Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One

Long ago, a great user experience design was enough to give an edge. If something was easy to use or functioned well, it was enough to get people excited.

Now, your brand is far more important. Branding in the traditional sense is not enough. Branding is not a logo, your name, or a tagline. To build a winning brand today, you have to start with your customer and the issue you're solving for them.

Leading brands are capable of forming deep emotional connections because they stand for something people care about.

Founders should consider the brand before day one. It is not an afterthought but forms the core of your culture from the start. This way, your brand will always portray its fundamental purpose and guide any difficult decisions.

When determining your brand:

• Identify who the brand is for.
• Identify the key problem
• Identify the answer to the key problem via the brand.

When you launch a new product, think about what the brand does and how it makes people feel. People love brands that stand for a clear emotional idea that is bigger than the product's benefits.

Connect the product to a meaningful story to create a strong bond. The emotional idea should be backed up with a practical function.

Start with the problem you're solving:

• Define the idea a brand stands for.
• Define how it should make people feel.
• Then think about tonality, design, and language.

A brand serves as connective tissue. A successful brand realises that to create meaningful and lasting relationships, they need to tap into people's sense of self.

Branding is about creating a shared identity with your customers. Customers want brands that align with their values and uphold their identity.

A community doesn't need to be formed on digital platforms or physical spaces. Community is built from creating unity around shared values. The brand should be infused throughout the experience.

Find ways to create community and a feeling of inclusion. Target people who share a set of needs or preferences or are at the same stage in their lives.

Brand differentiation needs to be purposeful.

When your goal is to transform a category or create a new one, you need to consider what you can stand for that no one else is but that people care about.

• Brand thinking: What are you selling? (a mattress or sleep?)
• Brand equity: The love people have for the brand because it is shown to delight them.
• To drive obsession, it is critical to differentiate in product and brand.