooth

OutdoorsyMasculine Western

ToughRugged

The 12 main brand archetypes

The Magician

The Creator

The Innocent

The Explorer

The Sage

The Lover

The Ruler

The Hero

The Caregiver

The Maverick

The Jester

The Regular Guy/Girl

The Magician !Understand the rules and laws to make customers’ dreams come to life. Magicians yield miraculous results which makes them look magical.

The Creator !Non-conformists who design products that help customers be creative. Creators are perfectionists who are found of good design and like thinking out-of-the-box.

The Innocent !Eternal optimists who think people are inherently good and seek to make the world a happier place. They often provide simple answers and have strong values.

The Explorer !They help customers cross boundaries and experience something outside of their everyday life. Explorers love adventure and love to learn by experience.

The Sage !Not the coolest kids on the block but certainly the smartest. Sage brands value research and information. They love educating customers.

The Lover !Lover brands are all about relationships and beauty. They strive to make customers feel special and help them build connections with others.

The Ruler !Ruler brands love being in control. They are leaders by nature and are dedicated to make their customers feel successful and important.

The Hero !Underdogs that end up winning using their skills and will-power. They often have an enemy to fight against and empower customers to achieve their full potential.

The Caregiver !Caregivers are dedicated to take the best care of their customers. Their mission is to help others and protect them the best they can.

The Maverick !They live to break the rules and go against established conventions. Maverick brands are different, but they have this cool kid image that’s oh so attractive.

The Jester !Jester brands are fun. They live in the present and want to enjoy life and see customers have a good time. They don’t like to take themselves seriously.

The Regular Guy/Girl !They live to keep it simple to be more accessible. All they really want for them and their customers is to belong to a community.

Some kind of magic potion- Simple Design

- Good story

- Unique personality

- Good knowledge of customers

Forgive me for stating the obvious but:

You can’t build a memorable brand if you don’t know what’s

memorable to your customers!

Let me give you an example

Let me give you an example Company X’ customers

are mainly young freelance designers like this cool handsome young man

Let me give you an example Company X’ customers

are mainly young freelance designers like this cool handsome young man

This might be memorable to them: good & innovative design, a dribble social media link, references to freelance work, good looking mobile version of website…

Now, company Y

Now, company Y

They mainly sell to 40+ corporate sales

VPs

Now, company Y

They mainly sell to 40+ corporate sales

VPs

This might be memorable to them: testimonials of other

enterprise customers, strong focus on KPI, ROI

and efficiency, a professional, formal

customer service

Doesn’t care much about KPI and ROI

Doesn’t care about your brand’s Dribble

profile

Cool, cool, but how do you know what’s memorable to customers?

1. Hang-out in the same places as they do

2. Do one-on-one interviews

3. Look at the content they share

4. Study the look and feel of softwares they use

Becoming memorable is our first challenge.

!

And here’s how we are going to achieve that!

What we have right now

Live chat software? What? Looks like an antivirus

Name is kinda generic and hard to spell (capital or small « i », all together or spaces)

STEP 1:

New name: more catchy, less generic

New logo: more « chat like »

Real color scheme and design feel: the most

important part is to bring more design harmony to the

brand

We’re working on it and will release more info soon. Stay tuned ;)

STEP 2:

What is our story and how do we tell it?

There are too many pop-ups / box based solutions interrupting customers (live chat, marketing automation, feedback boxes…). You can’t test them all at once and it’s annoying to switch.Problem

Solution

Success

Build a tool that puts everything together and can be a live chat by day, lead gen tool by night…

Time will tell :)

STEP 3:

We want to try a very different brand personality:

STEP 3:

We want to try a very different brand personality:

2

Excitement

DaringTrendy Exciting

SpiritedCool

Young

ImaginativeUnique

+

The Maverick

STEP 4:

Which customers will this resonate with?

Young, marketing savvy website

designers looking for a chat solution

for their clients

Digital marketers & growth hackers looking for new ways to generate leads

We’ve got memorable branding covered

!

But that’s not all! Being memorable also means building a memorable customer experience.

READ ABOUT IT HERE

That’s it for now folks! !

Hope you enjoyed the presentation and we’d love to

hear your thoughts!

Tweet us @customericare

Chat with us on customericare.com

Also, !

if you you want to follow the rest of our branding journey, you can

sign up for our newsletter

CLICK TO SIGNUP

(Next order of business: How to create consistency)

Aurelie ChazalConsultant

Aurelie Chazal

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