Lean Branding

Lean Branding

by Laura Busche
Released September 2014
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781449373023

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Book description

Every day, thousands of passionate developers come up with new startup ideas but lack the branding know-how to make them thrive. If you count yourself among them, Lean Branding is here to help.

This practical toolkit helps you build your own robust, dynamic brands that generate conversion. You’ll find over 100 DIY branding tactics and inspiring case studies, and step-by-step instructions for building and measuring 25 essential brand strategy ingredients, from logo design to demo-day pitches, using The Lean Startup methodology’s Build-Measure-Learn loop.

  • Learn exactly what a brand is—and what it isn’t
  • Build a minimal set of brand ingredients that are viable in the marketplace: brand story, brand symbols, and brand strategy
  • Measure your brand ingredients by using meaningful metrics to see if they meet your conversion goals
  • Pivot your brand ingredients in new directions based on what you’ve learned—by optimizing rather than trashing
  • Focus specifically on brand story, symbols, or strategy by following the Build-Measure-Learn chapters that apply

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Table of contents

  1. Praise for Lean Branding
  2. Foreword
  3. Preface
    1. Why I Wrote This Book
    2. Branding Today
    3. Who This Book Is For
    4. What’s Inside This Book
    5. How to Navigate This Book
    6. Why You Should Read This Book from Cover to Cover However You Want
    7. We’d Like to Hear from You
    8. Safari® Books Online
    9. Acknowledgments
  4. I. Introduction
    1. 1. What Is a Brand?
      1. Defining Brand
      2. A Closer Look at Lean Branding
        1. A Little Lean Branding Theory, or Why Chameleons > Dinosaurs
        2. Lean Brands Offer Shortcuts to Self-Realization
      3. Recap
    2. 2. What a Brand Isn’t
      1. Why These Lies Are Dangerous
      2. Misconceptions About Brands
        1. Brands Are Logos
        2. Brands Are Superficial
        3. Marketing People Manage My Brand
        4. I Control My Brand
        5. If the Product Is Good, It Will Naturally Attract Customers
        6. Branding Only Builds Awareness
          1. 1. Strong brands open hearts—and wallets.
          2. 2. Trying something new? A strong brand makes it credible.
          3. 3. If your datacenter crashes and burns, your brand will still be here.
          4. 4. It’s your edge.
          5. 5. It’s your price premium.
          6. 6. In a fast-paced world, strong brands are often shortcuts.
        7. I’d Rather Invest in Product Quality
        8. I Can’t Measure It, I Can’t Manage It
      3. Recap
  5. II. Build
    1. 3. Brand Story
      1. Forget Everything You’ve Heard About Brand Stories
      2. First Things First: What’s Your Name Again?
      3. Gather Your Brand Ingredients
        1. Positioning: How Are You Useful to Me?
          1. The positioning statement
        2. Promise: What Do You Promise to Do for Me?
        3. Personas: What Do I Need or Want from You?
          1. Secondary research
          2. In-depth interviews
          3. Fly on the wall
          4. Shadowing
          5. The importance of carrying a field guide
        4. Personality: Who Are You?
        5. Product: What Will You Offer over Time?
          1. Using Journey Maps to design your product experience
        6. Pricing: How Much Is Your Solution Worth?
      4. Bringing It All Together: Your Brand Storyboard
      5. Recap
    2. 4. Brand Symbols
      1. First Things First: Set Up Your Brand Wall
      2. Back to Our Recipe: Lean Brand Ingredients
        1. Logo
          1. Logo design workshop
        2. Colors
        3. Typography
          1. Why nobody designs something that you actually like
        4. Imagery and Mockups
        5. Stationery: The Business Card
        6. Collateral: One-Sheets and Slide Decks
          1. One-sheets
          2. Slide decks
      3. Recap
    3. 5. Brand Strategy
      1. Social Media Marketing
        1. Why Should We Post?
        2. Who Should Post?
        3. What Should We Post?
        4. Where Should We Post?
        5. How Should We Post?
        6. When Should We Post?
      2. Landing Pages
        1. Tips
      3. Search Engine Optimization
      4. Content Marketing: Blogging
      5. Paid Advertising
        1. Display Ads
        2. Search Ads
        3. Social Network Ads
      6. Email List
      7. Video
      8. Review Systems
      9. Media Relations
        1. Tips
      10. Point-of-Purchase Optimization
      11. Partnerships
      12. Recap
  6. III. Measure
    1. 6. Brand Traction
      1. Designing Tests
      2. Split Testing: Tell Me Why
      3. Experiment Phobia
      4. Landing Page: How to Test
        1. Creating Goals with Google Analytics
        2. Creating A/B Experiments with Google Analytics
          1. Sample experiment design
      5. Landing Page: What to Test
      6. Why and How to Test Everything Else
      7. Social Media Marketing: How to Test
        1. Internal: Measuring Your Social Media Posts’ Reach, Engagements, and Follower Count
          1. Reading Facebook insights
          2. Reading Twitter analytics
          3. Reading visual analytics (Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr)
        2. External: Measuring the Effectiveness of Social Media Referrals and Lead Count
      8. Social Media Marketing: What to Test
      9. Search Engine Optimization: How to Measure
        1. Measuring How Well SEO Is Working on Your Landing Page
        2. Measuring How Your Landing Page Ranks Versus Your Competitors’
        3. Measuring Which Keywords Consumers Are Using to Find Your Brand
      10. Search Engine Optimization: What to Test
      11. Paid Advertising: How to Measure
        1. Conversion Tracking in Google AdWords
        2. Conversion Tracking in Facebook Ads
      12. Paid Advertising: What to Test
      13. Blogging: How to Measure
        1. Measuring How Many Users Read Your Content and How Much Time They’re Spending on It
        2. Measuring Whether Users Share Your Content with Others
        3. Measuring Whether Your Brand Content Is Resulting in Conversions
      14. Blogging: What to Test
      15. Email Marketing: How to Measure
        1. Measuring Email Marketing’s Influence in Conversion
      16. Email Marketing: What to Test
      17. Marketing Video: How to Measure
        1. Measure How Many Users Click on Specific Calls to Action
        2. Adding Cards to Your Brand Video to Trigger Conversion
        3. Measure How Many Users Convert When They’ve Been Referred to Your Site via Video
      18. Marketing Video: What to Test
      19. Press Release: How to Measure
      20. Press Release: What to Test
      21. Point-of-Purchase Optimization: How to Measure
      22. Point-of-Purchase Optimization: What to Test
      23. Review Systems: How to Measure
      24. Brand Partnerships: How to Measure
      25. Recap
    2. 7. Brand Resonance
      1. Defining Resonance
      2. Resonance: Achieving Brand-Market Fit
      3. Measuring Your Brand’s Name
        1. Brand Name Association Map
        2. Brand Name A/B Testing
      4. Measuring Brand Positioning
        1. Is Our Brand Positioning Appropriate for Our Buyers’ Needs?
        2. Is Our Brand Positioning Coming Through Correctly?
      5. Measuring Brand Promise
      6. Measuring Personas
      7. Measuring Our Buyer Personas’ Demographic Profile
      8. Measuring Our Buyer Personas’ Psychographic Profile
      9. Measuring Our Brand Journey
        1. Measuring the Relevance of Product Features: Buyer Expectations
        2. Measuring Whether Our Existing Brand Journey Is Resonating Well: Buyer Perception
      10. Measuring Brand Personality
      11. Measuring Pricing
      12. Recap
    3. 8. Brand Identity
      1. A Little Consumer Psychology for a Change
      2. Back to Action: Measuring Your Brand’s Visual Identity
      3. Measuring Your Brand’s Logo: Asking the Right Questions
      4. Typography
      5. Color
      6. Collateral
      7. Stationery: Business Card
      8. Slide Decks
      9. Recap
  7. IV. Learn
    1. 9. Brand Rechannel
      1. Rechanneling and Conversion
        1. OhMyDisney: Same Magic, Different Content
          1. Make it happen
        2. J.Crew: Its Most Pinteresting Catalog Yet
          1. Make it happen
        3. Groove: Landing Page Fiasco
          1. Make it happen
      2. Are You Ready to Enter a New Channel?
      3. You’ve Decided to Move into a New Channel; Now What?
      4. Recap
    2. 10. Brand Reposition
      1. Repositioning and the Power of Research
        1. Amazon: From Books to Z
          1. Make it happen
        2. A Word on Brand Extensions
        3. Introducing New Product Features: Means-End Analysis
        4. From Mogulus to Livestream: The Power of a Brand’s Name
          1. Make it happen
      2. Repositioning the Smart Way: Strengthening Consumer Learning
      3. You’ve Decided to Reshape Your Brand Story; Now What?
      4. Recap
    3. 11. Brand Redesign
      1. Consistency: The Opportunity Cost
      2. Common Costs of Pivoting Visual Brand Identity
      3. Common Benefits of Pivoting Visual Brand Identity
      4. When Pivoting Visual Brand Identity Is a No-Brainer
        1. Mall of America: The Role of Color
          1. Make it happen
        2. AOL Inc. and Dynamic Brand Identities
          1. Make it happen
        3. The Innovation Warehouse and the Value of Iterating Gradually
          1. Make it happen
      5. You’ve Decided to Redesign Your Brand Symbols; Now What?
      6. Recap
    4. 12. Conclusion
  8. A. Glossary
  9. B. Credits and References
    1. Image Credits
      1. All Chapters
      2. Chapter 3
      3. Chapter 4
      4. Chapter 7
      5. Chapter 8
      6. Chapter 11
    2. Font Credits
  10. Index
  11. About the Author
  12. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Lean Branding
  • Author(s): Laura Busche
  • Release date: September 2014
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449373023