How to Develop a Minimum Viable Brand (MVB)
Many start-ups get derailed because they don’t get their brand right. To avoid this fate, you need to develop a Minimum Viable Brand (MVB).
Short on time and money, many start-ups rush into the marketplace thinking that a creative name, cool logo, and pithy tagline are all they need to launch their product idea. But without being grounded in a strategic foundation that provides the internal focus and clarity and external relevance and differentiation, the fledgling business has little chance of surviving the myriad of challenges and threats facing new brands, much less to thrive as the business scales. Sooner or later the upstart finds it’s not attracting customers or investors, so it retrenches, plots a pivot, and tries (and fails) again — insanely doing the same thing over again expecting a different result.
Start-ups should consider using an MVB. Click To TweetStart-ups should consider using an MVB. With a MVB, you expend the least amount of time, effort, and money necessary to develop enough of a launch brand concept to center your organization, convey your value, and to collect learning. As an alternative to a complete strategic brand platform or simply a shell of a brand, a MVB provides you the perfect balance of structure and flexibility.
My latest ChangeThis manifesto, “How to Start Up Your Brand: Develop a Minimum Viable Brand” explains:
- why start-ups need strong brands
- the MVB framework and how to use it, including guidelines & examples
- how the MVB is used to make progress through process
Please check it out — and if you like what you read, please consider subscribing to my “brand-as-business briefs™TM” so you can get helpful content like it delivered direct to your mailbox each month. Thanks!
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