Branding Audits
for Startups
I’m passionate about branding, technology and helping businesses build products and brands that deliver on their promises. I’ve worked with tech companies at every scale. From enterprises like Microsoft and Google to early-stage startups like Goodmojo and Insight Engines. In every case, my interest was in understanding the core needs of their business and how their brands could support their efforts.
So what’s a brand? And why does it matter?
At the end of the day, all buying decisions are emotional. Even business decisions. And your brand is one of the key levers to affect those decisions. Your brand is more than a logo. And it’s more than a vibe. It’s the products, the customer experience. It’s the emotions, memories and experiences that customers associate with your company. It’s all of it. So a thoughtful brand creates structure that provides consistency in messaging, visuals, experience and guides quality. For startups, clean messaging becomes even more important during the pitch process.
What do I provide?
The goal is to create a structure for long-term success, so we start by looking at where the business is currently at. If you’ve already developed branding, we’ll assess that. If you haven’t, we’ll go through the same process
As part of the intake process, we provide you a questionnaire and have a conversation about your business and goals to capture any additional details. From there, we collect what assets you currently have and identify issues or gaps.
Next, we bring all of that together. Based on your input, we do the following in four broad areas:
Context
Define brand audiences, identify touch points and brand differences
Develop demographic and psychographic profiles
Architecture
Define the brand category, identify peer companies and create a brand position
Identify the brand values and core story
Expression
Craft your brand mission, vision and values.
Establish tone of voice, messaging pillars, tagline and value proposition
Assemble logo, color palette, and additional assets
Product
Key Features and differentiation
Product/Client alignment
After an initial review, we’ll make necessary revisions and provide recommendations for how you can bring your brand and product to life. You’ll receive a pdf including all the documentation and recommendations.
What’s the cost?
My hope is to provide real value for startups to set them up for success. I charge a flat rate of $1500 for performing the audit. If you’re interested in help implementing the recommendations, I’m happy to help.