Want to learn the best business insights from remarkable speakers at Slush 2023, but don’t have the time to watch the full speeches on YouTube?
You’ve come to the right place. Below is a summary of a speech by Rahul Vohra, co-founder & CEO of Superhuman.
(psst: the notes were automatically generated with Wudpecker's AI notetaking tool. If you'd like to check these notes + transcript + audio recording without needing to log in, press here.)
<p class="h1-rich">🤏 TL;DR</p>
Building a strong brand is crucial for attracting customers and setting a company up for long-term success. To define the brand, start with a short and memorable phrase that describes how the product or company makes the world a better place, identify the brand's positioning using a formula, and choose 5 brand attributes that describe the brand's emotions, personality, and unique attributes. To grow the brand, focus on press, thought leadership, influencers, and virality. Action items include creating an ideal, defining positioning, identifying brand attributes, choosing a brand name, achieving press coverage, focusing on thought leadership, engaging with influencers, and leveraging virality.
<p class="h1-rich">✨ Summary</p>
Building a Brand
- Building a strong brand is crucial for attracting customers and setting a company up for long-term success.
- Brand powers growth and is the foundation for content marketing, virality, and SEO.
- Word-of-mouth is the key driver of scale for consumer internet companies.
Defining the Brand
Ideal
- The ideal is a short and memorable phrase that describes how a product or company makes the world a better place.
- It is the intersection of a cultural tension and the product's assets.
- Example: Dove believes the world would be a better place if women could feel great about their appearance.
Positioning
- Positioning is defined using a formula that highlights the target market, their need, the product's benefit, and its differentiation from competitors.
- Example: Superhuman is positioned as the fastest email experience for founders and CEOs of high-growth technology companies.
- Start with a narrow position and expand as the market grows.
Brand Attributes
- Choose 5 words that describe the brand, considering emotions, personality, and unique attributes.
- Example: Superhuman's brand attributes include Zen, elegant, premium, powerful, and exclusive.
- Revisit and redefine brand attributes as the market expands.
Naming and Domain Acquisition
- Choose a name that aligns with the position and brand attributes.
- Consider factors like spelling, first impressions, domain availability, trademarks, and social handles.
- Acquiring premium domains may require working with a domain broker and negotiating a deal.
Growing the Brand
Press
- Inject the brand into the news cycle by attaching it to relevant industry events or trends.
- Write articles or contribute to publications to increase brand visibility.
- Utilize PR agencies for media broadcast opportunities.
Thought Leadership
- Create content that establishes the brand as an authority in the industry.
- Write articles, guides, or whitepapers that become required reading for the target market.
- Focus on providing valuable insights and solutions to common challenges.
Influencers
- Identify influential entrepreneurs and thought leaders in the target market.
- Onboard them as users to gain their support and leverage their networks.
- Extend onboarding efforts to all users to drive word-of-mouth growth.
Virality
- Design products or features that encourage sharing and word-of-mouth promotion.
- Utilize viral signatures or other mechanisms to create awareness and drive traffic.
- Focus on channels that are scalable and can generate organic growth.
Importance of Branding
- Building a brand is essential for growth and attracting customers.
- Brand assets become more expensive over time, making early investment crucial.
- Branding and finding product-market fit should be done simultaneously.
- Happy customers' descriptions of the product can inform the brand attributes.
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