Branding by doing

For a start-up it is important to ride the momentum and continue to do business while evolving at the same time towards a brand that will be able to appeal and convince a broader audience beyond early adopters. What does it mean to be "lean" also on brand level?

Turning a great idea into a business is a huge step. But if you want to make your business a marathon instead of a short sprint, if you want to have an impact and reach millions, you need not only to develop your products further but put some efforts into developing your brand as well. After successfully founding air up in 2019, we were facing this issue as well. This last year involved a lot of learnings, new insights, some setbacks and a couple of "kill-your-darling"-type decisions in order to evolve and come closer to our customers - but all of this brought us to the big rebranding of Air up that we’ve now proudly launched. And I am happy to share some of our experiences and insights of this wild but exciting journey.

1. In the beginning there was … 

As for every start-up, it all began with an idea and the desire to make a difference. In our case we wanted nothing less than revolutionizing the beverage market in a healthy, sustainable, affordable and of course flavourful way. In my Bachelor thesis, me and Tim, my former fellow student and co-founder, combined design with the newest findings from neuroscience to create a drinking bottle system that flavors water by scent only. The biological principle that was the source of our inspiration and the starting point of our journey is called Retronasal Smelling. We used this simple principle to create a solution that allows to flavour the air we aspire while drinking water and create the illusion of taste. No sugar, no calories, no unhealthy additives. Just taste and pure water!

The idea is quite simple and we soon discovered that nobody out there had been able to turn this principle into a product that could revolutionize a whole industry and change the way we drink today. Soon we found ourselves spending most of our time (and nights) developing and sharing our idea, got potential investors excited and founded our start-up in 2019. It was a rocket launch and we’ve grown enormously since then. After the early successes it may have been tempting to sit back and relax a bit but we understood quickly that it was just the beginning: if we wanted to convince the world and create a viable and scalable company, we would have to put even more effort than we ever thought. What sounded at first a bit crazy or even too ambitious was getting reality! We knew that if we wanted to build upon what we have achieved and change the way people drink for ever, we had to evolve, transform our tiny start-up, become even more brave and create a brand that would reveal our ambitions while keeping on delivering our first customers with what we promised.

A successful product does not make it a brand 

It’s great to excite people with your product, to see how your idea gets the attention of people all over the country and to see that they are actually ready to spend a buck or two for it is quite an amazing feeling. Also reading positive feedback in the news and magazines about what started on the school benches and became reality in our minuscule single room flats in Munich was really exciting and quite overwhelming. Success is energizing but we quickly understood that we suddenly had a greater responsibility and would face a new challenge. We had to turn short-term interest for our idea into real identification with what we do if we wanted to be able to change the way we enjoy taste for good: Your customers should not only buy and use your product. You want them to become part of your vision.

The discrepancy between processes in building a start-up and building a brand

In the beginning of a start-up it’s all about quick decisions and short-term planning. You need to get the product ready and running, find investors, a good team and – of course – customers. When it comes to building a brand, it’s all about long-term planning. You need to get settled in the market with a strong base and grow. 

Sounds good, but how does it work? Here’s a quick overview of the three main milestones we aimed for:

Definition of the core of our brand and the position we aim to occupy on the market

Understanding your audience, what appeals or appealed to them in the first place will allow you to connect more deeply with them and scale.

• Who are your competitors and what makes you unique? 
• Who are your customers and who do you want to target?
• What is important to them and what are the values you share with them?
• What do you stand for and how do you want to be perceived?
• Does your company- and/or product name still work?

Definition of our corporate design

Establishing a cohesive design language will allow you to create trust and optimize your marketing spendings.

• Create a style guide for colors, logo, font, etc.
• Define your tone of voice. How do you write and dialogue?
• Create templates for your communication across all channels. Be recognizable at all time
• Make sure the way you speak and the way you dress reveals who you are and resonates with your customers
• Be lean, listen to your customers and do not be afraid to adjust 

Definition of our corporate communication

A brand is not built with a logo, some colors and some guidelines. You have to actually send it to the world.

• Develop a communication strategy
• Define your brand story. How will you emotionally connect to your audience?
• What are your communication goals and how will you measure them?
• Create a communication guideline and a roadmap
• Through which channels do you want to communicate?

That looks quite easy and realizable, doesn’t it? I am afraid to tell you that this is as if you were cooking a five course menu with customers pouring into your dining room and ordering all at the same time without you having held a cooking spoon ever before!

What we didn't do in the first place ...

Honestly, we first put the cart before the horse: First product, then name, then packaging, then brand. But to be fair, we’ve also had no money for a deep analysis, a structured brand build up or a brand expert. We did not even have the ambition to create a business when we were designing and creating the first Air up prototype for our Bachelor's Thesis. Everyone involved in the company at this time was also involved in the creative process. As nice as this was, it also took a lot of time for long and sometimes unproductive and unnecessary discussions. One example: It took us half a year to find a proper and legally safe name for our company and product. I would say there was definitely some room for improvement!

2. … and what we’ve learned for the rebranding process

We’ve learned a lot about building a brand in the last year and I am happy to share the 8 main points that we figured out are necessary for the branding or – in our case – rebranding process.

Setting-up a clear base for the rebranding project:

• What’s the status quo?
• What do we want to achieve? 
• What are our company and business goals?

Setting-up a clear structure of responsibilities: and agreements on high level goals. The use of a RACI Matrix is extremely useful and - very important but often easier said than done - avoid internal discussions about what is beautiful and what is ugly and what one likes, dislikes, believes or doesn't believe. This is not productive! Always see your work through the lense of your audience. It is not so much about what you think but more about who you’re talking to. Agree on one principle: Only rational arguments are allowed. This is what will bring your team further.

Setting-up a clear timeline: with check-ins for feedback from other departments and milestones

• Don’t try to micromanage, rather have set deadlines for big milestones 
• Have a clear and open communication about the timeline 
• A proper brand guideline takes probably 4-6 months to build up

Setting-up clear guidelines: that are accessible for everyone in the company: The best way is to do that with a digital platform like frontify

Create a pool of early adopters from your users: (e.g. in form of a FB group or a survey monkey panel) that you can use to quickly develop your first brand blueprint.

Time is money: Prioritize and only work on a task, where the outcome is scalable.

• Do not spend time on things that are a one time job and sort your tasks due to deadlines.
• Never talk or discuss something theoretically! Working on a brand can be very abstract so make several drafts of your idea, present them and make a decision, it will save time and avoid misunderstandings.
• Align with your stakeholders and shareholders very early on regarding the strategic aspects of the rebranding. Do not get bogged down in “I like this” discussions. Explain the WHY of the rebranding effort and it’s strategic implications. And do this continuously!

Don’t do things by halves: Less is more, try to avoid costs by reducing tasks, not by reducing the quality of your work

Get external expertise: And don’t try to save money and engage someone with mediocre experience.

• Get expertise from an external brand strategist who thinks strongly strategically but also has a communication and design background and has built up more than just one (start-up) brand before from scratch. 
• Use helpful tools: A lot of brainstorming and drafting is going on parallelly to the work of the Brand and Creation team. So you’ll need a central collaboration space for moodboards, links, post-its etc.

3. From “Drink new” to “Think new” - How we prepared Air up for the future

For our rebranding process we used our collected data and our business strategy to redefine our target group. Who do we want to reach and what do they want? In our case we defined our main target group as young millennials and the GenZ. So we had to learn and deeply understand what matters to them, what they value, what they reject and what they need.

The next step was to adjust our look, our style and our messaging to the new and younger target group and to our primary marketing channels.

Then we used our vision and trend research as a base to work out a more defined brand guideline in order to implement a more effective working culture and to resonate with and be more relevant to our target group.

As we have big ambitions, want to grow internationally and bring our product and our vision to other markets, we also had to invest into comprehensive market research and, as a result, went back to the drawing board and rethought and redesigned our different packagings, some products and the way we visually present the whole range of our portfolio.

We started a channel and product portfolio strategy that helps us to gain full control over prices and our brand and helps us to decide faster what kind of product(s) we want to develop next. We also put the focus on our webshop to create a suitable and engaging environment for our products, limited our channels to one single marketplace and became more selective about our offline retailers.

4. It was a long run but the journey just started.

Today we are more clear than ever about who we are, what we do today and what we aspire to do tomorrow. We’ve defined our brand identity and aligned on our vision and our mission and are ready to take on our next challenges

Our purpose and vision didn’t change but we redefined it. With air up we want to raise the awareness for life-centered products and play a major role in redefining the way we consume today. Creating products that are offering a delightful experience and making customers happy and satisfied while reducing any bad impact on health or environment is what motivates us today and is the building block of our identity

We nailed our mission down with one sharp sentence that will be our guide for the next couple of years

?To make a healthy and sustainable lifestyle the most attractive choice.“

This one sentence summarizes all and includes everything that we want us and our company to stand for. Convincing the world that we stand for more than a magic principle, a beautiful bottle and a variety of delicious flavors will take time and dedication. Short: We don’t only propose and sell good innovative products, we ambition to inspire a lifestyle that shows that you can have it all: fun and delightful experiences while taking care of your health, your environment and the people around you.

5. Branding your company is like becoming your true self

Our branding process has been an incredible journey. We had a lot of ups and we had some downs along the way as well. Our company learned so much during the process and there are two things I personally discovered and want to share with you today:

1. Think about building your brand as soon as you start building your business. Yes, put a lot of efforts into developing your product. Nothing beats a well crafted product, but developing a strong vision of where you want to be in the hearts of your customers goes with the job and gives you extra motivation. Create an emotional world for your audiences to connect with your business while creating a meaningful context for your products and your services to live in. Nothing beats a good product combined with emotion and a brand that reveals your ambitions.
2. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself by asking difficult questions. During the process what you will discover is that the best way to create your brand is to go back to the beginnings and identify the triggers that urged you to act and create your business and analyse the ingredients – large and small ones – that allowed you to inspire your early investors, convince your first customers and gain the indefectible support of your friends and family.

During the process we discovered that what we were looking for has, in fact, already been here the whole time: within our actions and within all the people that worked hard to create our small company. Our brand was just waiting to be nailed on, formalized, expressed and pushed to the world. Dramatic turn of event, right? Our unique story and the essence of our brand was hidden within the product we spent so many days and so many nights to develop and gave our entire dedication to.

What we found out is that our product was appealing because it was answering the needs and desires of our first fans by being Audacious and Innovative, Honest and Transparent, Healthy and Sustainable. There it is. The essence of our brand was right before our eyes. You do not have to invent anything: Just understand why you did what you did yesterday, what you do today and why people love your product. What you will discover in the process are the most valuable things you can use to build your (new) brand.

Today – as a company – we understand our personality better than ever before. We can continue to be bold and, more importantly, develop our brand and products in harmony with our values and those of our customers.

We will continue to challenge the status quo and think outside the box. We will continue to imagine, act and propose new perspectives and radical solutions while inspiring our generation to challenge the way we think and give them the reasons to become the firsts to choose a new way to enjoy taste and drink.

We are stoked and thankful for what we already achieved and look forward to dare our next big steps into the world. Join us, follow us and support us.

" Think new. Drink new."